Go Forward!

Today, as we stand on the threshold of 2016, my encouragement to you is don't look back. Don't look back and get tripped up by the trail of distress and despair that you may have left behind in 2015. Don't look back with longing at the trivial pursuits that may have cost you valuable time and robbed you of the results you long for. Don't look over your shoulder for the companions that left you in a heap of negativity and drained you of the energy required for making the difference you want to make. Don't wallow in regret and self pity over the mistakes you made......instead, pick yourself up and go forward!

Go forward in spite of the mountains of doubt that surround you, and the weight of fear that bears down upon you. Go forward in the mustard seed faith that you can muster, because that is the only thing that you may have to hold on to at this time....and boy, do we need that little bit of faith whispering in our ear when the going gets tough. Keep moving ahead even though the memories of the wounds inflicted by loved ones might be strong. The sting of betrayal may still linger in your heart, and it may be difficult to let go of the hurt but if you keep dwelling on the hurts of the past, you are sure to miss the healing of the present. Grab a hold of the gift of today, the promise of tomorrow and move forward.

The road ahead is entirely one of your making. There are great things in store for your future but its unfolding demands that you keep your head out of the rear-view mirror. It requires that you understand firstly that though God has big plans for you, their realization depends on your claiming them, and moving to make them happen. Full focus. Forgetting those things that are behind. Pressing towards the mark of that High Calling. Letting go. Dropping off. Moving into that promise! Your future...who you become.... is a beautiful gift from God. But if you never move forward to claim it, unwrap it, and use it to benefit others it will remain the unfulfilled promise that was (or could have been) YOU!

So move forward, my friend. The new year offers you the opportunity to start afresh....to challenge yourself.....to rise from the ashes.....to uncover the pearls under the sand, the diamond under the coal of your character. Let the ebb and flow of life wash away the sands of past mistakes, broken dreams and bring ashore the golden promise of a better you. Make your moments matter, your life count for something. Square your shoulders and go forward...Boldly!

Results or Excuses?

It took me some time, but I learnt before too late that excuses and results (at least the kind of life-changing results we all crave) are mutually exclusive. The inclination to justify our actions or inaction is a disease we all fight with varying degrees of success. After all if I don't stand up for me, who will? It means simply, therefore, that we must make up our minds whether we want to continue to blame everything and everyone around us or we want to take responsibility for changing our circumstances.

The fact is, we can only judge a tree by the fruits that it bears. The fruit it has the potential to bear and those it is expected to bear are of consequence only as they stand in condemnation of the number it actually produces. In other words, our value to the market place is dependent on the quality of our results. In the long run it is only that which we do - our actions - not what we intended, hoped, planned or wanted to do that counts.

But oh how easy it is, in the face of challenges, to justify our inactions. How often have we told our selves with some degree of satisfaction that we do not have the resources to complete the new project at work, not enough time for exercising or regular reading or inadequate skills for tackling a task you've been wanting to get done. I'm pretty sure that at one time or another you have caught yourself saying "as soon as the weather changes," and maybe you've even gone as far thinking 'when the kids are grown." Excuses have a way of postponing, or denying us of the results we seek one small justifiable reason at a time.

So what will it be, excuses or results? Legitimate reasons for under achievement or a deliberate effort to press forward in spite of our realities? The fact is, there will always be genuine excuses waiting in the wings. Our weight loss programme can easily get shoved into the corner because of our hair concerns. Competing priorities at home are always going to impact our ability to read a book or spend time with our spouses. It is what it is. But we need to come to the place where we draw a line in the sand and say, "what will it be? Am I committed to the results I seek or will I forever justify my inaction with excuses. That power to choose is available to all us. I guess in the long run it all comes down to the results we seek.  

