12) Suffering but Surviving

I

t’s hot.  It’s really hot.  I‘m challenged by the heat; I get ‘brain-fry’.  I’ve been attending Bikram Yoga - the heated yoga - for the last eight years, in order to learn to master it.  It’s mind over matter.  But I have no motivation; it’s body over mind.

I like the cold; that’s why I visit Iceland and Sweden, and live by the shore in the summers.

The week of Memorial Day, three of my four air conditioners died, along with a fan, two vacuum cleaners, two barbeque grills, and two computers.  Mind over matter.  I looked to Neptune since no other retrograde planet made sense (- not necessarily, that Neptune did).

People are out of work, it’s summer, it’s 100°+; new record temperatures.  People are dehydrated, people are depressed; the nation’s psyche is depressed, but I sense has now lived with it so long, that we’re burying it alive and trying to cope.  Therapists, my best source of referrals, tell me that the Nation has lost hope and that, that’s a dangerous place to be.

The Gulf continues to be assaulted, Afghanistan’s ramping up, Israel’s playing tough and the referees have called them ‘off-sides’; are The Four Horseman saddling up?  On the other hand, the stock market climbed (recovered) an amazing amount Wednesday (and a good amount on Thursday), and the attendees at the World Cup, Earth’s most popular sport, are sitting in autumn & winter jackets to watch two first-time finalists, Spain and the Netherlands (Sun. 7/11, 2pm ET).  (What’s the difference between Holland and the Netherlands?)

I’m trying to work, but the heat is overwhelming.  Intermittently, I have to go to the back yard of the ‘Country Castle’ and step into my 8’ x 4’ x 18” inflatable pool, and sit in my floating chair.  The chair has a cup holder and head rest.  The pool is surrounded by my two beach chairs, my two plastic, melon-colored  Adirondack chairs, and flanked by the 9’ lifeguard chair I built with a friend (it 'cracks me up').  My father always says it’s good to be able to entertain myself.

My arms stick to the desk chair’s.  I feel like I should be working more.  However, I do work hard, often long, and I’m constantly improving my ‘working smart’.  One of my two majors at NYU was Management, but being a full-fledged entrepreneur is not ‘corporate’.  I have to be the ‘professional’ (financial planner), the manager, and the salesperson - it’s like spinning plates on Ed Sullivan.

I want to do more public speaking; that’s where I shine.

It’s better to do something, rather than nothing, when there’s work to be done.  Be flexible.  The staff is working, albeit with smart breaks.

I’ve built the infrastructure of my practice and now can handle more clients; however, I want to be very selective about who we engage.  We serve single women, or women who ‘run’ the family money.  We’d like investment clients, because it’s one of our favorite specialties.  And, we’d like busy, high-income women (A&E professionals or executives/entrepreneurs) who need us to be her personal CFO.

I think entrepreneurs average about seven businesses before they strike success.  I think it’s 90% of new businesses go under in their first five years (I have 30 next February).  I believe, according it’s the Harvard study that concluded if you have goals and write them down, you are 10,000 times more likely to achieve them.  But, you must take action; yet, you have to balance doing with being.  However, beware the entrepreneurs’ credo: “Ready, FIRE!  Aim.”

Schedule down time and a vacation.  Be flexible if the opportunity finds you rather than you pursuing it.  Live for today; plan for tomorrow.

Hang on for one more day.  Or even one more hour.