I recently travelled to Hawaii to attend Joeann Fossland's Reinvention Business Planning Retreat. It was a life changing event. (Photos here.)

There were a series of exercises that I completed prior to the retreat, including a Be/Do/Have List for My Lifetime. This was especially revealing to me and I discovered some quiet, dormant wishes that were tucked in the recesses of my brain. I find that unearthing these wishes has put me in action toward achieving several of them in a way that will see me Be/Do/Have them in short order.

Joeann constructed a reading list prior to the retreat that included The Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks and Neale Donald Walsch. The book asks a compelling question. If you were on your deathbed, would you see your life as a complete success? What would you do differently?  I completed my exercise and learned a little bit more about myself.

The Five Wishes exercise also made me think about a dear friend who passed last year. Lynn struggled for over a year with brain cancer and she reflected upon her life. She told me that there was only one think she would have done differently. She would have travelled and taken vacations. Lynn worked for many years for the Bethlehem Housing Authority and she was the most FULL-TIME REALTOR I knew when she left her 9 -5 desk at BHA. She urged me to travel, "Don't spend your days tied to a desk, for God's sake! Don't make that mistake."

Last month I was in Pennsylvania and Lynn's daughter, Michelle, invited me to look at some of the clothes and accessories that Lynn left behind and select some of those treasures for myself. (Michelle had followed some of my relocation woes with respect to my wardrobe.) 

I collected some clothes and jewlery and a suitcase and a new pair of flip flops. I used the suitcase to carry my treasures back to Tucson, and I used it again to travel to Hawaii. Lynn's flip flops are showing wear from long walks on the sandy beaches of Oahu. I am taking my good friend's advice.

Joeann shared another VERY NEAT tool with us at the retreat, a Vision Board that downloads to the computer and offers a visual display of goals and dreams and wishes. I have about 30 photos, keywords, and affirmations that keep these thoughts fresh and alive ALL DAY LONG at my computer. I cannot begin to describe how powerful this program appears. It uses the Law of Attraction techniques in a digital format with my own thoughts and ideas and photographs. I will be happy to show it to you ... ask me the next time we meet at an industry event ... this is quite neat! And ask me what I am wearing or carrying that once was Lynn's. I'll be happy to share that as well.