 Is there something in your heart that you’ve been wanting to do for the longest time, but for whatever reason you haven't been able to do it?
For me, I had this brilliant idea and dream to write a book. In my mind, it was going to be a best-seller! Thousands, maybe millions of people, from all over the world were going to buy it and love it. But what happened is, year after year, I just didn't do it. I had so many different reasons that came up. “Oh, I'm so busy. I have to work on this first.” “I want it to look this particular way, so I’ll just wait until I have all the other pieces in place and lined up first.” “I’ll get to it next month.” Do you know when I first had the idea to write this book? 12 years ago!!! All these excuses, year after year, for the last 12 years. A few months ago, though, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Let me tell you what happened to make that change. I realized that a lot of my focus was on all the hype I placed on the book...that it would be a best-seller, that millions would love it, or that it was the pinnacle of all the key lessons I’ve learned in life. In other words, my book had to be perfect. I continually stopped myself from even writing the first word, all because everything had to be just perfect. Have you ever stopped yourself from taking any action towards your dream vision, all because everything had to be perfect? I finally took action when my business coach, Shawn Shepheard, gave me a writing exercise to help get my writing juices flowing, just to get any words on to a piece of paper. For this exercise, Shawn asked me to write five short stories that defined my life. I happily agreed. Five short stories. That seemed simple enough. Anything to get the writing flowing. In less than a couple days, I picked five defining moments in my life, and I wrote a short story about each of them. Let me tell you. A defining moment isn't a simple re-telling of a walk in the park. A defining moment, by its very nature, is an experience that ultimately changed you and the trajectory of your life. As I wrote, I remembered the challenges and the frustration I faced in each of these moments. I recalled when I had to turn to others for support, or when I had to dig deep to turn to my own inner reservoir of strength that I didn’t know that I had...all to overcome different challenges in my life. After writing these five stories, I realized how powerful my experiences were. And each moment contained a life lesson that could be shared with others. That’s when a lightbulb went off in my head. “OMG! This could be my book!” In fact, it was the start of the book that I'm working to finish now. Since then, I've added more stories from my life, and I've added life lessons to each of these stories. These last couple of months, what helped me to get over this hump of not writing a book for the last twelve years was to simply take action. You see, it’s when you take action, when you take the first step, that you actually get more clear on your vision. How many times have you heard this nugget of wisdom from others? How many times have I told my clients to do the same thing? Sometimes, the person that needs to hear your wisdom the most, is yourself. And so my coaching question for you today is: What's one thing that you've been wanting to do for the longest time that's in your heart but you haven't done it yet? Now, think about one little action step that you can take towards the direction of that vision. What’s that one baby step? The smaller and easier the baby step, the better. Then, go ahead and take that step. It doesn't matter if that step is going to ultimately be a part of the picture of your vision. What taking that first step does is open up and activate the energy of possibility. Taking that first step leads you to the next step, which then leads you to the next step. You can take my own learning in writing my book as a lesson. Take a step and be willing to be surprised. And then watch as, what for me was 12 years in the making, will soon become a reality. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. Have you ever done something that you know probably isn't the best thing for you to do? The reasons you do it are one, because you like it and the enjoyment outweighs the cost, or two, because you can't really imagine yourself doing anything other than doing this. I bring this up because I see this often in some of the prospective coaching clients that I meet with. Some tell me about how much they hate their work, or they really don't like their boss or the people that they're working with. And yet, many continue to stay at their job because they have trouble imagining doing something else, or because the pay is good enough, so much so that they don't want to let that go. In those particular conversations, I like to share what I call “The Hamburger Story.” Years ago, a spiritual teacher and leader named Terry Cole-Whittaker shared how much she loved eating hamburgers. And yet, she knew that hamburgers weren't the best thing for her body, meaning she knew the burgers didn’t agree with her digestive system and she didn't feel so good after eating them. So she came up with this practice where, as she ate the hamburgers, she would use the power of her mind to transmute the properties of the hamburgers so that they would be more nutritious for her. With each bite, she would speak her affirmations and declarations, proclaiming the hamburger was being transmuted and received nutritionally and healthily by her body. Perfect digestion. Perfect assimilation. Perfect elimination. Every time she ate a hamburger, she would engage in this ritual that required a lot of her energy and focused attention. She loved her hamburgers and she wanted to do whatever she could to eat them without causing major disruptions in her body. Until one day, she had an epiphany. She had a light bulb moment where she realized she was exerting so much energy every time she ate a hamburger when, instead, she could eat other foods that were already more agreeable and nutritious for her body. Right then and there, she made a decision to eat hamburgers no more. (Please note that I'm bringing up the hamburger story to illustrate a point and not to diss hamburgers, which I absolutely love eating!) I bring up the Hamburger Story because I see situations where clients are doing things that they know might not be for their highest and best. As I mentioned earlier, the example I hear often is people continuing to do work that they absolutely hate. A common response is to try to transmute those situations, to make lemonade out of lemons. One of the common things people do is engage in stress management, like taking walks, meditating more, or getting out their frustrations at the gym during the evenings and weekends. These activities help alleviate their stress so they can be more resilient in the workplace, to build up their "spiritual armor" when they enter the "minefield" they call work. Another thing people do is focus on cultivating practices of patience and non-attachment, so they don’t get riled up easily at work by their bosses and co-workers. Let me be clear. Stress management and cultivating patience are great practices. But if people are doing these practices to avoid the underlying cause of their stress and worry, then they just might be mimicking the actions of Terry Cole-Whittaker. They’re eating metaphorical hamburgers (for example, working in jobs they hate), knowing they’re not the best for them, but doing whatever they can to