Perfection Is A Myth

It's a myth so big sometimes it actually paralyzes people from taking any action at all. I've lived many a day myself failing to move in any direction until I have it all figured out, till I know exactly how to proceed, until I have convinced myself I must surely be able to guarantee success- and if you've followed along this journey at all it's pretty self explanatory where that led...a long, hard, disappointing circle right back to where I started.

In this second half of my journey through life I have COMMITTED to success, and my first lesson was to make different choices. By making the same choices I had always made I kept ending up in the same  situations I was desperately trying to get out of. If you want different in life you have to DO different. Different choices, actions, attitudes, mindsets- and depending on your particular situation and goals it may mean different EVERYTHING, that's just the way it is. You can cry about, fight it, ignore it, deny it, and STAY THE SAME, or can accept it or better yet EMBRACE it- and move onto greener pastures..it's your choice.

CHOICES = CHANGE

So if you are preparing to make a different choice than you have in the past, it is reasonably expected that this may throw you into unfamiliar territory- GREAT! That means you are headed in a NEW direction so get EXCITED and stay in motion. Don't get freaked out that you don't know where the "end" is, that you don't have every step of the path marked out in advance, don't spend time imagining everything that could go wrong and all your contingency plans for these imaginary roadblocks- JUST TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME. Your mind will throw a million and one "what if's" at you everyday regardless...the only one you should allow to reside is-

"WHAT IF I SUCCEED?"

-will it be because your journey was perfect?
-will it be because you had every contingency plan carefully planned out years in advance?
-will it be because you spent hours-days-months studying, researching, and quantifying information?
-will it be because every single person in your circle of influence supported your every decision, every single day with love and words of encouragement so you just KNEW you couldn't fail?
-will it be because you never made any mistakes, never took a wrong turn, listened to bad advice, or just plain got lost at some point?

- or will it be because none of the above happened, but you were focused on your goals, committed to your purpose, and you made the CHOICE every single day to JUST.KEEP.MOVING

Committing to Change

I think the hardest part of committing to change is that it's continual...you never really "arrive". I'm never going to wake up one morning, check my change barometer and realize- I'M DONE, YAY! That creates a challenge for me. A BIG challenge, like Mount Everest size. This whole not knowing thing has tripped me up for many years- as I look back over things I have started, attempted, was passionate about, attacked, tried, failed, tried again, failed again, they all ended the same...I eventually QUIT. Game over-thanks for playing.

The problem is I was looking for a finish line, and when you are on a journey that you've never been on before how do you know where that is or what it looks like. To be honest my finish line was pretty much the same in each endeavor and as equally vague: "Successful". As you can imagine that line is a mirage- what the heck does that even mean? It could mean a million different things to a million different people and even as I sit here typing I find it difficult to describe what "Successful" even means TO ME- so how in the world was I going to know if I ever got there? Great plan, eh?

In my quest for knowledge I am learning to do away with traditional ways of going about things and chunk it down to simplicity. I've learned that I overcomplicate 99% of life and doing so is a huge expenditure of wasted energy. I've learned there is no finish line, there is only TODAY and CHOICE. That's all any of us are guaranteed, so the most I can do today is to make better choices than I did yesterday and that's called GROWTH. People who chose to stop growing have made another choice by default; the slow, unfulfilled, purposeless journey toward death- I definitely CHOSE growth- with aggression!

So how do you go "All In" on this journey if you never really know where it is that you are going, or when you will get there? You commit to CHANGE. You commit be being GREATER- greater today than you were yesterday. Don't worry about tomorrow, have a vision of where you want to go but FOCUS on making better choices today that will head you in that direction. Ask yourself- "Does this take me closer to my goals?" in everything you do and more importantly things you chose NOT to do. Big decisions are not the ones that are going to determine your journey, it's the small seemingly insignificant things we do or chose NOT to do over time that lead us off course.

How will you KNOW when change is happening...you won't...but then again you will. You will notice subtle things that used to bother you that don't anymore, and other things that you tolerated before in your life that now grab your attention to address. Your habits will become different, you will spend your time differently throughout the day, other people will begin to notice "something" different about you. You will start to feel an inner peace, joy, energy, and the ability to laser focus like never before. I believe THIS is the state we were meant to take on the world and be difference makers, but it starts with committing, and begins with action.

Will you Commit to Change?

