Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

Taking The Easy Way

by Walt | Apr 11, 2024 | Success | 0 Comments

I was out on the rock face at about 11,000′ enjoying the view. The climbing was fairly straightforward, and flowed easily, even though I didn’t know the way.

My climbing partner was 100 yards below me and to my left in a narrow cleft. He was trying a different approach and it wasn’t going well. I could hear him grunt… and swear from time to time. And occasionally I’d hear the scatter of rockfall.

After nearly 45 minutes of struggle, my partner emerged below me, conceding at last that the route that I was on was the right one.

I’ve thought of this scene countless times over the years. Usually, when we’re trying too hard – whether in the mountains or in life – we’re off route.

The right way is not always without difficulty. But there is a natural flow and unfolding when we’re on the path we should be on.

“We are rather like whirlpools in the river of life,” writes Charlotte Joko Beck. “In flowing forward, a river or stream may hit rocks, branches, or irregularities in the ground, causing whirlpools to spring up spontaneously here and there. water entering one whirlpool quickly passes through and rejoins the river, eventually joining another whirlpool and moving on. Though for short periods it seems to be distinguishable as a separate event, the water in the whirlpools is just the river itself.”

Suffering, Joko Beck suggests, arises when we pretend that we are not the river; or when we wall off and dam up our own small eddies.

I think suffering arises when we paddle upstream.

Years ago, I took my boys to Disney’s Blizzard Beach. Encircling the outside of the park is a “ride,” a gently flowing river. You sit in an inner tube – and float along.

I’m not very good at Blizzard Beach. I get antsy. I want to paddle. Maybe even change direction. If there were Blizzard Beach police, I might go to jail.

Many of us like to pretend we’re in control. That we own the river. That through cleverness and craft, we can navigate and forge the way. Maybe even force the way.

But constant paddling saps the spirit and tires the soul.

Dan Millman writes, “Surrender involves getting out of our own way and living in accord with a higher will, expressed as the wisdom of the heart.”

What if we didn’t have to struggle?

What if we could trust the river, surrendering to the Great Flow of our lives?

What if the easy way was The Way?

Doom Porn

by Walt | Apr 4, 2024 | Success | 0 Comments

Doom.

All. The. Time.

Everywhere it seems.

From the talking heads; non-stop newsfeeds; streams of social media.

Incessant spewing about the roiling of the markets, climate change, gun violence, racism, antisemitism, political upheaval. It can be overwhelming to be constantly bombarded with negative news. This incessant stoking of fear and anxiety not only impacts emotional well-being but can degrade your physical health too.

It’s come to be called Doom Porn. Because the constant consumption of this news and information about the negative and dire state of the world has an addictive quality for many.

One of the main negative effects of doom porn is that it can cause folks to feel helpless and powerless. There becomes this pervasive sense that there‘s nothing you can do to change the state of the world and that your individual actions don’t matter. It’s easy to end up feeling depressed and hopeless.

I can help you with this porn problem.

Awe.

Experience awe.

Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast and grand that transcends your everyday understanding. In nature, art, music, and in the grand forms of human achievement.

Experiencing moments of awe can have a profound impact on your emotional well-being. For sure, it can make you feel small in the grand scheme of things, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it can also allow you to feel connected to something greater than yourself. This feeling of connection can give you a sense of purpose and meaning in life.

Experiencing moments of awe can also boost your physical health. Studies have shown that it can lower stress levels, improve immune function, and even lead to a longer lifespan.

In a world that’s filled with so much negativity, it’s necessary to take a step back and appreciate the beauty and wonder that is everywhere. By experiencing moments of awe, as a practice, you’ll counteract the negative effects of doom porn and find hope and inspiration in the world again.

So, next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by the negative news, take a moment to step outside and look at the stars or take a walk in nature. Listen to some uplifting music or read a book that inspires you. Find something that fills you with awe and let it remind you of the beauty and wonder of this magnificent world.

Awe is the antidote for doom.

Stay in awe.

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Want to create work that brings you joy (and awe) every day? I can help. Email me: walt@summit-success.com

Listen To That Nagging

by Walt | Mar 28, 2024 | Success | 0 Comments

You’re not imagining it.

You’re not fabricating it.

It’s real.

That yearning.

That sense that there’s more.

More than you’re meant for.

More than you’re supposed to do.

More.

The more that will fulfill those deepest longings of your heart.

