Ask, Seek, Knock, But Most Importantly, Open The Door

One of my favorite scriptures is, “So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9.  So why is it, when the door is opened to us, we are so afraid to step through it?

Always continue to grow.  It is possible to achieve what you wish, if you take the time to learn who you are, and are willing to be who you were meant to be.

  – Embellished Minds

Babies are all about growth.  It is almost like you can see them growing in what they are learning, and in the growth of their young bodies.  When we are babies, somewhere around the time we start rolling around and trying to crawl we get to go into a walker.  The walker opens up a whole new world for us.  I remember with my first born that once he got into the walker, there wasn’t a plant in my moms living room that had any leaves left within his reach.  The walker opened a door of growth for him and he took advantage of it.  Nothing was safe from those tiny hands.

It is impossible to live without failing at something.  Unless you live so cautiously that you  might as well not have lived at all.  In which case you fail by default.

  – J.K. Rowling

As older kids, we have things that we wanted really, really bad.  Maybe it was our first bike.  We got it, with training wheels and start learning to ride the bike.  Then we begged to have the training wheels off.  We accepted that as part of learning to ride the bike we would fall.  Finally it happens and after a few crash and burns, we are riding down the street.  A whole new world of freedom opens up for us.  Now we can ride our bikes to our friends house, or to the movies, or the grocery store.  Distance was no longer a problem.

Whatever makes you uncomfortable is your biggest opportunity for growth.

  – Bryant Gill

At some point in our growing up, we stop thinking that those open doors are a good thing.  We start becoming afraid of them.  Start becoming afraid of growth.  We start to worry about failing.  We realize that once we step through that door, we are closing the door to our past behind us. The future is uncertain and scary. There are no guarantees that walking through the door is going to turn out the way we expect. In fact, in most cases it won’t be what we expect. But each door that we step through is the opportunity to create something new and wonderful in our life. 

Close some doors, not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.

  –  Paulo Coelho

It reminds me of the Garth Brooks song, “Thank God for unanswered prayers.” What we think we want in our lives, is often a small, safe vision. What the divine has planned for us, is a much larger vision. The difference between the two happening, is our personal growth. Each new beginning requires us to walk away from an ending.

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

  –  Joseph Campbell

This door is something that is only open to you, that only you can see. So when you shut the door to your past behind you, others around you, who love and care about you, may panic. You can try and explain it to them, and they still might not understand. Because you are seeing this door through the eyes of faith. Through the heartfelt vision and intuition, that is saying to you, yes – step through this door. Take the leap of faith. You will have the wings to carry you across the great divide. 

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

  –  Walt Disney

It is so scary to walk through the door, because you know in your heart of hearts, that your vision is being reflected at the end of a long tunnel. You aren’t sure what is between you and the end of the tunnel. You don’t know how this will change your life, but you know it will change. You are afraid of what will need to be released, in order to grab onto this opportunity. 

Sometimes, divine revelation simply means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows.

  –  Dan Brown, Angels and Demons

One of my favorite Alice in Wonderland quotes, “I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.” This is what happens every time we step through a new door. Some things get too small, and some things get too big. Anything that no longer fits, is left behind.  A very little key can open a heavy door. 

There are things known, and things unknown, and in between are the doors.

  –  Jim Morrison

We have so many more open doors in front of us, we just don’t see them.  We can’t perceive them, because most of the time we won’t move unless circumstances force us to do so.  How many times have you thought I should leave this job, or this relationship?  We are unhappy.  We don’t see things getting better, instead they are going downhill fast.  Yet day after day, week after week, month after month, we are still there. 

If the doors of perception were cleaned, everything would appear to man as it is, INFINITE. 

  –  William Blake

Then one day it happens, and our employer lays us off or our partner says goodbye and leaves.  And we are broken hearted, even though it is something that was making us unhappy.  It’s because our doors of perception are dirty, and we can’t see through the dirt, to the wonder and beauty on the other side of that door.  We literally wait until the pain becomes so great, that it forces us to change.

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

  J.K. Rowling

Every adventure requires the first step,…. and remember, all adventurers are thought to be mad! According to Alice, all the best people are.  If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?  Start walking down the hallway.  You will see door after door after door of possibilities.  The key is in your hand.  The door is right there. 

The door is wide and open, don’t go back to sleep.

  –   Rumi

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Great Dreamers Change The World

Dreamers make wishes when they blow out the birthday candles with complete confidence they will come true. They blow on the dandelions seeds and spread their wishes all over the world. They wish on the first star they see each night. The secret that they know is — we are all just dreamers in an endless universe.  They know that each dandelion seed that lands, plants a new dream for our future.  They are the new realities waiting to be born, to step out on life’s stage and say, “Hey, look at me!”.  Pay attention, this is important.

Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than familiar ground.

  – Judith Thurman

These dreamers, dream with eyes wide open, and say, “Why not?”  It is about getting creative and caring more about doing it better in some way than doing it perfectly.  Perfection creates limitations and silences the creativity.  It squishes the dream into a tight container and makes it smaller.  More narrow.  More limited in possibilities. 

The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.

  – Sarah Ban Breathnach

Doers take the dreamers up a notch. They believe in the magic, but they also know that it takes a little bit of elbow grease to make the machines run. They know that to take the dream into reality we must put it in writing. We must plant the seeds, water and fertilize them, weed when needed, and watch in amazement as the miracle of growth happens. Doers know that the energy goes when the attention flows, so rather than giving their energy to their fears, they focus their energy on their dreams. They know that action needs to follow the dream.

A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on it’s own wings.  Always believe in yourself.

  – unknown

The reason I love this quote is that the basic foundation of your life, needs to be deep within in.  Not in a spouse, a parent, a friend, a job.  Not in being identified in someone or something else.  This frees you to be the dreamer who is also a doer and thinker.  Because you know it will not be any one thing that brings that dream into reality.  It will be a combination of many small things, some things you will even think didn’t work – but the magic is that all of it is necessary for the birth and education of a dream.

The authentic self is the soul made visible.

  – Sarah Ban Breathnach

When we are totally immersed within the dream, we allow our true self to peak through the barriers.  It is where the courage to be curious comes from, deep within the soul.  The soul or your authentic self knows and believes in your true potential.  Thinkers know that they can put the dream on steroids because they realize the power of thought and attitude. It is like strapping a rocket onto the doers goals, when the doer has the right thinking to get the dream off the doers paper and into reality. The trick is the right amount of thinking in combination with action.

