And every good captain has a CREW. Who will you have with you on this voyage? A good mate - a life partner; a navigation officer - a coach or other expert who knows ropes and provides vital information to help you chart your course; a purser - accountant or financial adviser; a medical officer - your personal healthcare team; and others to swab deck, lower anchor, and do routine maintenance - maid, yard service, car repairman, baby sitters, etc.

You’ll need a MAP. There is a map to transitions, because there are certain things in common to all transitions. Take a Transitions course, and/or hire a coach or other expert in transitions.

All sailors have a BAROMETER. What barometers do is tell you a change is coming. This is crucial to a sailor at sea, or a sailor at life. Our intuition acts like a barometer. Wouldn't you agree it would be good to be able to sense if you were about to be laid off, or if your daughter were experimenting with drugs? Everyone has intuition. Learn how to pump up volume on yours and read its messages.

A ship takes on BALLAST when it’s too light to sail. Add extra sleep and nurturing in times of stress, a solid Personal Mission Statement, money-reserves, a good time management program. Shift ballast if your ship is weighted down -- get rid of tolerations.

Good STABILIZERS for your ship are essential. A good social support network with strong intimate relationships, people you can count on, your faith, expert help such as a coach, and a well-bolstered Resilience can stabilize you through rough times. You bolster Resilience by processing Transitions well and by growing through hard times, not just going through them.

What LIFE VESTS would you take with you in lifeboat if your ship were sinking? Most people in my seminars mention specific people in their lives, and their faith. Some mention experts of various types. I've never heard anyone mention money. Life vests these days feature a light and a whistle. Your optimism is light, guiding you to safety. Your personal power, your voice, is whistle. Don’t forget to take these with you!

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A LIFE-CHANGING ONE-MINUTE AUDIT

by Doug C. Grant

You've got to use this audit to believe it. The darn thing really works. And it's free.

You can take one of those psycobabble type audits with a ton of personal questions and complicated scoring systems. But you'll still end up with essentially same results on bottom line.

IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU'RE HERE AND NOW

To know where you want to go you must first know where you are. In other words, you can't get from here to there if you don't know where 'here' is.

Most Life Audits attempt to establish 'here' by having you answer a battery of personal questions. But unless you have a severe emotional problem best left to a professional...or you prefer living in a total state of denial...your knower already knows where you are right now.

For example, if money is in short supply in your life and it's a source of unhappiness, you know it. You may prefer pretending otherwise, but once you get past fantasy you realize there is an uncomfortable hole in your pocket. You can answer a thousand questions and chart answers on a complicated scoring system but bottom line will still come out same. You ain't as rich as you'd like to be.

HERE'S HOW THE ONE-MINUTE LIFE AUDIT WORKS

It forces you to look at major areas of your life and ask yourself, "Does this particular area add to or subtract from my happiness?" Then you track your answers on a simple scoring page you can download free off Empowered Maturity web site.

Simple? Of course. Effective? Absolutely. Unless you insist on thinking that something black is actually white.

It's all so deceptively easy that you may be tempted to label it too childish. But remember, really great truths of life are dirt simple. It's when intellectualized that they become complicated.

For example, in Bible there was a commander of a great army who was told by God's prophet to wash in Jordan seven times to be healed of leprosy. (2 Kings 5) At first he refused because process was too simple. He wanted ceremony and hand waving. But when finally convinced that simple would work, he was healed.

HOW TO GET YOUR ONE-MINUTE LIFE AUDIT...FREE