Imagination Embraces All That We Can Be

Do you want to change the world? Have you ever imagined what the world would be like without:

• Hatred?  
• Violence?
• Bullies?
• Prejudice?
• Intolerance?
• Fill in the blank ——-?

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”  – Nelson Mandela

One of my favorite non-profits is “The Unstoppable Foundation”.  Cynthia Kersey started this foundation out a burning desire to make a difference. Over the years that I have been supporting her work we have become friends. They have a sponsor a village model that they use across Africa, which brings not only education, which I believe is primary, but also clean drinking water and sanitation, medical, food and nutrition, and they help educate the parents for empowerment and income training, so they can raise up the entire village.  The plan is that after five years, the villages are self supporting and no longer need any aid.  They already have many children who have graduated and are attending college.  The five year plan is working.

Right now with the global pandemic most of the NGOs in Kenya have left or closed their doors.  The Unstoppable Foundation right now is asking for assistance to help those in need.  The situation is critical because there is no safety net in Kenya.  No stimulus, no CARES Act.  So The Unstoppable Foundation is asking for whatever donations you have in your heart to give.  Help these families in their desperate need.  A little goes a long way.  If you feel called to support a family across the world, click on this link.

What Malala has done so successfully, is that she makes peace heroic. Success comes about not because of what you accomplish for yourself with wisdom, but because of what you inspire others to do. We all love being inspired by a hero. We are all hungry for meaning in our lives. Malala is bringing that meaning to many young girls and women around the world through education with her foundation.

Education is the beginning of the answer.

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”  – Socrates

Education is the beginning of the journey. This is because book knowledge will only get you so far. It starts you down the path – but the path goes much further.  The kindling of the flame is in being curious, in the “wonder” of application of the knowledge.

When you learn something, it starts with the brain, taking it in. Then it is important to download that knowledge down into the heart so that it can be transmuted into wisdom. Wisdom comes from the correct use of that knowledge. Like the American Indian story, we all have two wolves inside of us.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

When you read, learn, and acquire knowledge you are acquiring treasure.  Walking further down this path requires wisdom or application of that knowledge.  It is “the one you feed” that changes you and thereby changes the world.

Cynthia Kersey and Malala both made the choice to feed the one that helps others.  That is their life purpose.  A purpose that comes from the heart.  This wisdom comes from the heart, not the head.

Martin Luther King Jr. stated that we needed to develop a world perspective, instead of a loyalty to some race, tribe or nation. I think that education of girls and young women has really taken this world perspective on, as it is moving from just a few countries around the world, to envelop the whole world. It will take them out of child marriages. It will provide them with both opportunity and choices.

It will not only take these individual women out of poverty, it will lift entire nations our of poverty. It is what will bring the world out of darkness and into the light. It is both hope and peace. Educating the minds, hearts and souls of everyone is what will change the world.

But what about us, as in each of us?  You and me?

“Education is the beginning of transformation.  Dedicate yourself to daily learning via books, audios, seminars and coaching”  – Robin Sharma

Your formal education may have ended years ago, whether it was completing high school, trade school, or college.  But what have you been doing lately to continue your education?  Are you a life long learner, as part of your transformational process?

You may or may not be a book reader.  If you are not a book reader, the use of audio books can make the commute to and from work a more pleasant experience.

I read books every single day in my life.  I love to learn something new.  I love to get that “click” in my brain when something reveals a new meaning to my understanding of life.  I love to find that small change that I can make in my own life from reading the stories of others.  Even my mystery and sci-fi books reveal new ideas that make my imagination take flight.

I love to share with others what I am learning about myself and the world.  I share because this is my passion – to discover new worlds within the one we all live in.  So I ask you to share – what is the book that you read that has most impacted your life?  The book that maybe you have read more than once?  The book that you have recommended to others?

Share your treasure with us.

To Grow, We Must Transform

How can you tell if you still might be in a caterpillar stage of growth? Some questions to think about –

Do I hide my value or discount the gifts that I have for this world?
Am I tightly guarded, afraid?
Do I feel like I am stuck in the mud, unable to move?
Can I see my potential, but don’t know how to unlock it?
Do I feel vulnerable, tossed about with no control?

