Dear Mikey,

Hi! It is Michael! (yes you will go by Michael when you are older) I am writing this letter to let you know some information to help you along the way.

Here are some helpful hints to get you along:

People love you for who you are. I know you are going to waste so much time trying to change things about yourself and wishing you were different but in the end you will learn that it is all those things people most love about you.

Never stop laughing. We love to laugh and there will be times when we will stop laughing. Remember in those moments, that you need to do whatever it takes to bring laughter back. Our sense of humor is how we survive.

You are going to make a lot of friends. Some are going to change your life, some are going to teach you life lessons and others will be true friends who stay with you. No matter what type of friends they are, you are going to have a great time.

I want you to believe in yourself. You can do anything you want as long as you believe. You will amaze yourself with all the things you will achieve. Never give up and just know you can do it.

You are going to get scared at times. I want you to know that you are not alone. Just as I have you with me now, you will have me there with you. There is nothing wrong with being scared and when you are, just remember I am holding your hand.

Make sure to trust your instincts. Your intuition is very strong and you need to listen to it. It will guide you down the right path. It is OK if you don’t, you will just learn from it and continue on.

Always have fun. You will do a lot of crazy and silly things. And trust me, even as you get older you will only do more. You are going to always enjoy living life.

I want you to take care of yourself. You are going to do a lot of things and sometimes take on way too much. Remember to always take time out for yourself. You will need to relax. When you get older we will be spending a lot of time learning how to do that.

There are going to be rough times in your life. Times when things aren’t going as you planned or hoped. You are going be betrayed by friends, hurt by people you love and deal with a tragedy you could never imagine. I am not going to warn you about any of them because you get through them all. You are stronger than you think and these events never take away your spark for life. I promise you the good times will tower over the bad.

Lastly, I want to tell you that I love you. I love you because you make me who I am today. I love you because you are who you are. I love you because there will be times when you don’t love yourself and it will be OK because my love will get through that.

Well, Mikey, get ready to enjoy life because it is going to be more fun than you will ever know. I do not need to wish you luck because you are blessed and you just need to be grateful for it.

Love always,

Michael

PS. You are going to start losing your hair. GET OVER IT. Just part of life. What is more important is that you will NEVER lose your smile.

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Do you have a goal you have been working on but have not shared it with anyone? Why not?

I think one of the main reasons we do not share our goals with others is accountability. We are afraid once we say it out loud to then we will really have to do it. Not only because we have now verbalized it but because our friends and family will know if we succeed or fail.

I know I always achieve better results when I share my goals with my friends and family. It makes me take my goal serious and really put the work into making them happen. Now I have cheerleaders helping support me along the way and they keep me motivated to achieve my goal.

With that said, I am going to share a goal with all of you. I have set a goal to increase my email blog subscribers. I am hoping that I can gain more people who will enjoy my blog and decide to receive my blog updates in their email each day. I am hoping all of you will help me out by forwarding my blog to people you feel would enjoy reading what I have to say. Please encourage them to even comment because I love the interaction.

Maybe they will even subscribe by email and help me achieve my goal. Who wouldn’t want a little Michael in their email each morning?

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My coach (yes as a coach, I have to have my own coach as well) mentioned how I haven’t been working on my life list lately. This is true so I had to get myself to look back on it and Justin and I completed another thing off my list. We went to the Orlando Science Center.

As a kid in Orlando, I had been on many fields trips to the OLD science center but since it was completely redone, I had not been and have been wanting to.

The beautiful new Orlando Science Center has a living Florida wetlands in the bottom level where you can see turtles and alligators swimming and laying around. Next to it is a small coral reef with all kinds of fish.

We went on the Titanic Ship of Dreams tour where they showed us tons of real life objects from Titanic and told us facts from the ship. At the end, they leave you with the sad stories of people who did not make it and how the ship sank. Of course, I got teary eyed thinking about how scared those people must have been.

