TheAdinaFactor.com

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.  Anonymous has struck again.

I am self-employed and my main business, teaching piano is slow right now.  This gives me time to build my beloved oil business and increase its profitability.  There is an immediate need to have a better cash flow so I opened my mind and took a tax course.  I totally enjoyed the course, but the reality of doing the taxes was weird.

The charges are huge.  [Could that be why this tax office is getting no customers and I am not needed?] The people are anxious, argumentative, and whine that the refund is too small.  (EIC is a built in welfare check in the tax system.  If you qualify you can get money you never paid in.)

I have always done my own taxes so I had no idea how much people paid to have so little done. The interesting thing about this experience was I went in with an ‘open mind‘ instead of going with my ‘gut’ feeling.

When I called to inquire about the class it was $100 out of my pocket.  They assured me that getting 20 hours would be no problem if they hired me and that they would pay me at least $10/hour.  I opened my mind. When I went for my appointment they made me wait 35 minutes and it wasn’t because they were busy-the lady I had the appointment with walked by me on her way to make a call and have a cigarette. I opened my mind.

I found many errors in the on line course.  I was told how clever of me to find them-I opened my mind. When I went for the employment interview I was offered $8.25.-It took me a while to decide if I wanted to work for nothing. I opened my mind.

It has been many years since I was an office worker.  I once again have learned why I am self-employed.  I am using many oils to keep balanced in this experience.

My friends that through the years have shared their ‘work war’ stories with me were instrumental in me seeing the big picture.  My ‘gut’ tells me that a supervisor that prefers to work with an 18 year old instead of a seasoned work-place employee may have a few issues of her own!  No open mind here thank you.

I did get enough hours to reimburse myself for the out-of-pocket expense for the class. I won’t need to do this lesson again.

Of all parts of wisdom practice is the best.  JOHN TILLOTSON

The more a man knows the more he forgives.  CATHERINE THE GREAT

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.  CHARLES DICKENS

People are always making rules for themselves and then finding looopholes. W ROTSLER

Always do what you say you are going to do.  It is the glue and fiber that binds successful relationships.  JEFFRY A. TIMMONS

How do you do life in relationship to committments, giving your word and following through?  An intent of doing the right thing keeps our actions in integrity with our words.

Every private citizen has a public responsibility  MYRA J DANIELS

When you add to your core value the philosophy of  “I am my brother’s keeper” you have opened a door of blessing and opportunity that will add a dimension to your life you can’t imagine.  Will it all be good?  Maybe not.  Will you know you have done the right thing, yes. 

 All parents who have set strong boundaries for their children know the strength it takes to do the right thing.  Every person who has stood when ‘all others were doing it’ knows it isn’t always comfortable to do the right thing.  Your actions affect a far reaching sphere.  

 Priorities are your soul first, you next, family, others, and community.  Those are the public responsibilities we all share.  As a famous radio personality says, “Go Do the Right Thing.”

The essential oils that help would be Valor to keep you strong, Clarity to  keep you focused and Highest Potential to remind you that you are not alone.

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.  D. LARSON

One life skill that brings more joy, hope, and peace into our lives is our attitude.  Our attitude determines our reality.  We are the architect of our lives.  You can build with hope, humor, and vision or you can build with defeat, crisis, and anger.  All of us have reasons to be angry, unforgiving, or bitter.  When we accept the harm those dark feelings do to our emotional and physical health it becomes a necessity to change our attitude and do what is required to have the life we want.  There are so many essential oils that can help keep us on track with changing our attitude.  Idaho Balsam Fir, Release, Surrender, Hope, Joy and Transformation are just a few.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.  B. GATES

The lessons we learn from those who are unhappy with us or our product are the lessons that will propell us forward in life.  You know that when you want to learn some new skill you seek out those teacher/mentors that will provide the means for you to reach the level of achievement you are seeking.  That is what your  unhappy customers’ become in your life.  The are a type a mentor.  The choice to learn from them will make us a leader in our life.

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.   MLK Jr.

Life will bring us surprises.  Some will hurt.  Some will disappointment.  Some will cause us to question why we should keep on doing our best.  That is when hope has to be fostered.  When we accept the fact-this is it, we are able to move forward in our lives, build on our hope and have joy and thankfulness for the good things that come our way.  It is my belief that  life is what it is.  We have done nothing to deserve the good things in our lives or the bad things.  Our quality of life depends on making the lemonade when life gives us lemons and sweetening it with hope and remembering that if life gives you cherries watch out for the pits.

“Life is an opportunity to develop your focus so that you can again become what you were before you came to earth.  Keep your cool. Find your joy and enjoy.”

 I have some tricks that help me cope with our extreme desert heat.  They have taken the ‘dread’ out of summer for me.   My body-mind health as well and my spirit health are more aligned with ‘joy’ now.   This is what works for me.   WATER  I drink water constantly all day long.  It seems to cool me on the inside.  I go  SWIMMING every chance I can.  It cools me on the outside.   This year the swimming has been less and it isn’t nice.  One thing that didn’t work was turning off the AC and keeping wet towels on me.   Not a good idea.  As my own boss I work  really hard for 6 weeks so I can escape for long weekends to the ocean or the mountains or any wonderful place that is cool.  I  don’t do anything after 5 p.m. unless it is something fun.  Ahh how cool.

I am bilingual.  My second language is music, specifically piano. It has taught me life skills. To play or sing on an accomplished level requires a commitment to working daily, focusing  only on the task at hand, setting daily practice goals, and sticking with it until it is right.  It really is grunge work.  Once the piece is learned it becomes “play”.  

Practice is lonely.  It is just you and the instrument.  It is tedious.  You have to do the passage right 3 times.  It is rewarding.  No one can understand unless they are a musician the feeling of hearing yourself ‘do it right’. 

Commitment, goal setting, determination, learning to hear what I was doing and maintaining the standard of the music are just a few of the life skills I have learned and polished through my music.  We’ll talk about the brain training in a later post. 

All music is a language.  Like any language if we can’t understand what is being said it just becomes gibberish to us.  Those who love complex music are born with the ability to hear and understand it.  We study music just like we study our native language to get a deeper understanding of its intricacies. The longer I study and teach piano the more I appreciate the miracle that any of us can play, hear and comprehend the beauty of complex music.

 I knew at the age of 12 that I wanted to be a piano teacher.  That is one of my core values.  I have discovered on this journey that it is complex music that I enjoy.   I am grateful that the gift of complex music was given to me and that the desire to use it, develop it and enjoy it were also given to me.

To all musicians of complex music thank you for contributing to global beauty.