Strength, Wisdom, Courage, These Are The Bags For Our Journey

When the butterfly has completed its change, the last step is to break through the chrysalis and unfurl its wings. Once they are dry, it is time to fly.  The butterfly must care for itself to both emerge and then complete the process of self transformation.

I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self indulgent.  Caring for myself is an act of survival. 

  – Audre Lorde

There is a story about how if you help the butterfly out of its coverings, it is crippled. This is because it needs to complete its growth through the releasing of its casing. If you enlarge the hole it creates, it deforms the wings. The same is true for us. We can be supported by the sun, to dry ourselves off.  We can be uplifted with the winds.  But we are the ones that must spread out our wings in order to thrive.

Damaged people are dangerous because they know they can survive.

  – LoveFromASelfHammer

Sometimes life’s struggles are to help us realize that we need to grow stronger to complete our journey. Being courageous requires us to be vulnerable. It is a sign of strength when we put ourselves out there. You can’t really experience life, if you live without putting yourself out there to really live life.  It is in fact a gift, this struggle, because all of us have far more strength than we ever dreamed possible.  You must do the thing that you think you cannot do. 

Strength comes from struggle. When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, then your thinking shifts from “I can’t do this” to “I must do this”.

  – Toni Sorenson

Remember Star Wars when Luke is trying to lift his ship and he struggles and gives up.  Then Yoda shows him.  Luke could have done it the first time, but he doubted, he had a lack of faith not in God, but in himself.  You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.  It would not have been placed before you if God didn’t know that you could do it.  It is there so that you can believe it yourself.  To grow your faith, for the next time fear stops you.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

  – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Looking at history, I think this quote best describes  two people who suffered in Nazi Germany.  Anne Frank, who still believed even after the things she experienced, that the world is filled with good people.  We can read her diary, as well as the writings of those who new her.  The other is Viktor Frankl.  His book “Man’s Search For Meaning” should be required reading for everyone. 

We run from grief because loss scares us, yet our hearts reach toward grief because the broken parts want to mend. 

  – Brene Brown

When struggles happen to us we have a choice, they can define us or refine us. For Anne and Viktor they refined them. They both chose to reach toward the grief and pain of what was happening to her, to her family, to her people.  They somehow knew, had that inner wisdom to realize that by reaching out, they was in fact healing themselves.  Those who become defined by their struggles are true victims. They can’t move past the horrible thing that happened. They encase themselves with what happened and choose safety out of fear. They stop growing, becoming deformed inside, until they learn to “let it go”. To break out of the casing and unfurl their wings.

Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.

  – Bob Marley

Life is short.  Break the rules.  Forgive quickly.  Kiss slowly, like in the romantic movies.  Laugh uncontrollably and giggle whenever you can. Never regret anything that brings smile to your eyes as well as your face.  You take a chance of being wounded by living this way, but living any other way is not really experiencing life.

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.

   – Ernest Hemingway

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Be The Drop, The Ripple, That Shifts The World

“No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities” – Joseph Campbell

At conception you were granted a “stone”, a sacred life purpose, that you are to “cast across the waters”.  That stone’s purpose is to create many ripples.  Those ripples begin to change you from the moment of casting that stone.  The ripples created also impact many others.  As you cast that stone you set out on the journey of discovering and living your life purpose.

As you walk that path, it shifts and changes both you and the world in some way.  This is because you are impacted by everyone else’s ripples.  Each ripple touches and changes the other ripples.

For each stone that is cast or not cast, there is a change in the water.  It doesn’t matter if you are someone who is hoarding their stone afraid to cast them, or you are one who grabs the courage and risks casting your own “stone” or life purpose.  There is always an impact.

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion’– Paulo Coelho

You were born with a reluctance to change.  You resist it.  You fear it.  You create stories around every impulse to create change in your life.  Why?  Because you’re human.

You build walls, not to keep other people out, as much as to keep yourself safe within.

As a human you also have this calling to improve your life.  You demonstrate this every January when you create New Year’s Resolutions around the changes you want to make in your life.  Dreams you want to materialize.  Goals that you want to achieve.  You work hard to bring them into reality.

The funny thing is that you keep these competing challenges active in your life.  You don’t want to change, yet you want your dreams to come into reality.  You make it hard work by fighting yourself internally around the changes you earnestly desire to make.  You don’t know what is worse, that you try and fail, or that you try and succeed.