Let your 'WHY' lead you

It's been a long time since I have 'put pen to paper' on this blog. And it's not for lack of trying. Several times I have sat down in hopes of staying long enough with a thought to actually see it through to a paragraph. Still here I am struggling to wrap my head around something, anything meaningful about which to write. So I guess today's major lesson will be about making sure that your 'why' is bigger than the obstacles you face.....about learning to push through when it feels like you are groping in the dark, when you can't see the entire stair-case or when your life's GPS just doesn't seem to want to take you where you want to go.

So why should we  not wait til we are seized with the vibes and the energy that the task requires? Why should we not await the inspiration that is sure to come? What's the value of trudging on enduring the mental and physical exhaustion that comes from attempting to meet lofty goals? I guess its simply that some of us are not willing to risk the likelihood of our music dying within us......some of us are acutely aware of the value and urgency of momentum, of allowing our actions to keep pace with our heartbeat.  And so we press on.....in spite of our lack in the moment. We press on because our 'why' gives impetus to our actions.

The truth is life has no guarantees, and becoming a spectator to the unfolding of our own lives is certainly no way of ensuring that we win the game. Sitting out a round or two while we wait for our talents to manifest themselves, the writers block to mysteriously disappear, or an important business deal to land in our laps is certainly not the way to go. And learning to keep momentum in challenging times  requires that your purpose be more noble than your objective. That is, your motivation must be a greater push factor than the achievement of the goal itself.

 Why do you do the thing you currently struggle with? Is it not important enough to get you off your laurels and back into work mode? Does it not whisper to you a refrain of disciplined activity? Does it not say, 'it matters not that this moment of imperfection beguiles you." They say "Good is the enemy of great." I say great is, more often, the enemy of  good.  All too often the seeming enormity of the task prevents us from making that first move. "Great" intimidates us. I say anything worth doing is worth doing imperfectly for the time being. Imperfect action trumps no action any day. Today, I encourage you, by deliberate design, to rediscover your 'why,' dust it back off and make it the center piece of your life. There's no telling what you might be motivated to accomplish in spite of yourself.

Born For More Than This....

I'm not sure where or how this message will find you, but I'm kinda hoping it will find you feeling a bit like a caterpillar - knowing somehow that you were born for something more than this, not feeling too comfortable in your skin, knowing only that this place at which you find yourself  is not the end of your story, not the end of your world. Feeling somehow that there is in you a butterfly yet to be released.... from the discomfort and darkness of your current cocoon.

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." So said Henry David Thoreau. I can't help but thinking that this could not be more true now, than in the 1850s when the words were first scripted. Today, amidst the noise of phenomenal business and economic success across the modern world, thousands of men and women lead lives of disguised desperation...lost in oblivion - wanting to make a difference, longing to chase their dreams, craving a new and different experience, but instead are chained to their fears, slaves to the expectations of others...locked in the cocoon of their own limiting beliefs...never becoming the butterfly they were born to be....never blessing the earth with their beauty and grace.

May I remind you that you were born for something more than this? This common existence, this emptiness. You were created to influence, inspire and impact. You were gifted to carry out work that only you can. You were empowered to do tasks that were hand-picked for you. How dare you, in the face of this knowledge, choose a life of abeyance, of neglect and indifference? How can you be content to simply get through each day instead of intentionally getting something from each day? Why have you not hitched yourself to a star? Why have you not found the right cause, availed yourself of the right technologies, got together with the right people? Why are you content, like the caterpillar, to walk the damp dark earth, when like the butterfly you can sit atop the blossoming trees and traverse the wide expanse of blue skies? Why?

I implore you, "let others lead small lives, but not you." Let others be content to live and die with "their music still in them". But you...I hope you dance, I hope you place your hand upon your chest and feel the throb of purpose....I hope you look yourself in the mirror and realize that you were born 'for such a time as this.' And I hope the caterpillar becomes a butterfly......and soars.

Learn Your way to the Top

Genius, so said Thomas Edison, is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration....and related to that, the contemporary version - success is twenty percent inspiration and eighty percent perspiration. The implication of all this is that only hard work guarantees us the results we desire. Now who am I to argue to time-proven principles? Who am I to attempt to discredit or discount words born of experience? I wouldn't be so foolish as to attempt to.