You’re not exactly sure what it is.

Yet.

It calls you.

Nags you even.

In the quiet of the day; in the darkness of the night.

It’s there.

Whispering.

You want the nagging to go away; you tell it to go away.

Because.

You’re successful.

You have everything.

You’ve made it.

You have more than enough.

You should be satisfied.

Grateful even.

And you are grateful.

But that voice.

Calling you.

To create anew. To begin again.

It won’t go away.

It will never go away.

Because it’s the Creator Spirit within you.

Listen.

Listen to those longings of your heart.

Listen and begin.

The Bears Are Up

by Walt | Mar 21, 2024 | Success | 3 Comments

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. — Isaiah 43:19

The bears are waking up. That is what the local newspaper said.

I’m guessing that’s true. Spring has arrived here in the northern hemisphere.

Winter was a great season for us. But, for many, winter means hardship. Storms and brutal cold; grey skies, short days and long, dark nights; shoveling snow, icy roads, and heating bills that seem to never end.

Things tend to lay dormant in the winter. Many in the animal kingdom – like bears – hide out and hibernate.

In the people kingdom too.

Then the spring comes. New life, new energy, new hope. A reprieve; a new beginning.

And so it is in all our lives.

What we do in the springtime of our lives matters. How we till the soil; what we plant; where we plant it; how much we care.

What we build; how we build it.

The summer will surely come. And then the harvest time. It always does.

What we reap at harvest time will depend on these very moments in our lives: What we sow in the here and now will dictate the seasons yet to come.

In our businesses and careers;
In our networks and relationships;
In our marriages, partnerships, and families;
In our health and fitness;
In our financial lives;
In the service of others.

It’s easy to be complacent in the spring, what with the weight of winter finally lifted off. But spring is a time for focus; the time to re-charge, to re-double our efforts. The seeds that we plant, the investments that we make, the care and the attention that we bring to the spring in our lives will yield a thousandfold in the soft glow of our autumn time.

Of course, the seasons of our lives don’t always correspond with Mother Nature. I surely have experienced some desperate winters in the midst of spring; and brutal heat that killed the seeds long after harvest time had come.

But the spring of the year is a good time to remind ourselves of the never-ending rhythm of things; that even in the darkest of nights, the light will return. And that when it does, we have an opportunity to begin again; to create anew; to make our lives the masterpieces they’ve always been meant to be.

Jim Rohn said, “You cannot change the seasons; but you can change yourself.”

In every moment – in every spring – we get to choose.

Wherever you are, whatever the season for you, let’s begin again.

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When you’re ready to begin, and you’d like some help, let’s connect. Email me: walt@summit-success.com

Handcuffed To My Bed

by Walt | Mar 14, 2024 | Success | 0 Comments

Would that it were so!

That might have been interesting.

But alas… it was not my bed…

I was handcuffed to work that was sucking my soul.

I loved law school. The reading, the research, the classroom, the debates, the arguments. All of it.

But within months of graduating, I’d realized that being a trial lawyer was a terrible fit for me.

The constant combat; the unhappy combatants; the hermetically sealed office; the 70-hour weeks.

But I’d come out of school with a mound of debt. I had a big suburban house, a mortgage, 2.2 children, and a minivan.

I was really good at what I did, and I made a lot of money doing it.

I liked the money. (I needed the money.)

But my soul was being sucked away.

I was trapped. (Or so I thought.)

Golden handcuffs, the therapist said.

Kinda like trapping monkeys, I later discovered.

If you want to catch a monkey, you cut a hole in the top of a coconut, just large enough for a monkey to slip its hand into. You chain the coconut to the ground, and wait.

Along comes a hungry monkey. It slips its hand into the coconut and grabs the soft meat of the coconut. But, with its fist now closed, it can’t pull its hand out of the hole.

Boom, you have a monkey.

Which sounds pretty dumb on the monkey’s part, because all it needed to do was to open its clenched fist, let go of the meat, and run free.

But once a monkey grabs hold of something, it’s hard to let go.

So I held on, even though I knew that the job was slowly killing me.

Too many years went by.

I didn’t know then that when I finally found the courage to release my grip, and run free, that the work I would discover would provide joy beyond my wildest imagination. And a wonderful income too.

What are you grasping onto?

What would it be like to let go?

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I can help you escape soul-sucking work. Email me. We’ll set up a call: walt@walthampton.com