They had exhibits about Dinosaurs and the Giant planets in our solar system. The last exhibit was a walk through of Norman Rockwell’s work. They had a lot of his work made into 3D stand ups. They ended with a room with every single cover he ever did.

It was a fun day and another item was crossed of my life list. Maybe not a HUGE item but still creating more meaning in my life and an experience I will remember. I can now say I have been.

What have you done off your life list lately?

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This weekend I took myself out to a movie and lunch. Can you believe it?

Sometimes you need to take a time out and do something nice for yourself. By going out to the movie and lunch alone I was able to truly just be myself and have a lot of self reflection.

I took myself to Downtown Disney and saw Wall-E with a bunch of kids and then enjoyed lunch at a small asian restaurant. I also bought myself the cute umbrella I have wanted from the Cirque store. (I am a great date.)

I do recommend you go see Wall-E very cute movie about love as well as a nice social message. I was surprised Disney allowed this social message to be in their film. (I won’t ruin it) Many people parents in the audience were making negative comments about it. Of course these were parents who obviously suffered from this social disconnect.

It was also nice to have the time way because it reminded me how lucky I am to have Justin and all my family and friends in my life. Sure it was nice to have the time alone but I knew I was coming home to Justin. It is a lot easier to be alone in a world where couples rule when you know you will go home and be part of a couple again.

I hope if you are single or in a couple, you will take a few hours and take just yourself out on a date. Enjoy the time and treat yourself right!

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This is week fourteen in my personal “If… Project” in which I answer questions from the book “If… (Questions for the Game of Life)”

There are 125 pages of this book, each with four questions. I plan to take one page each week and answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I am able. In addition, I invite you to answer the questions along with me, whether it be in the comments section, your own personal blog, or just within your own thoughts.

Perhaps in doing so, we will get to know each other better, but even more importantly, get to know ourselves better.

This week’s questions:

If you could have one person alive today call you for advice, who would you want it to be?

Well since I am a life coach a lot of people call me to help them change their lives already. I really do not need someone in particular since I like all my clients now. And I am sure I will like all my future clients as well.

If you could have any person from any time in history call you for advice, and they were to listen to what you told them, who would you want to hear from?

George W Bush - Please don’t run for President…EVER

If you could easily visit one known planet, which one would you go to?

Planet Smoothie. You can always go for a nice smoothie to jump start your day. Seriously, who would pick another planet? We could only see it from a ship window I assume so how much fun would that be.

If you could have been the author of any single book already written, which book would you want to have penned?

Of course I would choose Harry Potter! That book was crazy popular and will be huge for many, many, MANY years to come. Let’s just hope my book does half as well.

Those are my answers to this week’s questions. What are yours?

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My friend Becky sent me her oath to our true friendship:

1. When you are sad — I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on mountain dew.

2. When you are blue — I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile — I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared — I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried — I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused — I will use little words.

7. When you are sick — Stay away from me until you are well again. I don’t want whatever it is you have.

8. When you fall — I will point and laugh at your clumsy butt.

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When I was in school, I always dreaded Physical Education or PE for short. We wuld get separated into boys and girls and placed on softball teams. The “coach” would always pick team captains from his favorite athletic players and they would then pick teams.

I would always be picked last.

I was always placed in the outfield (and I mean WAY outfield) where I would basically just sit and sun bathe until it was our turn to bat. Then I would be placed at the end of the bench so I was the last person to hit ball. Of course when it was my turn, my own team would let out a sign of disgust and everyone on the other team would smile and move very close in. Like I wasn’t nervous enough, this would cause me to sweat more and just pray the misery would end soon.

One summer day, a kid named Mike, on the other team, decided it was time to taunt me. Mike and I had been in school together since Kindergarten. When I got up to play he started calling me names and laughing about how I should be playing with the girls because at least I could do their nails.

I couldn’t believe someone who was nicknamed Mike “Booger” because of his last name would turn against me, the only boy who never called him that name. He didn’t think it was funny and stood up for him many times.

The other boy’s on his team started joining in and I just wanted to run and cry but I didn’t for some reason, I just got pissed.