Nonetheless both time and experience have taught me that perspiration bears good fruit only as it is tempered with learning. Thomas Edison himself (hard as it is to believe) is said to have made ten thousand failed attempts to invent the light bulb before he eventually 'happened upon' the solution. No......in fact there was no serendipity about his discovery. At the end of it all he is said to have boldly declared "I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that don't work." In other words, he learned his way to the top. Every failed attempt was a learning opportunity - an eye opener that took him closer to the eventual solution. Obviously he would have had to have been intentional about grasping the lessons in order to have advanced his chances of success.

Still, (and we may not see eye-to-eye on this) I believe the greatest growth opportunities come to us through direct learning. Jim Rohn (to date the biggest human influence upon my life) is known to have said..." life puts some of the more valuable things on the high shelf so that you can't get to them until you qualify. If you want the things on the high shelf, you must stand on the books you read. With every book you read, you get to stand a little higher." Words bring light. With enlightenment comes increased capacity, and ultimately increased value.

But ultimately, whether it happens directly or indirectly, our pathway to the top of whatever field we choose must be marked by learning. The results we seek, cannot come alone by perspiration. Perspiration should, in fact, come at the back-end of learning. We call that applied knowledge. Indeed, 'better than knowledge is applied knowledge.'  It's the difference between working smarter and working harder. It's about looking for the lessons, taking them and introducing them into new, untried scenarios. It's about becoming thought leaders, satisfying curiosity and driving innovation. It's coming to understand that 'sometimes we win and sometimes we learn'.... for always there are more lessons in failure than there are in success. It's about approaching life as a student.... on your way to  mastery - learning your way to the top!

Guard Your Energies

Whether we are aware of it or not, we all have a tremendous amount of energy. For some this may, as yet, be latent energy, waiting to be discovered, harnessed and directed in ways that benefit us and society alike. But successfully harnessing our energies requires an astute awareness... a deep consciousness of these energy sources and taking steps to guard and nurture those sources while, at the same time, doing everything in our power to avoid energy leaks.

But first, we must learn how to identify our energy sources: mental energy to help us focus on the significant, physical energy to help us push through that extra mile, and spiritual energy to help us commit ourselves wholly to a cause. What is it that most empowers you? Is it date night with your spouse, time alone with God, family nights, a stimulating discussion with friends, moments of deep meditation? What is it that refills your tank? What fuels your passion for life? Who or what is it that gives flight to your dreams and raises your ambitions to heights never before known? It's time to be keenly aware of these and hold tight to them. Nurture them. Draw from them. Be deliberate about spending time with the people and circumstances that add value to your experience. 

And in the same way that we become intentional about embracing the positive energy sources in our lives, we must also be keenly aware of the points of potential leaks. The people who would engage us in meaningless debates, they who question our motives and our every decision; they who would cause us to second guess our plans - these are to be ignored and avoided. The truth is, pearls were never meant for swines. Ten 'percent-ers' will never appreciate the capacity of the one hundred 'percent-ers'. We just must stomp the dust from our feet and move on. Meaningless debates, mindless anger, seemingly harmless gossip...all are energy leaks. Activities that bear no connection to our passion, purpose and mission are but distractions. They drain our energies and cause us to take our eyes off the substantive. We must learn to rid our-selves of the busy activities we engage in an effort to gain validation from the people around us. We must, instead, engage ourselves in activities that make a difference in the lives of others, bring us significance and lasting success.

Energy is easily depleted. Enthusiasm dies; interests wane, engagement levels weaken, people give up on their dreams. Don't let that happen to you. Plug your leaks; Worship at the shrine of the positive energy sources. And as you draw from these sources...as they pour into you, I trust you will pour your energies, your positive energies into a cause that's worth the effort. Recharge to empower!