transmute the situation to make it more manageable and palatable. However, Terry Cole-Whittaker eventually learned another path. That pathway is to choose those things that are in greater alignment and ease with who you are. With this story in mind, the questions that I have for you today are these: Where in your life are you eating metaphorical hamburgers, meaning you’re engaging in things that may not be for your highest and best? And where can you invite a more easeful way of living, and in a way that's in right alignment with who you are? Simply ask yourself these questions and take stock. The truth is, you really can experience more ease and grace in your life. Life doesn’t always require an extraordinary amount of energy for simply living every day. Ultimately, though, if you really, really, really want to eat that hamburger, by all means go ahead and do it. You always have the power of choice available to you. You get to choose. And yet, my intention for you, as always, is that as you choose, choose with an expanded and loving awareness for what's possible for you, including your highest and best. With that greater awareness, you get to see and discern whether the cost of what you're doing is actually worth it, or if a more easeful path is calling you forward. Which path will you choose? Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A few years ago, I created a vision board, and I decided to put it on my bathroom wall. One day, when I was stepping out of the shower, my eyes homed in on that vision board. In particular, I zoomed in on this one image of a cruise ship that I had pasted onto that board. I remember thinking to myself, “Oh yeah, I put this cruise ship on there because I wanted to experience a cruise this year as part of my vision. Maybe I'll call Princess Cruises later on and see if they have any good deals.” That thought came and went, and I just went about my day. I was reminded of this experience because I had a session with one of my coaching clients recently, where we talked about the unlimited possibilities in life. One of the insights that I learned from one of my spiritual teachers is that whenever you come up with a vision statement, a list of intentions or a declaration of goals, I always add this particular statement at the end: “This, or something better.” When you say “This, or something better,” “this” refers to your vision, your intentions and your goals. You have a picture in your mind of what you'd like to experience. “Or something better” refers to that good that you didn't imagine was possible, that joy that you didn't even know could happen. Here’s the truth: You don't know what you don't know. If you’re like most people, you operate largely from the realm of what's known and what's familiar to you. The known includes things like the places you live and enjoy visiting, the people that you love and connect with regularly in your life, and the grocery stores that you shop at or coffee shops and restaurants you like to frequent. The known encompasses your habits and ways of being that are very comfortable and familiar. The known gives you a sense of comfort and your place in the world. And yet, it's in the realm of the unknown where most growth happens. In the realm of the unknown, things happen that you might not have expected. Sometimes, when you encounter these new experiences, you become surprised. But you become surprised not only because of the new experiences, but also because of how you show up in response to this new challenge or opportunity. In the realm of the unknown, you have the opportunity to rise to the occasion. When you rise and show up, that's how you’re actually transformed. You become more of who you are. You enlarge your sense of who you are and what's possible for you. And so, when you say, “This or something better,” what you're doing is making a signal to the universe that you’re both open and willing to experience more good than you might have ever imagined. You come to believe that you are equal and worthy to the idea of "something better." So back to my story about the cruise. When I first made that vision board, I made a declaration to myself with “This, or something better.” After seeing that vision board in the bathroom that one day and immediately forgetting about it, I received a letter in the mail a few days later. I opened the letter and it said, “Congratulations, you have been offered a free seven-day cruise to Alaska!” I thought, “What is this? Some kind of scam?” I was ready to toss the letter aside but then, I paused. I thought, “Well, what if this letter has some validity? Let me call the number.” I called the number and spoke to the representative, who exclaimed, “Congratulations!” I responded, “Oh well…yeah…thank you. I'm curious and have a few questions about this. Is this some kind of timeshare presentation thing, where I have to sit and listen to someone for three hours?” “Oh no, it's nothing like that,” she replied. “You get to go on this cruise and it’s on us.” “Well, I probably will get an inside stateroom, right? Like, right next to the boiler room at the bottom of the ship?” I asked skeptically. Again, she responded, “Oh no! We're actually going to put you in a balcony stateroom on one of the higher levels of the ship!” “Hmm, okay,” I said, still not quite believing her. “I'm probably going to be rooming with a stranger, right? You're going to put two of us who don’t know each other together!” “Oh no,” she laughed. “You get to bring anybody that you want. For that one other person, we're covering all of their expenses for this cruise too!” This seemed too good to be true! In my last ditch attempt to burst my own bubble, I said to her, “Oh I see now. This cruise is leaving out of Seattle. I live in San Francisco. I'm going to have to fly up and find my way there to be able to get on this cruise ship.” This was her last response to my barrage of questions. “Oh no," she replied. "We’ll actually pay for your and your guest’s flights to Seattle. We’ll also cover your stay the night before the cruise, as well as any meals and other expenses you might have before this trip.” After realizing that this was real and truly something better than I had ever thought possible, I finally replied, “Okay! Go ahead and sign me up!” By this point of the story, you're probably wondering how I got offered this free cruise (and how you can get offered one too!). You see, I had bought some artwork on a previous cruise. The cruise line targeted passengers who previously bought artwork. As part of a promotion to get people to buy more artwork, the cruise line offered this free cruise! And despite my doubts that this "something better" cruise was the real deal, I finally came to embrace this unbelievable good that showed up. I ended up going on this cruise and asked my friend Myra to come along with me. We had a fantastic time, truly one of the best memories I've had for a cruise. My question to you today is this: Where in your life do you have a sense of what you want to experience? And are you open and willing to entertain the possibility of something better showing up? If so, simply add the statement, "This, or something better." Ultimately, my intention for you is that for whatever it is you want to experience, we create this field of possibility that this, or something better, is available for you. All you need to do is be open to receive it. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Popular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. Archives
May 2020
|
RSS Feed