"I was afraid I would come to the end of my life and realize I'd lived someone else's dream. "

Funny thing about life, its phases and stages - its cycles. Seasons come and seasons go; weeks become months; and before you know it, the year is out.

They say that ‘for everything, there is a time'. Yet what time is there to think, what time to dream?

Seems to me that the summer is a time of 'being'. A time when we ‘chill out', spend time at the cottage, with the kids - a time for friends and relationships.

In the fall we turn up the heat. We get into ‘doing' things - new things. Courses, programs - things to create a better, brighter more meaningful ...more meaningful what? Last quarter?

And then year-end is upon us and we begin to plan for the things we want to achieve next year. We? Which we? - the corporate we? the family we? My guess is, it's rarely the royal 'we'! Yet, whose life is this we're talking about?

Time. We all need time to think, to dream. We need to make the time, we need to take that time. Just an hour of effective, disciplined, holistic and integrated thinking, here and there, can avoid months -- even years -- of unfulfilling effort.

I think you're worth the investment, how about you?