If you want to be successful in this world, you have to follow your passion, not a paycheck.

  – Jen Wleter

Creative thinking outside the box produces inspiring ideas that can change the world.  Creative thinking doesn’t see mistakes.  It sees disconnections.  It knows that if you just keep tinkering with what you are doing, that the connections will come together.  They aren’t afraid of taking risks, of making changes.  To them change is synonymous with opportunity.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

  – Plato

When we go deep inside ourselves and draw up the dream, enhance it by stripping away all of the negativity about the dream that we have, we become free thinkers who can see without prejudice what the destiny of the dream is. We talk with our souls and see possibilities for the dream everywhere we look. This helps the doer to pick the best door to open to the best opportunities.  We walk away from the fear of never getting what our dreams are reflecting back to us.

That brings us to possibilities.

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.

  –Thomas Edison

What we come to realize is that every dream takes us up another level.  And each level has new challenges and opportunities for growth.  Each level demands we live outside the comfort zone of the previous level.  Each level is a new passion, which burns away a new fear and exposes a new dream.  The journey never ends.  The possibilities just keep multiplying.  If you are going to leave the world better than you found it, you need to climb each new staircase, ascending new summits.  Be so passionate that you ignite the fire in everyone you meet, to rise up and bring the dream into reality.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

  –Thomas Edison

I think that this quote is certainly made by someone who knows it to be absolutely true. If he had not continued his work, then his numerous inventions, most famous being the light bulb would not have been invented. He founded General Electric, had a motion picture and record company in addition to others. All because failure to him was just more information to think about. A part of the process, and not something to be avoided. 

In order to save myself I must destroy the me I was told to be.

  – The Dreamer

Inside each of us is the space where we know. We know, that we know, that we know, that anything that comes into our heart and soul for us to do, is for us to do. And most important, that it is completely possible for us to do whatever is in our heart.  I love the quote by Audrey Hepburn “I M Possible” instead of impossible.

So greet your dream with open arms, know that the doer and the thinker will show you the endless possibilities for you to bring that dream into reality – then go do it.

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Thank You For Your Support!!!

Our pinned post about transformation has reached a new milestone.  We now have touched the lives of 2,003,310 people with this one post.  Of that post 1,069,443 are organic, meaning that you, our wonderful community have shared it over 33,000 times,and tagged people, and that the universe itself has directed people to this post.  Between the shared posts and our page itself, we have over 116,288 likes and loves; in addition we have over 3, 278 comments (not including comment strings with some having 100’s of comments).

I am blown away by how much this community tries to reach out to those who are in a dark place, to give them hope to carry on.  You have shared how much this one post has meant to you, and I am overwhelmed to have touched your lives in some small way. You encourage me to continue to devote myself to write what gives my own life meaning, and to hope that what I share helps you to continue with what gives your life meaning.  “Life is about creating and living experiences that are worth sharing”  Steve Jobs.

This post is to thank you, the almost 43,000 that have followed my page.  When I started this page, I had no idea what I was doing.  I just knew that this was one of the directions, that my life purpose was pointing me in.  In July 2015 I started writing my own posts, creating the photos with quotes.  At the time I had about 500 followers.  I had a dream of creating a reality T.V. show and when I saw the vision of what my life purpose was asking me to do, the only way I could go forward was to create a bridge from where I was to where I saw that I needed to go.  This Facebook page is part of that bridge.

I knew that in order to get to that T.V. show I needed to show the T.V. world that there was this vast audience out there that would support the kind of show I wanted to produce.  LemonadeMakers was created to ultimately provide community support, education, training, and media awareness for nonprofits in local communities so that they could be successful in helping to make our world a better place.  I wanted to do a “makeover” with local nonprofits to help fill in the gaps, bring awareness to their mission, and support them in bringing their mission into reality.  The fact that 70% of the nonprofits that get created each year are gone within 3-5 years is unacceptable.  This Facebook page, is part of that process.  It has created both intended, and unintended changes in my own personal life.  I hope that it has been the same for all of you.

“In life, friendships change, divorces happen, people move on, others die.  Money and jobs will come and go.  Live long enough and your health and body will change.  It goes with the territory of being human.  The fact that you are still here gives you an advantage.  DON’T LOOK BACK.  Look straight ahead!  Decide to use all of your knowledge, skills, experiences, and your life lessons from your mistakes, defeats, and setbacks, to start over again.  Life changes.   You may not have the same life as before, but you can still enjoy your life!”  Les Brown.

Change and transformation is so vital in our lives.  My destiny map keeps changing, as I become more and more aware of what is needed as the next step in my own personal transformation, and in the transformation of what LemonadeMakers can mean to our community.  I thank you for walking this process with me.  I feel your presence in my life everyday.  In a few months, our first in a series of LemonadeMaker books will be published.  It is now in the hands of the editors.

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So thank you for this milestone of helping us to reach over 2 Million views of one of our posts!  Without you I would not have been able to touch the over 2 Million individual souls with my message, with just this one post.  Thank you for helping me be a part of something that I know in my heart and soul will help to change me, change you, and change our world.  Thank you for letting me be a part of something so big, I can’t see the end of it.

 I encourage you to check out our LemonadeMakers Club.  It is being designed with helping each of us to dig deeper into hearing our own inner guidance.  To learn to understand the directions of the divine through our souls voice.  To better understand not only how to access it, but to see what in our lives is undergoing transformation and learn to work with it, instead of against it.  We have a special for the first month of $1.00, so that you try it out.  I look forward to hearing your questions, your suggestions and your contributions.  Click on the tab LemonadeMakers Club at the top of the page, read more about it, and take the next step in transforming your life. 

Passion, Purpose, Fate, Dreams, Genius, All Collide To Create Destiny

I was having a conversation this morning, about the art piece I posted.  The artist made amazing pieces of art out of thrown away metal, gears, assorted bars, and pipes.  When he talked about his art it came from a place deep within his heart.  He was deep within his gift.  His soul just poured out of him.  He lays it down at your feet waiting for your reaction.  And because it was all about the gift.  It had nothing to do with ego.  It wasn’t about his being invested in what you thought about his art.  He does it, because he can’t not do it.  Being that connected to your gift is your purpose, and when you are in that space, destiny collides with you. 

Ego says, Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.  Spirit says, Find your peace, and then everything falls into place.  

 –  Marianne Williamson

There is a moment when you are walking in your purpose, where the fears and dreams collide together. 

Decisions determine destiny.  