How do the doubts show up?  You are afraid that you will lose your soul along the journey to success.  That you will become too proud; that money will change you into someone you won’t like; that the cost will outweigh the benefits.

You are also just as terrified that you will fail to live your soul’s unique version of success.  You compare your journey with all of those that you know.  You compete, you judge; You are envious, or you pity their fall from grace.  You are full of the dark emotions such as anger, regret, worry, blame, guilt and fear.  You have people in your life that threaten your peace of mind and your self-worth.  Worst of all you have your own judgmental inner self.

“We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced”  –  Malala Yousafazi

You may have been given a powerful life purpose, such as Mother Teresa and Malala.  You may have been given a small vision and life purpose.  No matter how small or powerful your life purpose is, you will come up against obstacles in fulfilling it.

You have made up stories about what has happened in your life since childhood.  Those stories will either weaken or strengthen you, depending on how you have cast yourself.

The choice is always within to cast your stone and live up your full potential or hide from your true potential and play small.  When you play small you will cast blame your parents, your “ex”, your employer, or your best friend who provided the knife that stabbed you in the back.  That way you can create the victimhood that keeps you safely hoarding your “stone” and refusing to allow change to transform you into something powerful beyond measure.  To transform you into who you are meant to be to fulfill your divine purpose.

“Just as one drop of water creates countless ripples, so does one gesture of kindness or love change countless lives”  – Randi G Fine

Water is an ultimate teacher for you.  It changes shape to adapt to its situation.

Steam, fog, a cool refreshing liquid against your skin, a single snowflake, a sheet of ice or a mountain glacier, a hot volcanic pool of water that would be death to enter.

Oceans waters waves kiss the shoreline gently, in a storm it pounds against the rocks wearing them down into small particles that get dragged deep onto the ocean floor.  It carves into the earth deep canyons and flows down those same canyons as a beautiful waterfall.

It both gives and takes life.  It is neither good or evil, light or dark.  It reflects back to you how if you take action with your stone or conversely you have inaction with your stone, still an impact is made on this earth.

In a different way, you can have what they are now terming “Raindrop” moments.  This is the disruption of a certain type of business, by new developments that take over in technology.

Think of things such as physical books in print, newspapers, music in CD/Albums, which have become digital.  Think of live streaming and all of the options you now have in watching movies and T.V. and the loss of business with cable companies and how it is changing the nature of both entertainment and business.

We can see the future disruptions in the movie and TV industries, changing from having human actors to artificial actors.

We see businesses such as Taxi’s being impacted by new businesses such as Uber.

These are all the results of someone who cast their stone across the water and created a ripple that was felt around the world.  They made an impact.

Change happens whether you want it to or not.  What water has to teach us is the ability to adapt, to improvise, and to overcome.  It teaches you to shift your shape and transform.  You have your “stone”, the divine purpose that you are here to achieve.  The method of how you are doing so, is within you.

The ability to change, shift your shape, to transform, is what brings you to success. You must be that change that you wish to see in the world.  If you think that world hunger is wrong, what are you doing to feed someone?  Whatever you have strong beliefs around, what are you individually doing to make that change in your own space in this world?

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks”–  Christopher Hitchens

Be like water and adapt, improvise, overcome, shift your shape (consciousness), transform.

At some point in your journey you will come to a crossroads.  You will have to pick a path (without any ability to know), if it will or will not lead you to your destination.  You have to ask yourself that unanswerable question, Do I go forwards, backwards, left, right, diagonal?

Steve Jobs asked this question to John Sculley when he was vice president at PepsiCo, before Apple was a household name.  “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Do not allow anyone’s definition of who you are, including your own, to define who you are.  Like water, you can transform into what is needed to travel your own unique path in life.

The important thing is to stay curious, keep looking for open doors, keep asking unanswerable questions.  To quiet the mind, and to listen to the soul, which is the source of the unanswerable questions.  To go deep within, to visit and learn from the place our of real existence.  Promise yourself, to not permit fear of failure or fear of greatness keep you frozen in place.

“Believe in yourself and all that you are.  Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle” –  Christian D. Larson

That something is divine guidance, trust in it and don’t stop.

Listen To Your Soul

 

When you can quiet the fluctuations of your mind and drift into stillness and silence, you can finally hear the whispers of your heart.