How to Communicate with Zombies

Rented World War Z last night and realized two things

1) the only thing I actually knew prior to renting this movie was that it starred Brad Pitt and things blowing up
2) my 14 year old is the one person you want with you during a Zombie Apocalypse- he literally knows everything...seriously-EVERYTHING...
TIP: head for the ocean, they can't swim
 
Besides freaking me out a bit the movie did get me thinking about going through life in a functioning vegetative state; see the Zombies were only active when stimulated- with no stimulation they wandered around aimlessly, moaned, laid around, walked in patterns, no direction, no focus....and it got me thinking about the sad fact that there are way too many people living that way right now. I'm not saying these people are going to up and start eating each other by any means, but I also wouldn't be handing out bath salts at Christmas...just sayin!

So if we live in a world where we have the ability to communicate with virtually anyone, anytime, anywhere- why are people feeling lost and alone more than ever? I feel that what we are missing right now isn't communication, it's CONNECTION. The ability to connect with another human being on a level that supersedes reading. We have eyes, ears, touch, speech, smell and even hearts to feel emotion and our relationships are becoming flat, empty words, carefully chosen by how we feel  "the world" will perceive them. Sounds super special right?

 

A short year ago I was actually one of these very same people- going through life on auto-pilot. Checking off my adult to-do list; college- check, marriage-check-check-ch..(okay, still working on getting that one right-no judging here), kids-check, dog-check, house-check, job-check- my list is getting you all fired up to take on the world and make a difference right? I think my biggest "dream" a year ago was to hopefully have money someday to be able to invest...(someday...like before I die)- THIS is what creates Zombies- LAME LISTS!

 

My list was awesome when I was a kid- I was going to write books, publish poetry, write songs, be on Broadway, and in movies, and invent some crazy contraption that would change the world- I was SUPPOSED to BE Taylor Swift- WHAT THE CRAP happened to THAT list? ...side note- I was also supposed to marry Tom Cruise (BEFORE Nicole Kidman), so I probably dodged a bullet on that one...cause seriously, that got weird...

 

Love life aside I really do think we have the greatest idea of what we are naturally good at back when we didn't know any better. We were all designed for a specific purpose while here- we all have a special gift or talent that world needs and I think the reason we have so many people going through life as Zombies, or worse- filling that emptiness with addictions is directly due to the fact they are living a life void of purpose. So we disconnect, wander aimlessly, and finally put our heads in the sand coming up only for primetime and cheezy poofs.

 

So how do we fix it?

 

Step 1) Locate the person nearest to you, achieve eye contact and smile

Step 2) Turn off your mobile device, put it away and state the following...

 

"When I was a kid I was going to  ______________________, what about you?"

 

 

Stimulation-check!

 

 

 



The Fear Trap

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...the part they don't mention is that first step is generally on the other side of something resembling this...



...so the tragic part is most people (myself included for many years) are immobilized by the enormous wall of FEAR that we must pass through to even take that first step.


Let me put you at ease right now....

FEAR IS FAKE.

 

The FEELING of being fearful is very REAL, but the voices in your head telling you a million reasons why doing what your heart is leading to you do is wrong- THOSE voices are FAKE.

 

"...the voices of fear and doubt, and they are governed by a simple truth: they only get loud when you do work that matters." -Jon Acuff

 

 

As a Believer that can only lead me to think that perhaps THOSE voices are ones the fallen one uses to lead us astray. We were all given a great purpose in life, and far too few tap into their potential for so many reasons but my guess would be the number one reason is FEAR. That voice of fear in our heads is fueled mostly by our own device but also by the value we put on everything from the opinion of others to what we are spoon fed by mainstream media. If I sit and think about times (daily) those voices creep into my thoughts and decisions I cannot recall one time they thought anything was a GOOD idea- even charitable actions, and if I am correct in my assumption it becomes of the upmost importance to question those voices and fight through the wall.

 

Once you really come to the realization what fear is, you realize what it is not. It is NOT an actual wall that you have to bust through in an armored tank- it's actually a HOLOGRAM. A figment of your imagination created by FEAR to immobilize you into an invisible prison.

 

WHY?

So you don't create that thing you've been dreaming about that may change a life...

So you don't write that book that may change a life...

So you don't start that charity that may change lives...

So you don't do that thing that you know will make a difference...

So you don't take that step that changes the direction of your life which in turn inspires others...

ARE YOU CATCHING ONTO A THEME HERE?

 

The God I know would want all of the above to happen; he designed us with great purpose and fire in our hearts to be difference makers- all that remains for us is to decide which one we will allow to govern our direction...

Will you

Chose FEAR or Chose CHANGE?