  – Thomas S. Monson

You can follow the dream where it leads you, or you can bury it down in shadow, where it will become unbalanced.  This imbalance create patterns in your life that won’t be beneficial to you.  Have you ever felt like you had your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time?  That is shadow patterns in your life at work.  Have you ever experienced self sabotage?  A time when you know that the words coming out of your mouth are like someone else is in control?  You watch as before your eyes, you destroy something you love and you can’t help yourself?  That is shadow patterns in your life.  They come from fear.  From fear wanting to protect you, even as it is destroying you.

Fear cannot isolate you, if you allow love to surround you. 

  – Sarah Jakes 

When you are balanced in your life with your gift, you bring it out of the shadow.  It is about being real as to who you are.  No masks.  No living from the opinions of others.  You share your true self, and by doing so you touch the lives of others.  We are all one creation based in love.  It is only egos and fears that separate us.  Those egos and fears create beliefs to further the separation.  Live from the space of love.  The space of being true and real is where it all starts.  You character helps to shape your destiny into the reality you are reaching for.

It is when you realize that, like the artist above, you don’t have a choice but to live within the gift.  It has a hold on you.  Sleep, food, riches, fame – nothing matters except releasing that gift into the world.  When I am in that space, my writing just flows out.  Hours go by and nothing else matters.  I reveal the elusive words, analogies, stories.  Everything flow down into the characters on the blank page.  My soul pours out and I can’t stop it.  And then comes the moment, when the gift has used me all up.  I come around to being hungry.  I notice I am cramped from sitting in my chair too long.  Once again awareness of the world around me seeps into my consciousness. 

A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, not chasing after the dreams of others… In spite of your fear, do what you have to do. 

  –  Chin-Ning Chu

This dream that leads you to your destiny is that one that keeps coming back.  No matter how many times you push it away, it returns.  The successes, failures, the ups and downs of life don’t shape your destiny.  Your destiny shapes you by swinging back into your life, situation after situation.  It serves your life, unless you push it down into shadow.  Then it wrecks havoc in your life.  No matter what, like a pendulum, it keeps swinging back into your life. 

Even if your life hasn’t turned out the way you expected and you find yourself in an unexpected place, decide to make the most of where you are, because there is always a spiritual reason that your destiny has led you to this destination.

  – Unknown

It is a constant collision that creates both order and chaos in our life, all depending on how we shape the way it swings.  Order and chaos both have good purposes in our life.  They are like the monster waves we are riding in the ocean.  We can ride it for miles, exhilarated by the fears we are facing.  It dances with us in the sunlight, unfolding past the fears.  If we push it away it can drag us down into the depths of the dark water, spitting us back on the shore, exhausted and battered.

Your mission your purpose and your destiny will all be tied to one thing – your gift.

  – Steve Harvey

My passion is to help everyone who reads my words to realize something wonderful about themselves.  To glimpse their own dreams.  To follow them wherever they lead.  To not let the loose shale cause them to stumble.  To not cut themselves on the sharp edges.  To not fall into the pits of others opinions of what you can or can’t do.  Rather to leap or crawl over the boulders of confusion.  To realize that the only person who can truly stop you is you.  To not let anything put you in the space of giving up.  

Every time you rise up, your dream becomes stronger and your destiny flourishes.  Use everything as part of the creation process, just like that artist.  Realize that everything that comes into your life, can be used to further bring your dreams and destiny into reality.  Just like that artist, every piece of metal, heated by the fire in your forge, can be bent and hammered to serve a purpose.

The universe conspires to reveal the truth and to make your path easy if you have the courage to follow the signs.

   -Lisa Unger

Signs of a Good  Life – adventure forth to learn all that you can.  Remember the joy is in the journey, not the destination.  Unleash your purpose to use everything that you experience in life, to grow into who you need to be to fulfill this destiny.  Learn from nature, everything changes from day to day, season to season.  Change is to be welcomed with all honor and dignity.  The challenge from all this change is to guide it into growing, and shifting you in a way that serves you.  The true essence of a life well lived, is to care for and befriend all you meet on your journey.  Who you travel with could be the only way to reach your destination.  Dare to care.  Open your heart and let others in.  See the beauty of life in giving away everything, knowing that by serving others, we serve our destiny. 

Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.

  – Brene Brown

So if you are scared.  If you are lost.  If you are unprepared.  If you are falling apart.  If you think that you can’t survive, and all hope is truly lost beyond recovery.  Take heart.  Rise Up!  Rejoice!  We have all been there.  We have all done that.  And still, here we are, walking onwards to fulfill the life purpose the Divine anchored in our hearts and souls.  People come into our lives for a reason.  Sometimes they need a hand, sometimes they give us a hand.  When our worlds collide, let us take each others hand.  Walk we me until your courage is restored.  Light your candle with my flame.  Every passion has its destiny, and for this moment in time, our destiny has linked hands.  When you are ready, let go and fly away with your wings of destiny into the light.

Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.

  – Anthony Robbins

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If It Terrifies You, That Is The Place Where Your Potential Is Waiting To Be Released

 

I had a great conversation today with one of my mentors.  It was really interesting because 90% of the conversation was around potential, and what this year was opening up for me.  What made it so interesting is that I had already written about most of what they were bringing up.  I had written it with myself in mind, as that is what my writing this blog is all about.  Writing what is showing up for me supports me in multiple ways.  I love sharing it with you, in the hope that I can support you in your growth.  It isn’t that you don’t already know everything I write.  It is just that we all need reminders of how important it is to keep growing in our life.  In turn you inspire me back with your likes, hearts, comments, and sharing of what I write.

What I realized during the conversation, is that I had this containment field around what I thought my potential was.  It was an unconscious fence based on how I have been changing and transforming my life.  Based on what I think LemonadeMakers is growing me into.  I didn’t realize that I had put a ceiling on my potential.  I had unconsciously concentrated on my writing gift, as all I had to offer to my community.  A person can grow only as much as their horizon allows.  

Only when we put our perceived potential to the test, can we learn to look, know where to look, and position ourselves to realize our true potential. 

  – Unknown

In the discussion with my mentor, we talked about music.  My writing, especially my poetry has music enveloped within it.  When I write I hear music.  I have always maintained that I can’t sing.  That I am tone deaf.  I guess it came from around 4th grade, when I had a choir class.  The only time I ever took choir was for just that few months.  I remember this moment when the teacher made each of us sing by ourselves to try and find the person who was out of tune.  I was terrified it was me.  I mean really scared.  I was standing there shaking, waiting to be humiliated.  She didn’t find the person she was looking for, but after that experience I refused to take choir again.  My mentors feel strongly that I have some hidden talents around music, so something new to explore this year. 

