Follow Your Own Road
Rumi said, “It’s your road and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”
When we try to walk down another persons road, it leads to disillusionment and disappointment. It isn’t “our” road. In the book “The Pilgrimage”, Paulo Coelho said that “it is our decision to walk, that creates the road ahead of us”.
It is both being courageous and having curiosity, that keeps us forging ahead on the path. It is the journey itself, that grows us as a person. It has been said that it’s never about obtaining the “goal”. It is rather about who you need to become, to achieve the goal. Marianne Williamson said, “you must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”
I have always loved the saying, “It’s not the destination,… it’s the journey”. This is because the path isn’t the destination. The path is where we live our life. It is all of life’s experiences. The good, bad, and the ugly. The messy pieces as well as the glorious adventures. The destination is simply a road sign. A sign that we made it to “X”. Then we begin planning a new destination or goal. It’s all about the road we choose, the path we forge.
So cast off the bowlines. Sail out of the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds and see where they take you.
A Wish Your Heart Makes
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 they know is — we are all just dreamers in an endless universe.
Judith Thurman said, “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.”
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.
Sarah Ban Breathnach said, “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”
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.
Creative thinking outside the box produces inspiring ideas that can change the world. Plato said, “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” 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.
That brings us to possibilities. Thomas Edison said, “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” Since his most famous quote is “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”, 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.
I also love the quote by Audrey Hepburn “I M Possible” instead of impossible. 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.
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.
No Excuses
Haben Girma takes any excuse that we have right off the table. Haben Girma was the first deaf-blind graduate of Harvard Law School. Today she’s a lawyer at Disability Rights Advocates, a accessible technology campaigner and a keen surfer. She’s also our sixth #WomenOfAfricaunsung hero.
She says, “I grew up facing access barriers as a deaf blind person, and that inspired me to become a lawyer. And work to remove access barriers facing people with disabilities around the world. Graduating from Harvard Law School says a lot about what can be done when people have the right attitude. About 12 years ago, I attended a camp for the blind and met an amazing blind dancer. She taught me my first swing and salsa lessons. I also do tandem surfing. Surfing feels very liberating and exciting. And I love being able to connect with people and to share tactile, kinaesthetic languages. We should try to move towards a more inclusive world, so that it’s no longer a big deal for a deafblind person to go to law school.”
Honored as a White House Champion of Change, Haben Girma is a celebrated speaker, she provided the introductory remarks for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA at the White House. Her TEDxBaltimore Talk has garnered over 175,000 views.
Haben joined Disability Rights Advocates in 2013 as a Skadden Fellow, and became a Staff Attorney in 2015. She helped achieve a legal victory in National Federation of the Blind v. Scribd, the second case to hold that the ADA applies to e-commerce. She received her J.D. in 2013 from Harvard, and her B.A., magna cum laude, in 2010 from Lewis & Clark College. Haben lives in Berkeley, California.
See her families story here: http://madamenoire.com/…/such-an-inspiration-meet-haben-gi…/
See TedX talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvoj-ku8zk0
Ultimate Goal
“Life is a process of loving, learning & letting go of the things that no longer serve us. To be happy & healthy is the ultimate goal.”
What do you need to let go of?
Goals
Have you ever looked at a goal or project and said this is impossible? I know I have. I felt so overwhelmed that it just seemed too big to accomplish, it seemed impossible.
Clinging to the notion that something’s not possible is arguing in favor of your limitations, and if you argue in favor of limitations guess what? You get to keep them.
There’s only one way to get through the fog of fear and that’s to transform it into the clarity of exhilaration.
Did you know that fear is excitement without breath? Isn’t that a definition that turns the feelings under the word from pure negativity into a whole new feeling?
So when I notice the emotion of fear showing up I can stop a moment and say, is this a fear that is a warning of danger or is this a fear of excitement? If this is excitement I just need to breathe correctly to transform it even fuller. I can then move it even higher up on the vibrational scale to become exhilaration.
While breaking through the blocks of fear are important and thrilling, it’s the subsequent integration of the breakthrough of that fear into your daily life that really allows the change to be permanent.
Lets take being a public speaker as an example. Studies reflect that fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears that we collectively have. So since we know that this isn’t a fear to protect us from danger, we now know it is actually excitement. It is excitement to share your life changing message. With some nice deep breaths and grounding you can even become exhilarated to share your message.
Can you see how integrating this belief would make you a more relaxed speaker that is able to fully engage your audience and inspire them with your message?
The hidden barriers or blocks we have all seem real and true, but they are based on beliefs about ourselves that aren’t true. The fact that we unconsciously hold them to be true is what holds us back. Once we shine awareness on it we can release it, integrate it and change our life.
What is one fear based belief that you can recognize today? How can you shift the vibration from fear to excitement and then further shift to exhilaration?
And so it is, and so it is with ease.
5 Tips To Embrace Change
Growth is change. If you aren’t growing, you’re decaying, which is also change. Since change is inescapable either way, why wouldn’t you want your changes to be as positive as possible?
The first buds of spring make my heart sing and want to dance
The summer signals a change from working hard, to being able to slow down and relax and play
The first color of autumn tells us me that the nights are getting longer and winter is on its way
The first snowfall reminds me of being a kid and throwing a snowball and making snow angels and having so much fun wearing socks as gloves!
Change is good thing – welcome it into your life with love and wonder and you will live an amazing life
Effort
Most of us operate from the belief that effort is the same as accomplishment. We put in countless hours at work, trying to keep up with the workload and feel unappreciated. What is interesting is that if we had to come up with one real accomplishment, we wouldn’t be able to name it.
We are like the hampster on the wheel, looking good to ourselves because we are keeping it spinning, but we are just going nowhere fast. Being busy and being successful do not correlate to each other. At some point in our life we wake up and wonder what we are doing.
We know we are not where we planned to be, but the truth is we (at least me anyway) really never had a true destination, we just followed the road where it was leading us.
So what do you do when you wake up? Plan something, anything and then implement it. I always liked Jack Canfields description of the headlights on the car driving down a dark road, you can only see so many feet in front of you at a time. Look at what you see and actually make a decision about it and then implement it. You may change directions once you get a ways down the road because you determine that this road will not take you where you want to go. U-turns are ok!
The important thing to remember is that later you will find that the road you went down will provide you with information that you needed, you just didn’t know it was part of your foundation. If you are like me, you may not know exactly what you are building, but it is fun, it is exciting, and you are learning great things along the way. Much better than just running on the hampster wheel!
Time
From Simple Truths, about time:
1) Nobody can manage time. But you can manage things that take up your time.
2) Time is expensive. 80% of our day is spent on things or people that only bring us 2% of our results.
3) Time is perishable. It cannot be saved for later use.
4) Time is measurable. Everybody has the same amount. It is not how much time you have; it is how much you use.
5) Time is irreplaceable. We never make back time once it is gone.
6) You have enough time for anything in the world, if it ranks high enough among your priorities
Clearly-Defined Goals
“In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.” – Robert Heinlein
Ever look back at your day and wonder what happened and how come you didn’t get anything you wanted to do at the beginning of the day done? I think that this is the answer – make a list of clearly defined goals and I might just get some of the them done – but nothing goes on the list unless it moves one of the goals forward (not a list of laundry and dishes!!).