Being Jewish (oh my God, did I shock anyone with that?), I don’t really know too much about Lent. I am actually not really a religious person. I am a spiritual person who believes in spirits. I have no idea in what I believe, but that is a topic for another day’s blog.

Anyway, I heard it’s Lent right now for all the Christian folk out there. Do you know what the Jewish version is of Lent? It’s called Lend. That is the time when we go to our banker, borrow some money to start a new business or build up a current business, and then we have forty days to pay it back.

I understand that you have to give something up during the forty days of Lent. So I was thinking about what I could give up for Lent.

I was thinking of giving up my life for Lent. No, I’m not going to kill myself. I’m just going to give up my life to someone else. Does anyone want it?

Does anyone want to be me for forty days and forty nights? We can trade lives. I’ll be you and you can be me.

You can be a dating expert and give relationship advice. You can yell at my employees. You can walk my dog. You can drive my car — actually, no, you can’t do that.

There are some limitations. As I said, you can’t drive my car. You also can’t have sex with my girl.

In exchange, I get your life for those forty days and forty nights. Let me tell you something, I would love to get inside some of your heads and totally change your mindset. Give me forty days inside your body and your mind, and your life would be very different when you got it back on Easter.

So for Lent, I may give up my life. Then again, maybe I won’t. I may give up something else.

Maybe I’ll give up sex for forty days and forty nights. If I did, I think my balls would be as big as a rat’s by the end of it. So I think sex is something I won’t give up for Lent.

I would give up drugs, but I don’t do them anymore. I’ll give up alcohol. Yes, that sounds like a great idea . . . except that I don’t drink. What about smoking? No, I don’t smoke either.

I could give up driving. Nah, I live in Los Angeles so if I gave up driving I would be stuck!

How about if I give up speaking to my mother for forty days? I could do that, and in fact I think I have done that during certain parts of my life. Yes, I have been a bad son at times.

How about if I give up reading ESPN online? Football is finished, and I really don’t care about any of the sports that are being played between now and Easter anyway. I couldn’t care less about basketball, and baseball is a yawn-fest of 162 boring games.

Let’s see what else I can give up for Lent. I just don’t know. I’m trying really hard to think of something.

I could give up giving advice for forty days and let you guys write the blog. No, I don’t think so.

How about I give up getting aggravated at all the L.A. drivers, and promise to just smile at all of them and give them love? Not sure I can make it for forty days doing that.

Do any of you have suggestions of anything I can give up for Lent? Maybe I should just become Jewish again and go back to celebrating Lend. Then I can just borrow some money, pay it back in forty days and see what happens.

Well, that’s my version of Lent. What’s your version of Lent?

This blog has sounded like an Andy Rooney segment. So this is Andy saying goodbye and happy Lent.

I had an interesting talk with a client this morning and thought i would write it up for you guys.

David: Stop thinking about the future! The future is not right now.

We hear this all the time, but let me tell all of you this right now: if I could predict the future, you would not be sitting here with me right now. If I could predict the future, do you think I’d be spending this time coaching you guys?

I’d probably take my girlfriend and my dog with me and we’d go surfing on my own private little island. I heard Marlon Brando’s island is going to be up for sale eventually – maybe I’d buy that.

If I could predict the future, I would predict the winning numbers in the lottery. I would tell you the Steelers would win the Super Bowl and I would have put all of my money on it. I would tell you which stocks would rise during Obama’s presidency. If I could predict the future, there are so many different things I would do. But I can’t!

The only thing in life that we have the power to do is to remain present. That is it. We have no other powers.

So if there is a woman that you really want to get to know and you’re thinking about how to somehow swing her in your direction, you’re not really being present. You’re just thinking about how to get her to come to you, instead of really just having a great time. If you’re having a really great time and she starts to see you that way, you’re going to create attraction.

If you’re really enjoying the company of her friends, she’ll start to see you in that way. That’s how women look at things. But instead, you’re just thinking about the future. You’re not even thinking about that day. You could all be just hanging out at a bar on a Saturday night, but you’re not really there. You’re only thinking about how you can manipulate the situation and change the future.

The fact is that the future is not now – the present is now. Stay focused and stay present to what is going on in the moment. It takes a lot of work to truly stay focused in the present.

Client: Is there something that you can do to really work on that? I feel like I can’t really control it on my own.

David: You’re doing it right now – you’re listening to me. You’re listening intently to every word that comes out of my mouth. For the last few minutes, you listened to every word I said, and then you asked a question based on what you heard. And you did it with authority and conviction in your voice. You weren’t nervous, and you did it from your heart. I could see that it came from your heart, and I could see who you are as a person.

So that’s how you do it. You just listen. If you’re outcome-derived, or you expect something from somebody, then it’s not going to happen. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Don’t expect anything from anybody. If you do, you’ll set yourself up to be disappointed. Why should you be disappointed? Life is an amazing ride. Enjoy it. Enjoy the entire process.