If it’s both terrifying and amazing then you should definitely pursue it.

  – Erada

As I have said in other posts, we moved around a lot when I was a child.  I don’t think that I finished one whole year at a school until high school.  So at one point, I remember music lessons in an elementary school.  I wanted to learn piano, but my parents couldn’t afford to rent one.  The school had a violin, so that was what I got to learn to play.  I remember practicing, and of course I sounded horrible.  My parents complained about the noise.  When we moved, the violin went back to the school.  I never took music lessons again.  So when they said that I probably had some talent with music and singing, I remembered my childhood experiences.  They were not favorable.  So what do you do when someone tells you, you have a hidden talent waiting to be discovered, lying in a place that you abandoned in failure?

It is good to look at, to examine the stories we have created around things in our life.  While stories help us to make sense of our experiences, they are inherently not true.  Most of them are made up by us.  They serve a purpose to try and make sense of our lives.  But if we live our life as though they are true, we are doing ourselves a disservice.  We will walk away from gifts and talents.  We will assume the story is right.  We will assume that we can’t do or be what we thought we could.  We walk away from our full potential.

Inherent in being proactive and trying new things, and not waiting to be told what to do, is the fact that you’re going to fail, you’re going to make mistakes, and you’re probably going to piss people off.  And it you’re not pissing people off, if you don’t have haters, if you’re not putting yourself in a situation that has some risks associated with it, you’re probably not going to realize your full potential.

  –  Gina Bianchini

Overcoming self-limiting beliefs and self-imposed limitations is often the biggest obstacle standing between you and the realization of your full potential.  One way to see where our potential might be expanded is to make a list of your gifts and talents.  Be sure to list the things that others say you are good at, but which you discount as being “no big deal”.  Then look at each one, and see where the passion is on a scale of 1 – 10.  Then taking the three highest ranking talents, ask yourself how in love with it you are.  The one talent that you are passionate about, and also in love with – that is the one that has more potential just waiting for you to explore and expand.

In keeping with the discussion, I am meditating on what to do with this new challenge around music?  Singing lessons?  Take up piano lessons?  Learn to play the American Indian drum I purchased years ago, but just play around with?  I was just gifted with an Ukulele and it appears to be really easy to learn – at least that was what they told me when they gave it to me.  I challenge you to take up some childhood dream that you had, that you felt like you failed at.  What existing gift or talent can you try to unleash and find your own unlimited potential? 

What can you pursue that is both terrifying, and amazing?  What can you pursue that you will fail at trying, but know in your heart that you are supposed to be doing?  You become a master at something when you have practiced the 10,000 hours.  it is scary to think of how much potential is lost by those who don’t have the courage to unleash it. The edge of potential is where you are meeting difficulties in your life. 

Change is inevitable, but transformation is by conscious choice.

  –  Heather Ash Amara

 

YOU ARE ALLOWED

• You are allowed to have confidence in crazy ideas (they are the best kind)
• You are allowed to sign your own permission slip (go on a field trip)
• You are allowed to stop researching and start experimenting (you know enough and most of what you need to learn you learn by doing)
• You are allowed to try things before you fully understand them (go ahead and take it apart and put it back together a new way)
• You are allowed to define your own success (hint . . . it happens when passion is born and takes you to new heights)
• You are allowed to start many things and not finish most of them (the no guilt zone)
• You are allowed to figure out how to do the work without doing the part you don’t like (there are people out there who like cleaning toilets . . . really!)
• You are allowed to push comfort boundaries (don’t let yourself die why you are still living . . .  comfort zones suck all of the oxygen out of the room)

• You are allowed to FAIL. A LOT. (In fact, it is required)

• You are allowed to push yourself harder than you ever had before (you might decide that you like the rush of the edge of potential)
• You are allowed to invest a new way to do it (vision is seeing potential in what others overlook)
• You are allowed to make work feel like play (love what you do and you will never work a day in your life)
• You are allowed to love what you do and the way you do it (it is what you were created to do, so do it!)

• YOU ARE ALLOWED

Do not dilute the truth of your potential.  We often convince ourselves that we cannot change, that we cannot overcome the circumstances of our lives.  That is simply not true.  You have been blessed with immeasurable power to make positive changes in your life.  But you can’t just wish it, you can’t just hope it, you can’t just want it…, you  have to live it, be it, do it.

  – Steve Maraboli

You have within you, right now, everything you could ever need or want to be a great success in every area of your life.  Whether you’re aware of it or not, you have deep reserves of potential and ability.  If you properly harness and channel it, it will enable you to accomplish extraordinary things in your life.

It’s about personal development.  It’s about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit.  It’s about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else’s idea of who you are, and what you’re capable of, that you no longer believe in limits.  It’s about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close.  It’s about being able to say with the last breath of your life, “I used all my potential and all  my talents and pushed myself to the limit.  I could not have fought any harder”..

  – Charlotte Eriksson

Potential is in fact, limitless.  It is unlocked by gratitude. In order to really experience what life has waiting for us, we need to break out of living close to the potential.  We need to release the fears and unleash our creative potential.  We need to pursue the things we dream about doing.  We need to pursue the things that are pure and real to us, authentic to who we are becoming.

I love piano music.  I can sit and listen to it for hours.  I wanted to play as a child.  I was given a free piano a couple of years ago.  It sits in my living room as a place to put family photos.  It just gathers dust because:  I took it thinking that my grandkids who were living with me at the time could learn to play, not for me to learn it myself.  It needs tuning.  I really don’t have the time to take lessons.  I probably can’t learn to read music, or understand how to get the timing of a piece of music.  I could go on and on listing the reasons (excuses) why I haven’t even tried to learn to play even though it is sitting there looking back at me every single day. 

I am going to listen to divine direction, and see what unfolds around music and/or singing in my life.  I am going to see where inspiration is lying hidden, waiting for me to dig down to it.  To uncover that vein of gold.  I am going to see where the music in my soul is waiting for me to have the courage to pursue it and express it.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.  Don’t make money your goal.  Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. 

   – Maya Angelou

So here we go.  I am committing to unleashing my potential around music.  What will you commit to?  Your inner potential cannot develop without your willingness to commit.  Please comment below and say it out loud to be witnessed.  When you say it out loud, it is the first step to overcoming your current limits.  Go do what you were created to do. 

