Turn, turn, turn...turn over a new leaf

Since I lived in New ORleans my whole life (except for the past year, since Katrina), I never really appreciated fall. All fall meant to me was a brief week or two of spectacular weather. Other than that, there was no changing of leaves, no playing in piles of leaves, (no having to rake the yard!) and no real excitement around Halloween either.

Now, everything is different.

I can't help but marvel as the leaves change color -- it happens so fast! I swear, I can drive down teh same street 3 times a day adn notice a difference in color. The other morning, I woke up and the tree in our front yard had changed from green to yellow overnight.

This may not seem like a big deal to someone who grew up with a change in seasons, but to a little gal from New Orleans, it's a fascinating observation. In fact, we're planning to head up to the mountains for a few days, to see the changing aspens. Gorgeous.

Are you wondering what this has to do with success?

I thought you'd never ask.

Let me see if I can narrow it down to 3 key lessons I'm learning from the advent of fall.

1 - Things change fast. Really fast. There's no time to fret over days gone by, or "the way things used to be." If you waste time doing that, you'll miss the next batch of changes. This is all about hanging on for the ride.

2 - Life moves on, with or without you. It boggles my mind when I think of how much time I wasted, telling myself that I couldn't be taken seriously as a writer without experience, a degree in journalism, or age. So silly! All it took was for me to change my mind -- turn over a new leaf, if you will -- and now people come out of the woodwork, wanting to hire me to write for them. Life kept going, kept sending me those nudges, those little messages, and I was all caught up in the Ego and wondering whether or not I was good enough.

If you're wondering that about yourself right now, let me save you some time and heartache: YOU ARE PERFECT, WHOLE AND COMPLETE, right now in this moment. Whatever you think you want to do, go for it NOW because life will move on and seasons will change whether you take action or not. So you might as well get the most out of this roller coaster ride we call LIFE.

3 - Abundance is all around us. It's everywhere -- you can't help but see it when you look. Think about it this way: how many leaves are on one tree? How many trees are in a single forest? How many forests are in the United States? How many forests are in the entire world? How many leaves does that equate to, really? NOW to really blow your mind -- remember how many leaves were on a single tree? Well, consider how long a tree lives (mighty oak trees can live more than 100 years) and think about the fact that every single autumn, each tree will lose all its leaves and RE-GROW them each spring. Now how many leaves do you think have existed since hte beginning of time?

What a mind trip.

And just think -- we're only talking TREES. We're not even talking about fish in teh sea, stars in the sky, or blinks of an eye. Abundance is everywhere -- we are swimming in it. And some of you are whining about money. For pete's sake, it's RIGHT THERE -- as much as you need. Just name it and claim it and find yourself a more interesting game to play.

(and if you're thinking "but HOW do I do that?" then stay posted because I've got something coming down the pike that is really gonna rock your socks.)

So enjoy this changing of the seasons, will you? and be happy and abundant and free and take massive, massive action. OK?

You can start with this Question of the Day:

What is an area of your life where you'd just love to turn over a new leaf? What is stopping you from taking that leap of faith? What will happen / where will you be NEXT fall, if you don't take action and do something different now?

Here's one example of a change you could make.

Go for it!!!