ENTHEOS

Preface

I read somewhere that more people have heart attacks at 9:00 on Monday morning than at any other time of the week.  What is it that most people do at 9:00 on Monday morning?  That is right, they go to work.

Much research has been done, and one thing is becoming common knowledge: The degree to which we are satisfied with how our lives are going, is often directly related to our state of physical health.

It is logical for me to assume then that the biggest influence in our lives can be linked to what we do for a living.  Our jobs have such an impact on our total states of well being because the majority of our time and energy is spent either thinking about work, talking about work, or working.

That is good news or bad news, depending on whether or not you are engaged in a vocation that utilizes your natural ability, challenges you, and rewards you in some way other than just a paycheck.  The right work can improve every area of your life.  Not only will your personal relationships improve, you will enjoy higher levels of happiness and health.  Imagine sleeping better, having better control of your finances, having more self-control, improving your existing romance, or perhaps even having a greater chance at finding romance.

On the other hand, a job that is unrewarding, unchallenging, overtaxing, and leaves you no outlet for your natural creativity can devastate your potential, make you sick, and leave the door open for abusive and overindulgent behavior.  A job like that can leave you chronically dissatisfied and restless as well.

The primary objectives of this book are to introduce you to information that may help you increase the amount of joy in your daily life, raise the amount of happiness that you experience, and find contentedness in your working life.

I have spent most of my adult working life trading hours for dollars for the sole purpose of buying things that I thought would make me happy.  The problem was that the things I bought only satisfied me temporarily then back to the grind I would go to get what I needed to buy something else.  This cycle was brought about by my distorted definition of success.  My idea of success was bent and shaped by what is called social conditioning.  I felt this unseen pressure to fall into the line, finish school, get a job, go there week in and week out for thirty years, then buy a motor home and travel for a few years, then go to the nursing home, and pass from this world without having done all that I wanted to accomplish.

This concept might have been perfect if I had spent that thirty years doing something that I was interested in and enjoyed and that allowed me to grow and prosper.  Unfortunately for me and for most other people, that is not the case.  Surveys tell us that over seventy percent (and I believe it is closer to eighty percent) of people living in the United States do not feel their current jobs are what they really want to do with their lives.  How crazy is that?  Call me a maverick, but I am finished with that idea!  Through my research and meditation I have come to understand that part my mission in life is to apply my talents, my energy and experience to changing those numbers.

The title of this book, “Entheos,” was chosen with a very specific reason in mind.  Entheos is a Greek word meaning “enthusiasm” or “spirit within.”  I believe that we are all born into this world with natural curiosity and wonder.  We all start out as babies bubbling with enthusiasm for life, and somewhere along the way it seems to get lost in a daily grind.

I wrote this book because several years ago I lost my enthusiasm for life and did not know how to get it back.  The material you are about to read is how I rediscovered my enthusiasm for life, my journey through an awakening process, and how you too may benefit by what I have learned.

This is the story of my journey back.

In 1997 I rolled out of West Texas in a worn out Chevy truck with everything I owned in the back.  I arrived at Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, hoping to better my life after trying at marriage and business and failing at both.

I was thirty-eight years old, depressed, and tired.  Worse yet, I was broke.  I was worse than broke.  I was in debt, and my credit was ruined. I found myself in a second story, one bedroom apartment, with no furniture, no television, and no friends within a hundred miles.  It was just me, two empty rooms and a heavy heart.

To know me then you would never have guessed that I was down and out. On the outside, I was energetic, affable, and always the optimist.  On the inside though, I felt like I was bleeding to death emotionally. I needed help, but I did not know where to go to find it.  I had no money and besides, admitting I needed someone was not an option.  I just figured that somehow things would get better.

My break finally came one night.  I found a man sitting on my balcony, drinking my beer, and eating my leftover pizza.  I wasn’t afraid of him.  He didn’t look like a thief.  I asked him what he was doing. He began to tell his life story about how as a child he was so ex