Use your special key.  Unlock that potential 

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“True North” Is Calling Me Home

 

Knowing my True North gives me courage to focus my energy where I believe it should be, not according to what is popular or pleasing to others – Jennifer Cummings

There are times when you feel drawn by something that you can’t quite name. It’s a whisper in your ears, a tug in your heart. You feel it pulling you towards “true north” or home. You may not understand it, but you know that you have to go there. When you are searching for your place in this life, you are looking for your soul’s home.

Your interior compass may seem to be spinning in all directions. You no longer have an interest in looking backwards. You just don’t know what direction to take.

Coincidence doesn’t exist and goosebumps never lie.  Your body already knows the answer.  All you have to do is turn down your spinning mind and continue to follow all signs.  Because you are always worthy of becoming your best and most actualized self – Victoria Erickson

When you are at one of life’s transitions and trying to re-imagine a new life for yourself – that is when you need others. You can help each other to find the way to your own souls’ home.

You don’t throw limited beliefs into each other’s faces.  You help to end the wobble in each other’s compass, so you can each find your own true north.  These kinds of friends celebrate you living your own truth, your divine destiny.  Sharing a path with such a person is a sacred gift.

The path to home is found in only in the direction of the winds of change.  The storms of life are by design to help you change.  They don’t happen to you; they happen for you.  Recognize change when it comes upon you, learn what it has to teach you, and always keep your compass on your own True North.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction – Douglas MacArthur

How much you go through in these storms is determined by the attitude you have, by the actions you take, and how well you are listening and paying attention to what is happening.  I think that the meaning you give to things has a large part to play in how you advance.

Are you retreating or advancing in a new direction?  One view indicates failure, and one view indicates resilience.

The more clarity you take in, the less damage the storm brings with it, as you go through it.

It is always your choice of having a breakdown or a breakthrough.

You don’t have to get lost drifting in the “good old days” feeling sorry for yourself.  You don’t try to avoid the truths that the storm reveals to you by using drugs or alcohol or sex to escape it.  You cannot become who you wish to be, if you don’t push forward and leave the past behind you.

When you focus too much on your past, you give away your power in the present and the future.

Goals are my north star.  My compass.  The map that guides me along the road I wish to travel.  Goals are motivations with wind in their sails, they carry me forward despite the storms – Richelle Goodrich

LemonadeMakers don’t wait for the world to change into a better place.  They change themselves, guided by their journey to their own True North.

LemonadeMakers are driven by the passion they have in life, to do and be extraordinary.  As each individual, upon each individual changes, the world changes with them.  It may not happen overnight, and it may not happen as fast as you want it to happen.  But it will happen.

LemonadeMakers are all just walking each other home. Home is not where you were born.  It is not your current place of residence.

It is a place that you find deep within yourself.  It is that space in your heart, where your soul resides.  It is the place where you discover your true self.

And if the sun is too hot, or the rain is a down pouring torrent, or the snow becomes a blizzard, then we can be each a shelter for each other, until the path home becomes clear again.

Knowing my true north gives me the courage to focus my energy where I believe it should be, not according to what is popular or pleasing to others – Jennifer Cummings

Change Yourself, Change The World

“Your soul is a compass.  Change one coordinate in your spiritual compass and you change your entire life’s direction”– Caroline Myss

You are here to discover what your work in this world is to be, and once you’ve found it, to pursue it with passion.

Every night in your dreams, your imagination and creativity go to work to find what answers you are looking for. You need to ask yourself some powerful questions to put that time to good use.  I highly recommend a dream journal.

Every night take just a few moments to center.  Review your day.  Now ask your soul for the perfect question to dream about.  Then write that question down in your journal.  Go to sleep with that question in your thoughts.  Record any dreams that you can remember upon awakening.

If you make this a practice every night, you will start dreaming the answers.  It might take a little while for your subconscious to get what you are doing.  But if you are consistent, answers will start happening.

It is up to you when you wake up, to bring those dreams into reality. Following your passions is critical, because it is the key to unlocking the hidden door to your purpose. 

“With one kind gesture you can change a life.  One person at a time, you can change the world.  One day at a time, we can change everything”  –  Dr. Steve Maraboli

Be passionate about seeking for the truth, instead of assuming you already know it. Everything you know about life is constantly changing. If you become dogmatic about a definition or interpretation of what your life is about, you will get stuck in a falsehood.

Think of all of the inventions that are commonplace around you, that were considered at one time to be impossible. Men walking on the moon, spaceships, submarines, airplanes, cell phones, computers, etc… 

Blaze your own trail with the understanding that if you come to a dead end; a road closed sign; if you see that the bridge is out; or a mudslide or avalanche has blocked your passage, it isn’t because you chose the wrong way.  You didn’t fail, and you don’t have to just stop right there and refuse to move.  You don’t whine and moan about how unfair life is, and how you should just give up. 

“When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart; no deluge can dampen your purpose  You know that you are alive”  – Chief Seattle

There is a purpose and meaning in everything that you do. Along that road to your destiny, you gathered up items that you will need for your continued journey.  You may not yet recognize why they are required. What seems like the “end of the road”, is just a sign for you to continue your journey blazing your own path.  

Recognize that it has always been a small group of thoughtful people that change the world. 

Think of Florence Nightingale; Martin Luther King Jr; Mother Teresa; Gandhi; Malala; Jane Goodall; Nelson Mandela and so on.  All people who impacted the world not by an invention or making it rich, but by how they lived their lives to a passionate calling.  I call these world changers, LemonadeMakers.

Your profession or calling is what you’re put here on earth to do. So do it with such passion and intensity that it becomes spiritual in its calling. This is how you find the “great work” that Steve Jobs spoke about. The only way to do great work, is to love what you do.

Don’t settle by believing in the naysayers that say it can’t be done.  Some of you reading this right now are meant to change the world.  To spark the brains of others to help you do so.  Some of you reading this right now, are meant to hold everything together for those who do.  Trust your instincts and do the very thing that they say can’t be done.

Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid to not even try.  It is how you find out who you really are.

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way” – Unknown

You have been placed on this earth to discover your own path.  You will never be happy, living someone else’s idea of life. Unless you are a little madly insanely passionate about it, it’s a waste of time, and a waste of your abilities and gifts. Never stop believing that you can do what the divine put you here to do.

Risk comes from the uncertainty of not knowing what you are doing, but at the same time knowing that you have to try anyway. Take risks, because that kind of action is what changes the world. The people who didn’t know it couldn’t be done are the people who do it. Then everyone does it.