  –   davidji

Silence isn’t just empty space.  It is the container that holds all of the answers.  But you can’t access it, until you release what you think life should be.  It is only then that you can begin to see what is, and accept it.  When you can process life as it is, only then you can see what it can be.  That is the beginning of the journey of transformation.  Because it is only in this place that you can begin to hear the sound of your soul.   

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

  –   William Penn

It is in the silence you begin to hear your own heart.  It is in the heart that the soul hears the whispers of the divine, Gods answers.  This is where true intelligence is, not in the mind.  By listening to this voice, you see things in a different light, a different space.  This is the space that you hear God’s voice answering those prayers for direction.  That is the space where your soul is at peace with your minds thoughts.

Dare to stand before those you fear and speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.

  –   Maggie Kuhn

This is where what they call “out of the box” thinking occurs.  It is the place where the curiosity starts, where creativity lives, where you can find the right solutions.  It is the place of firm collaboration of the mind, body and soul.  Where the spirit and soul commune to stand in an overwhelming force for doing the right thing, regardless of what anyone else is saying or doing. 

 It’s a shame when the things that are on your mind and in your heart, never reach your lips.

  – Unknown

The worst thing that can happen is for people to be too ashamed, too scared, or feel too unworthy to speak their own truth.  When other people to try crush you because you don’t share the same religion, the same culture, the same language, the same color of skin, or the same sexual orientation the human race is being robbed.  We should welcome all expression.  Risk being seen, not just in all of your glory,  but with all of your imperfections..

The biggest bully most of us will ever face lives within us, located inside our own heads.  The screaming thoughts that we hurl at ourselves about ourselves, we would never allow anyone to say to us.  We worry about what kind of person we would be if we let loose who we really are.  That we are too much, too emotional, too loving, too sensitive.  That we are a bad person; that everyone would judge us as not enough and we will be destroyed.  We don’t give ourselves the love we give to others, the grace and forgiveness that we give to others. 

 Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

  –  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Like most things in life, silence also has it shadow that gets expressed out in the world.  Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about this shadow when he said:

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 

  – Martin Luther King Jr.

This is what all civil unrest and protests comes from.  Something that matters so much that they are willing to step outside of fear of judgment or retribution.  I know that to me these people are like modern day Joan of Arc’s.  Their bravery lies in standing in protest, being willing to be beaten, hit with water cannons, or tear gas. To be arrested or even the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.  I may not always agree with their beliefs, or their methods.  But I do praise their courage that they are willing to stand up for their ideals.

They say that time heals all wounds.  It isn’t the passage of time itself that heals.  It is the knowledge and application of that knowledge (using it wisely) that heals.  I know that from the murder of my nephew, there are stages of grief.  The more distance there is from the actual murder, the more time the raw emotions have to pass through you.  It is the emotions that create the pain and suffering.  But you can only live in that place of raw emotions for so long.  If you don’t process through them, they will literally drive you insane.  It is self preservation that moves those emotions through you.

The ultimate way of Being lies beyond all contradictory pairs of opposites with which our two dimensional thinking mind operates.  As soon as we are successful in silencing the restless activity of the thinking mind and give a chance to intuition, the pure all embracing spirit in us will manifest effortlessly.

  – Anagarika Govinda

Intuition and creativity takes you on a wild ride of so many options and choices, it is life inspiring, life fulfilling, and more valuable that all of the gold in Fort Knox. This is because life is not just light and dark, and choices are not just this or that.  We live in a multi-dimensional universe, and we were created in God’s image.  Each of us has the power of miracles within us.  When we embrace his spirit and power, we manifest our divine destiny.

 Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

  –  Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt is one of my heroes.  She is on my bucket list of people that I would love to have a long visit with.  She has such great wisdom, and she was an amazing woman.  When we operate from that space of great minds, the soul speaks. 

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

  –  Ram Dass

It helps when you surround yourself with people who can hear the sound of your soul, as well as their own.  If you listen to the voice of intuition, the voice of the soul, you will find the way of life that you love, that was designed just for you.  Then all that is left is to have the courage to live it.

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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

Love Is The Master Key To Happiness

Love yourself.  Forgive yourself.  Be true to yourself.  How you treat yourself sets the standard for how others treat you.

