Things are looking up! Way UP!

Leaping Lizards... er Leopards... er Llamas... er... it's REALLY Launch time around here! Apple released Leopard last Friday, and that's certainly exciting. However, it is even more exciting that we have our final candidates built, but surprisingly there was even more exciting news for us this week! Or looking at it another way... it's a very exciting time for us when you put it all together. Wow! :-)

Stuart and I have been out of town to Florida to view the spectacular Space Shuttle Discovery Launch of STS 120. This mission is being commanded by my long time friend from college, Pamela Melroy. The mission goals include adding the Node 2 "Harmony" module to the International Space Station. Pam and I were both Physics and Astronomy majors at Wellesley in the same year. It was the second shuttle launch I was fortunate enough to attend. I missed Pam's second launch, because it conflicted with Stuart's grandmother's 100th birthday. That was about the only thing that would have kept me away. Wild horses wouldn't have been able to do it, but Stuart's "Mom Mom"....is another story. Being invited to a launch is a huge honor, and Stuart and I were very proud to be present on Tuesday morning in that amazing countdown moment with Pam's friends and family and a bunch of other VIPs to support her and her crew. I wouldn't want to miss that experience for anything! There's magic in simply being together with everyone else for a launch.

For us, following along with Pam's mission puts things here on the ground into more appropriate perspective, too.

Work may be at the heart of a lot of what we do, but so is family, and so is friendship. That's the idea that inspired us to write Life Balance in the first place. If you know what you care about, and you can be clear about it - you can live it, dream it, do it. We are all more capable than we think we are. We all have more leeway to do stuff and experience things than we think.

Many people I spoke to about this opportunity said how jealous they were that we were going to do this. Several other people I talked to this week were (in my opinion) excessively worried about the consequences of missing a normal week at work in order to see the shuttle launch. Fortunately, they pushed through that feeling to show up anyway!

I know that many other people who were invited probably didn't show up to the launch because they felt that they couldn't afford to take a few days off! Uh... are you kidding me!!!? How many unique opportunities and amazing adventures are these people missing by overemphasizing the importance of their normal routine?

Life Balance is not just about optimizing your daily routine, although it can do that quite well. It is also about recognizing and taking advantage of life's opportunities that you might never get to do again! Don't forget that your Life Balance To do list is maleable! Think "shaped in clay," not "carved in stone."

Attending a shuttle launch as a guest is an exercise in what I think of as focused flexibility. Focused flexibility is a useful mindset to have when the goal is clear. What it requires is recognition that if you are too rigid about some of the individual tasks along the way, you will lose the ability to reach the goal. You can more easily spiral into the goal and reach your central target by letting go of the stuff on the periphery that does not matter.

Attending a shuttle launch is actually a great example, because NASA is going to do what it is going to do to launch the shuttle. You aren't going to influence that. You must be willing to adapt your plans and expectations if you want to be in the right place at the right time to see it.

So imagine that you do want to accept the invitation to attend a shuttle launch. What might be required is to drop everything and fly to Florida? SAY YES! Change hotels three times in three days? Yup. Wake up at 5 am? Okay! Change airplane reservations twice? Come back tomorrow? Stay a couple of extra days? Sure! Once you commit to a goal, by definition, you are preparing yourself to do whatever it takes, not necessarily what you thought it would take to do it when you started out.

With focused flexibility, you have to let go of some of your expectations, especially of HOW you will do things, in order to actually DO them. The goal stays steady, right where it belongs, but how you expect to accomplish the goal can change a lot, sometimes rapidly. Sometimes it can even seem chaotic, but since you know what the goal is, you just keep flinging yourself deliberately towards it! The more accurate you can be about that, the better. This is why it is important to be clear about setting goals. You have to know what you are aiming for.

Can you continue to breathe while you countdown backwards from 10? Oh...that part is certainly tricky... (did I mention there were alligators?)... but I'm happy to report that it can be done! :-)

Doing MORE of the right stuff, so to speak, was not only possible for us during the last week, it was completely wonderful! And oddly enough, it has made everything else go easier this week too! We're relaxed, inspired, and excited all at the same time! It's cool. We caught up quickly on the normal activities and we're focused on what we need to do next!

Of course, the Leopard release by Apple and being ready ourselves to post new versions of Life Balance is also important news to you and to us. Some of you folks are eager to know that the new Mac version has been tested on Leopard and that we posted our first final candidate build to the betas before we left for Florida. We fixed a few minor things once we flew back. We tested again this last week on the final builds of Leopard that Apple posted.

We are looking "good to go" too.

We are making a round of changes to the web site this weekend. We expect to be doing a little software launch of our own. There may be fewer "g forces" involved, but it is still plenty exciting to us!

In the meantime, watch the NASA TV and please spare a thought for the crew in space and the difficult and demanding work they are doing. No matter how carefully they train, there is always the potential for something unexpected to happen in space, and you can't exactly drop by the hardware store for spare parts, which requires the astronauts to develop the ability to think and act with focused flexibility too.

Stay open to the possibilities in life!