Maybe it was the hot summer humidity, maybe it was being tired of being picked last or maybe it was just time but I was pissed at all the boys, every one of them but especially Mike who should have known how it felt to be picked on.

I walk up to bat. I knew when the pitcher threw the ball I would miss and spin myself around from swinging the bat which would lead to even more teasing. But it was different this time, I was pissed. When I get to the plate, all I can think about is Mike “Booger” and his comments and name calling. He is still leading the pack taunting me and even the “coach” has started laughing at their names.

The pitcher throws the ball and I swing. I swing as Mike says, “Don’t break a nail” and shakes his limp wrist gesture at me and mimics me crying.

WHACK! I hit that damn ball and I hit it hard

Everyone was in shock. No one on either teamed moved as I dropped the bat and started to hail ass around the bases. No one had moved as I smiled when I made it to third and realized I was going to make it home. No one had moved when I hit home plate with a giant smile on my face and turned to see all the boys crowded in a circle on the field.

Yes, no one had moved when I hit that ball because no one expected, especially Mike “Booger”. The ball I hit so hard went flying straight into Mike’s right eye. No one, especially him was prepared for the hit and it knocked him HARD in the eye. Everyone was crowded around him as he laid, in the crawled up like a baby, on the green grass crying and sobbing loudly as he covered his eye with both if his hands.

I just stared at the circle of boys when one of Mike’s teammates looked up and said, “LOOK WHAT YOU DID! Aren’t you going to say sorry?!!!”

I slowly walked over to the boys and said, “I am sorry. I am sorry, Mike, that I hit you in the eye but at least I didn’t break a nail.”

I smirked and walked away.

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What does it mean to live your life unplugged?

To me it means that I am true to myself in everything I do. I know I am most happy just being me.

It wasn’t always like this. It took me a long to be comfortable with being myself. Everyone has an opinion on how we should act, speak, live our lives and what goals we should have. It is hard not to give up and be the cookie cutter image of that they want you to be.

One day I woke up and realized I was tired of living a life that wasn’t truly mine. It was time for me to break the mold and create my own set of rules on life. This required me to let go of some of the old rules which I did not agree with:

I do not need to dress up to be respected.

I do not have to climb the corporate ladder to be happy.

I do not need to impress people; they need to impress me.

I do not need to be afraid to have fun in all I do.

I do not need to be ashamed to say I am gay because love is love.

I do not need to kiss ass to be a success.

I do not need to hide my flaws because they make me, me.

I do not need to watch sports or play sports to be accepted in the boy’s club.

I do not need to network to make grow my business.

I do not have to be afraid to decide with my heart.

I do not need to be scared of being me because no one else can do it.

What rules in life have you broken or changed to help you live life unplugged?

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That is right. As of today, you have completed half of 2008. Now is when we look at the year and realized how quickly it flew by and think about all the missed opportunities.

I want you to then realize you have 6 months left to change your life. You still have the rest of the year to make up for all the time you feel you have wasted.

Here are so tips on how to get the most out of the rest of 2008:

1. Think about all the New Year’s resolutions you made and gave up on. It is never too late to start them again. Call them Half Year resolutions and give them another chance.

2. Take a good look at your life list. What could you get done by the end of the year? What are some items you need to more into goals in the next few months? Once you decide, write them and commit to making them happen.

3. Think about the wheel of life. What area(s) on the wheel need your attention right now? What could you do to improve them in the next 6 months? Sounds to me like you have some more goals to work on for the half year left.

4. How is your vision board working? Do you even have one? Take a few moments to update or even start your vision board. This will help you to see your goals and motivate you to achieve. It is a fun way to remind yourself of what you want to create in your life.

5. Find someone to hold you accountable. That is why life coaching is all about. Having someone in your life to hold you accountable for what you promised to do. Maybe there is a friend you could partner up with to make sure your next 6 months are well accomplished and celebrated!

Here’s to a great new half year filled with great opportunities and wonderful fun and laughter!

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