  – Steve Maraboli

Years ago I worked for a mortgage company in the Seattle, WA area.  When I interviewed for a loan processor position, the branch manager told me that I shouldn’t take the job if swearing bothered me, as everyone in her office swore.  I am good at tuning out what I don’t want to hear, so I went ahead and accepted the position. 

I had been on the job just a month or two when one of the other employees in the branch came up to me with a question.  She wanted to know what I had said to everyone that made them not swear when I was part of the conversation.  I told her that I hadn’t even realized that they didn’t swear when they spoke to me, and that I hadn’t told them anything.  She wanted to know why they were treating her different than they treated me.  I told her something like the above quote.  We subconsciously tell people how to treat us.  If she wasn’t being treated how she wanted to be, then she needed to look inside of herself to determine what needed to be changed.

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.

  – Unknown

I think that the hardest part about giving and receiving love is that it puts us at risk of being hurt.  We worry about whether this new being in our lives will hurt us, if we open our hearts up to giving and receiving love. 

Faith ends where worry begins, and worry ends where faith begins.

  –  George Mueller

My father (stepfather) married my mother, and took on six girls ranging in ages from newborn to 9 yrs old (I was the 9 yr old).  Not one time in over 49 yrs has the word “stepdaughter” ever come out of his mouth.  Every time it has been “my daughter”.  My parents went on to have one more child, my brother, who is my dads only “blood” child.  My brother and my dad have a rocky relationship.  What so many of us had a hard time with, is that we want people to behave in a certain way.  We want a mother, father, spouse, brother or sister, to say or do certain things, and when they fall short of our expectations, we create trauma around it. 

When you love someone, you love the whole person just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.

  –  Leo Tolstoy

My mom passed away over 20 yrs ago, and our dad has been living with my husband and I for the past 11 years.  A couple of years ago, my brother and I had a long talk about his dad, and why I maintained our relationship after our mother died. With those that we love in our lives, our close friends and relatives, it can be easy to look at their faults.  To see all of the “dirt” in their lives.  Those faults pop up like neon lights blinking and blinking, “look here”, but there are also hidden nuggets of gold laying alongside each fault line.

None of us can be the perfect parent, son, daughter, sister, brother, or spouse.  It has meant a lot to me that “step” never came before daughter.  He has other well hidden (LOL) nuggets of gold, and he has his share of dirt, just like every one of us.  We need to adjust our “glasses” to see others through the filters of gold, instead of just neon signs of dirt. 

At the same time, we can’t live our own lives trying to live up to the expectations of others. 

Stop seeing yourself through the eyes of others.  You will never be able to live up to their expectations, and it will leave you feeling broken and insecure… Rather see yourself as the beautiful soul God made you to be, and know he made you to do great things.

  –  Karen Kastyla

Have your ever looked at yourself through the “fun house” mirrors at a fair?  They distort your shape, making you tall, small, thin, fat.  Some of them distort just a portion of your body and others the entire body.  When we try to live our lives for others, we distort ourselves creating a fun house mirror – we don’t see us, we just see the distortion. 

This is your own journey.  Don’t let others define it for you.  You shape the path of your journey through your effort, hard work, love, aspirations, dreams and always your pure intention.

  –  Abira Mukherjee

When I look at this photo, I see love on both the mans and the cats faces.  The cat doesn’t expect the man to act like another cat.  The man doesn’t expect the cat to be a dog.  They see the nuggets of gold in each other.  Their love is apparent.  They may not live up to 100% of the expectations.  And that failure to live up to expectations, doesn’t mean that they damn up their love behind a concrete barrier, demanding that the other behave a certain way. 

I know that my cats expect breakfast each morning the minute my feet hit the bedroom floor.  Since during the week I get up at 5 AM, on Saturday, Sunday, and any holidays, they still expect breakfast at 5 AM.  They seem to live with the disappointment (although they can be quite demanding and noisy about it – LOL).   They still rub up against me purring.  They still hop in my lap and try to type on the keyboard when I am busy.  I still pet them, feed them, and cuddle them.  I know that I will have to remove at least one cat every time I sit down at the keyboard to compose one of these posts.  I accept their need to interrupt me when I am not paying them enough attention, and they accept that I am eventually going to shut them out of the office so I can finish my post without kitty paws typing. (I blame all spelling errors on my cats!).

In the end nothing we do or say in this lifetime will matter as much as the way we have loved one another.

  –  Daphne Rose Kingma

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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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