It all starts with one voice calling out of the wilderness.  Small acts performed by many people, can change the world.

“The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself freedom to do it later”  – Unknown

And most of all choose to listen to that inner voice, and not the random opinions of others. That whisper from the heart that tells you that you are not to be one of the mediocre things in life. That whispering voice that says to chase curiosity. Chase your passion.

Live a life worth living. A life that says, “I am a certified, bona fide, being of light, capable of transcending all fears and manifesting all dreams.” (words in quotes adapted from Notes From the Universe).  Talk with people who will make you see the world differently.  People from different lifestyles and cultures.  People from all kinds of backgrounds. 

It helps you to understand yourself from a different perspective.  It grows and shifts you into a better human being.  It helps you to uncover what kind of difference you want to make in the world.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”  –  Steve Jobs

Or as Spock always said, “Live long and prosper” – so go out and change the world!

I Can Because I Am Limitless. I Am Because I Know No Boundaries

Have you ever had a healing crisis? A healing crisis isn’t just a health related crisis. It can be healing any part of our life that just isn’t working out the way we know that it should.

Nothing has transformed my life more than listening to what needed to be heard.

  – Jeffrey Shaw 

Years ago, when I was first working in the financial industry I had just received a huge promotion. I was really working hard, and for some reason, the different aspects of the job were just not working out right. I finally had a long talk with my boss, and following her advice I turned things around. I knew that I was perfectly capable of doing the job, but I just couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. I think that at different shifting points in our lives we run up against this road block. We need a different set of eyes to see what needs to be seen. To see what needs to be transformed.

If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks.  I’ve had them; everybody has had them.  But obstacles don’t  have to stop you.  If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.  Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

  – Michael Jordan

Do you know why Michael Jordan was so successful?  This quote gives us a clue.  He didn’t reach a roadblock and say, “oh well, I guess I am not talented enough to do this”; or “oh well, I guess this dream was just too big for me to accomplish”.  No, he practiced until he was able to break it down.   He worked with coaches who were able to help him see what he couldn’t see.

Remember that your greatest talent is so much more powerful than your biggest fear.

  – Unknown

There comes a time when we need to take a calculated risk. If you look at the game of baseball it really speaks to calculated risk. The player who is on first base, will watch the pitcher, the batter, and outfielders to gauge how far off the base he can go without getting caught. If he gauges it correctly, he can steal a base, or even make it to 3rd base with an infield hit from the batter because of getting the head start.

I think sometimes you forget that you were born to be awesome.  (here’s your reminder)

  – Unknown

In our lives, if we risk nothing, we get nothing. In personal transformation, we need to take calculated risks. In our life of personal growth, in order to grow we have to take our foot off the safe “base” we are on. We need to risk opening the chrysalis with the hope that we have finished our transformation, and the wings are ready to fly.

Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.

   – Ronnie Max Oldham

This really is the only way to live your life. Not putting off things until we think it is safe. Really opening our hearts completely in how we care about others. To understand that the reality is that almost anything is possible. Whatever is currently stumping you, just means that you are not asking the right questions, or the right people for help.

Our thoughts are very powerful. When we focus on what we lack, we create blockages and limitations. We become imprisoned by the vibration of our negative energy.

  – Randi G Fine

In other words if we think that we can’t we will be a self fulfilling prophecy.

If you think you can or you think you can’t you are right.

  – Henry Ford

I find myself doing this sometimes. I stress about not having enough time and sure enough, unforeseen stuff starts filling up my life. Then I catch myself, and unlock the door to that cage, freeing myself and all of a sudden, the stuff just starts going away and I have my time back to do what needs to be done.

Remember, the moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.

  – Hal Elrod

So if you find yourself in any sort of “healing crisis” at the moment, just take some time to meditate as to how you just lost yourself in the woods. Transform the path by backing up or regrouping. Get back on the path that you were traveling.

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive.  You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over.  But one thing is certain.  When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.  That’s what the storm’s all about.

  – Haruki Murakami

This is another critical piece of the transformation puzzle, in really getting to know oneself. 

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Believe In Your Potential For Greatness, It Is Your Gift To The World

Do you believe that you are destined for greatness? It took me quite a bit of time to believe that about myself. Compliments have always been hard for me to accept. It always felt like I wasn’t truly worthy. Like you were just being nice to me, but didn’t really mean it.

It is safe to feel like you are an “ok” type of person, but greatness feels like I am being mistaken for someone else. It carries with it the undertone of responsibility, and the potential of being weighed and found wanting. It has the danger of being found to be a fraud, not being as advertised.  That there are those waiting for the mistake so that they can pounce on it and say, “I knew she wasn’t that great.”

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:  The fear of failure.

  – Paulo Coelho

I’ve always accepted the compliment that I was “smart”, because I worked hard for the good grades. Writing about things that I have experienced in my life, and what I have learned about life is really easy. Not that I don’t spend time putting these posts together, because I do. It can take hours sometimes, but it isn’t the “chore” that it is for so many people. It is a gift that just flows. So because of that, it is harder to accept the compliments, because it doesn’t feel like I have earned them with hard work.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

  – Marianne Williamson

At some point in our life, we say “enough” to the doubter voice inside of us. That voice that says we have to make ourselves small so that we are not noticed; that voice that whispers no one else feels or thinks like we do, so don’t voice your opinions or let anyone know how you think or feel (you don’t want to be the outcast).

The fears that we don’t face becomes our limits.

  – Robin Sharma

Then there is the distraction button that gets pulled every time you sit down to figure out your destiny. It convinces you to clean up something – the kitchen floors need to be mopped. To watch that TV show, after all you deserve to sit down and relax, you worked hard all day. The phone rings and it is that friend or relative that talks for hours about nothing. Or you get attacked by the shiny objects that glistens and gleams until you pay attention to it, or as my dog used to say “squirrel!”.

If an egg is broken from the outside, life ends. If an egg is broken from the inside, life begins. Greats things always begin from the inside.

  –  Unknown

How do we begin from the inside to crack that shell of protection that we have built around ourselves?

Instead of being distracted, we can instead begin the conversation with the doubter to bring them in to support us. That is when we are ready to ascend another level in our consciousness. We are ready and because of that, doors appear and begin to open to us. We are ready once again to enter into the chrysalis and transform from our current being into a new one.

This advancement is transforming us from being a crawler towards our dreams and life purpose, into a flier. We are transforming from following a leader, to becoming a leader. We strike out on fulfilling our life purpose through the work that we are doing.

Set a goal so big you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.

  – Unknown

We are beginning the path to greatness, with the spiritual joy of choosing our own adventure. Did you ever read the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid, or to your kids? Each chapter gave you choices as to where you would go next. We become co-creators of our life path, designing the way our divine purpose is fulfilled in the world.

I am not here to change the world.  I am changing the world because I am here.

  – Lisa Wilson

We are free not only to dream of a better life, we are free to “make it so”. Like a phoenix, we die to our old way of living by hiding you we are. We are reborn as we rise from the ashes, a newly made creation that passes through the gates of greatness.

Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self preservation.

  – J.R.R. Tolkien

As we leave the chrysalis, we leave behind all of the old stories. We are vulnerable, because we are opening ourselves up to take new risks – which means we don’t know the answers anymore. This landscape is completely new.

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz we will have adventures. Some of them will be scary. We might end up asleep again in the field of poppies. We might have adversity chasing after us like the flying monkeys. We might discover that the people we thought would have all of the answers don’t. We might even discover the truth, that the one with the answers lives inside of our hearts and has been directing us the entire journey.

We have greatness within us; innovative, giving, determined.  It’s time for the best in us to come out.

  – Unknown

We begin to see our own unrealized potential. Becoming both awake and aware, we learn how to discern the correct paths to take, the best actions to make. We learn to raise our vibrational energy to attract what we need in our lives. We learn the secrets of manifestation. We understand for the first time, the truth of how we can design our own life. That we really do have that kind of power.

It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

  – J.R.R. Tolkien

Magic comes into our lives because we are listening to the voice of the divine. Even before we can voice what we need, the door opens and there is exactly what we just realized we need. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be mesmerized by the voices calling out in fear. It doesn’t mean that we won’t be distracted or derailed again and again. But because we have awakened and become more aware, we recognize them for what they are sooner, and they delay us less and less. We recover faster.

The truth about you is that you are easily capable of greatness.

  – Fabienne Fredrickson

It is time for each of us to recognize our divine gifts. To answer the calling to greatness. To summon the abilities, we each have within us. It is time to rise up and live a life that is on purpose. To live a passionate life. To answer the call, instead of putting it on hold or pressing the mute button. It is time to stretch ourselves. To push the internal boundaries. To leap up and be true to who we really are.

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Strong Women Stand In The Storm And Adjust Their Sails

Let go of what you thought life was all about.  Let go of your expectations of life and people.  Let go of holding on to something so hard that you become brittle, hard, and breakable.  Let go, so that you can move forward.  Be a once in a lifetime kind of woman, build a castle with all of the bricks that others throw at you.  When women are connected and collaborate together, they are the most transformational force on our world.  Probably in our universe.  When you have your whole tribe behind you, you are fearless, because you know that they have your back.

A woman is like a tea bag.  You never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.

  – Eleanor Roosevelt

Have you ever watched someone who isn’t the type of look that is considered beautiful?  Someone who is so confident and centered in who they are, that they radiate something beyond beautiful.  It is like you can’t not look at them.  They are so comfortable being overweight, or too short, or boyish looking – whatever isn’t considered by the masses to be like a model.  Even so they show us the true essence of beauty.

Embracing your true self radiates a natural beauty that cannot be diluted or ignored.  Confident, powerful, untamable, badass you!

  – Dr. Steve Maraboli

Life tests all of us.  We all get some lemons in our life.  Each time we make lemonade from those lemons we rise up.  We become stronger.  And what is so important to remember is that we are ALWAYS strong enough, even when we think we aren’t.  This is what the whole “make lemonade out of lemons” is all about. 

There is a purpose in each lemon that life gives us.  It is to help us reach back to that dream we had when we were a little girl.  To fulfill that promise that you made to yourself that when you grew up, you were going to . . . , whatever that fill in the blank is.  Don’t disappoint that little girl.  Go out there and create the fulfillment of that dream.  There are thousands of other little girls who are looking for inspiration and encouragement, that they too can fulfill their dreams.  Be brave and be that woman!  Be an empowered woman with vision.  Give to yourself the grace to achieve what you set out to do, and self awareness to do it with a soft heart and honest open arms.

Ask for what you want, and be prepared to get it.  

  –  Maya Angelou

It is better to have a heart without words, unable to express what is crying to come out, than to offer words without the hearts emotion contained within them.  Prayer is a longing of the soul to be expressed in a way, that mere words cannot but fail to express.  The heart speaks to the soul, and it listens to what the soul has to say.  This is the birth of inspiration, the breath of life itself.  Hold on to the vision in your heart.  Trust the process, life’s lemons, in order to bring that vision into reality.

We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.

  – Kavita Ramdas

I heard the expression today of “The Moon Shot”.  What it was referencing was the attitude that was displayed when President Kennedy said that we were going to the moon.  No one had any idea how to do it, but he energized the nation to figure out a way to do it.  Give your life a “Moon Shot” experience.  Shoot for something that you have never done, or don’t even think is possible for your to do.  Give it everything you have to bring that moon shot vision into your own reality.  Believe.  Act as if.  Live like you have already accomplished it.

I am not what has happened to me.  I am what I choose to become.

  – Carl Jung

As you move down the path of creating your own Moon Shot experience, forgive yourself whenever what you are trying doesn’t work.  Forgive others when they don’t believe in you, and even when they try to stop you.  Forgive God whenever you hit the frustration button and start blaming him, bemoaning your life experience.  Forgive any situations that create heartache, anger, and bitterness in your life.  Forgive yourself for not being, or doing something different.  Let all of the anger, fear, frustration – all of the negative emotions that you have been carrying around, flow free from your heart and soul.  Stop giving failure a negative meaning.  Realize that when you turn that lemon into lemonade, the experience becomes a powerful blessing to you and others.

There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise.

  – W.E.B. Dubois

Self awareness is an amazing gift that we can give to ourselves.  Take notice of what shows up in your life.  Who and what you are attracting into your life.  There is a map inside of you, that tells you where you are, and where you are going.  But you have to be self aware to read it.  Otherwise, it is like listening to six people talk at once, each one in a foreign language.  You know they are saying something important, but you can’t make head or tails of it.  Self awareness is necessary to move the mountains in our life.  Self awareness is what makes life’s journey a full on mountain climbing experience. 

I know it’s hard to women to tap into that feeling of self-worth.  We need to get the message out that you are valued, your are a goddess and don’t forget that.

  – Jennifer Lopez

Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done.  That you aren’t capable of doing it.  Don’t hide yourself.  Don’t demean yourself.  Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way.  Claw your way up and out, fight for what you believe in, for your dreams and visions.  Choose your battles and don’t give up.  Be the strong, powerful, confident, driven woman that you are.

I believe I’ve always been a big believer in equality.  No one has ever been able to tell me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.

  – Anne Hathaway

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Seize The Opportunities, Make Life Happen For You, Not To You

 It is our attitude about the “opportunities” that can enlighten us, or limit us.  When we approach what we see with an open mind, what we often find is that we make exciting new discoveries.  Sometimes we might feel that we are in a good place.  That the risk of something greater means you leave behind something good enough.  If we are not willing to take the risks, we will fall short of what we are capable of.  Taking risks is how we learn something new.  The woman in this picture is obviously taking a huge risk.  I would venture to guess that she is about to experience a huge growth spurt.

Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

  –  Napoleon Hill

She appears to be in the middle of the ocean, with sharks swimming around her.  No oars or sails for the boat can be seen.  No engine to move the boat and herself out of danger.  No life jacket, no weapons to fight off the sharks.  Just an evening dress and an umbrella. Whatever she started with, whatever her plans were, everything seems to have failed her.  It would appear that she was willing to risk the “usual” for the unusual.  That she was tired of the “ordinary” and went far outside the box of the comfort zone.

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.  Failure is delay, not defeat.  It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.

  –  Denis Waitley

When you look at her though, you don’t see any signs of defeat.  She appears to be looking around her, taking stock of the situation.  She doesn’t appear to have the body language of defeat, but rather someone who is looking for an opportunity to be successful in her journey, to arrive at the destination she left the shore for.  This experience is going to be a great story one day.  This reminds me of a situation for a McGyver T.V. show, the situation appears hopeless, but she doesn’t.

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis”.  One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity.  In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognize the opportunity.

  –  John F Kennedy

What she is, is ready for whatever opportunity presents itself.  You can see her looking around, not at the sharks, but what is further off in the distance.  Sometimes we need to seize the opportunity, no matter what the risk.  Sometimes in getting lost to make your dreams come true, you find a better dream than you started with.  She is on an amazing journey with no one to rely on but herself and her faith that everything will turn out right.  If it is never needed, it won’t be called.  Sometimes the journey has to be travelled alone in order to bring up the strengths that lie deep within us. 

When one door closes another opens.  But often we look so long, so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.

  –  Helen Keller

Looking backwards, blaming others or ourselves does not create the momentum that is needed for change. 

A Wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

  –  Francis Bacon

It is up to her, just like it is up to us, to keep looking forward, for something that can be used to our advantage.  Even though the odds do not appear to be in her favor, it is important that she keep a positive attitude and keep looking for where opportunity is hiding.  It is her forward looking vision that is going to find what she needs to be successful.

Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

  –  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It is when we are in the most challenging times, that we discover what we are made off.  We discover the power within us.  Power that we didn’t know, or dare to believe that we have.  This is the part of us that realizes sometimes failure is just not going to work for us, because what we are facing is way beyond that door.  It is finding that brave person hidden deep inside of us, that person that says, screw this.  That person who kicks the lock off the door, rips it open, and says here I am, so what are you going to do about it? 

There is no such thing as failure, there’s just giving up too soon.

  – Jonas Salk

Opportunity is everywhere.  The ocean constantly changes.  The winds of change both blow and calm the seas.  When we lose sight of our dreams, we just need to wait for the clouds to blow away, and let the moonlight reveal what we have been looking for.  We just need to adjust our vision to see it.  What we can’t see, is what she sees off in the distance.  She is looking forward.  She can see that just beyond her current reach, is a new opportunity to reach her destination.

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Don’t Wait, Do It Now

Hopefully I am not the only one that this happens to.  On my commute to work and back to home, my brain is so busy detailing everything I have to do – both at work and at home.  The minute I step into my office or my home, that list magically hides itself.  I forgot most of what I have to do, being busy doing so many other things.  Then the minute my head hits the pillow, the list reappears as a list of everything that I didn’t get done.  Does anyone else go through this?

Why is taking action so hard?  We have these dreams, passions around our life.  The space between a dream and reality is where all of the action has to take place.  We want whatever the dream is.  We talk about it all of the time.  “Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action.  Take the actions and your feelings will change”  Barbara Baron. 

We tend to put off the hard parts.  The parts where we aren’t sure what to do.  I do it everyday.  Put off the conversation I don’t want to have with a friend, relative or co-worker.  Put off studying for a test because I am afraid of failing it.  Not asking for what I want, because what if they say no?  I am sure that this list could go on forever.  The key is to just take a first step, then one more.  Don’t look at the whole mountain that needs to be climbed, just look at the next few steps.

I always think about physical workouts here.  If you are on a treadmill, and your goal is five miles.  You start to get worn out and out of breath on mile three.  Those next two miles seems like impossible.  Seems like forever.  Seems like Mount Everest.  Seems like you can’t do it.  But here is where a little stubbornness comes in handy.  You just tell yourself five more minutes, and you take the next step and the next step, and before you know it, that fifth mile is done.  Be proud of every next step, not just the one that puts you over the goal.

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  Aristotle.  It is important that these lists are not just a grocery list or a laundry list.  Things that take up time and space, but are not really taking a step.  That is the first step of procrastination.  What I call the shiny object or squirrel.  Have you seen the cartoon, where the dog is doing or saying something, then shouts squirrel and takes off right in the middle of it?  That is a squirrel.  I come into my office to write this blog post.  Then I see some mail that I forgot to take care of yesterday and so I do that.  Then an email comes in, so I read that.  Then I think of something I wanted to research and I do that.  Two hours later, I haven’t written a single word of the post I came in to write.  That is chasing the squirrel.  I didn’t really take a single step toward writing that post, and now my time is gone.

The best that we can do is to promise ourselves to be better and do better.  The best that we can do is to keep trying, putting one foot in front of the other.  To ask ourselves, what is the most important thing I can do right this moment to take that next step, and then just take it.  Don’t wait for permission.  Don’t wait for the perfect moment.  Don’t wait for anything, just take that next step.  We might fall down.  We might get hurt or do what we later judge to be the wrong thing.  It doesn’t in the big picture matter.  What matters is that we took what we saw to be the next step.  The funny thing about life, is that those steps that we judged to be wrong, are usually the steps that give us what we need for a future step.  So that, in the long run, none of the steps were really wrong.

“I promise myself,

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me”

Christian D. Larson