The Path Will not Always be Clear

I have always been quietly competitive. Seems a contradiction but it's been my reality so I know. Many times I'd rather be seen and not heard, but I have never not wanted to do my best. Oh, yes, at times I have not cared as much as I could have, or should have, but for the most part I have really pushed myself to be the best that I can be. I guess subconsciously I realized early on that life was not meant to be lived without effort....that very little that is attained without effort is ever worth it. I knew that to merely go through the motions of every-day life was to invite and embrace mediocrity, yet as quiet and reserved as I have tended to be, I have never wanted to be mediocre.

Strangely, I have not always known what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be or where I wanted to go. I just knew that it was not acceptable to be stagnant. At times I have felt like my life was a whirlwind (yeah I have known what it is to feel like a dog chasing its tail), going where I was unsure of, and many times kinda out of my control. It made me uncomfortable for a while. I wanted to be in control, to know where the paths would take me, to mark the milestones along the way....to be able to tell someone the exact distance and time between landmarks. But I soon found out that the path is not always clear; that the 'obvious' way is not necessarily the best way and that the shortest distance between two points is not always that straight road. Many times, indeed, you'll feel like you're spinning on your heels. And maybe you will be. But know this, you will find later on that your spinning spirals...leading you to a higher place....a place of self discovery, personal development and opportunities you only dared dream of.

 There are precious few who can honestly tell you that the paths they initially chose are the ones they ended up walking. There are even less who can say that the path has been straight or clear. They have had detours, their journey has been obscured by the fog of huge disappointments and monumental setbacks, Many times they have disembarked, or for those who stayed on board, felt surrounded by a sea of sharks. But always they kept in the back of their heads that to cease movement is to accept the robe of 'normal'or  'average'. And normal is very rarely a feature of the lives of the purposeful or successful among us.

So move ahead. Get involved. Do something to change your circumstance. Do not be content to take life as it comes at you. Make your mark, Make your change, even if you do not know where the paths will take you. Do not be content to stay where you are. Move confidently ahead, knowing full well that however many times the road turns, the experiences gained on the way to fulfilling your dreams, on this path of self-discovery, will redound to the benefit of something bigger than your self. Keep moving!

Give yourself permission to fail....over and over again

Recently, as I stood before a group of budding entrepreneurs, we spoke of the high incidences of small business failure the world over. As the conversation progressed and I tried to 'put failure into perspective,' one bright young man asked of me....'so when then, does an entrepreneur back away? When does he say to himself that this business concept is just not gonna work? If failure is a part of the process, when is failure too much?  Without skipping a beat, and though I had never given formal thought to the question, I heard myself say, "when the fire inside him dies; when he no longer has a passion for what he's doing - then, and only then, should he walk away....for if he dares to persevere, if he soldiers on he is guaranteed success."

In our pursuit of our goals, be they ordinary or lofty, we must learn to give ourselves permission to fail...many times over. We must consider the potential pitfalls and take stock of the realities that are likely to result in failure along the way. We need to be fully cognizant that we may be required to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and start afresh. And that's okay. Let us remember this truth as well: society will never give us permission to do anything but to follow its norms and values. It will never embrace our failures. It may never provide us the environment in which to grow, but grow we must. And since failure is a necessary ingredient for growth, let's make up our minds to fail forward.

And so, let's not await the approval of others as we seek to move beyond the realms of mediocrity. Neither let us be intimidated by the likely magnitude or frequency of failure. Its lessons  have always been more instructive than the lessons of success. The pain of loss, the agony of defeat,  often become a poignant reminder and a strong impetus for action. For many people, the things they have failed miserably at in life have become the mileposts, the platform from which they afterwards launch massive success. Let us not choose to be constrained by other peoples opinions, their fears, their small-mindedness. Let us instead move forward knowing full well that failure lurks in the by-ways. But having full confidence that each failure marks an attempt, and each attempt says we are moving forward towards our desired goals.

With deliberate intent, approach each day with boldness. Walk bravely towards the fulfillment of your dreams, all the time giving yourself permission to do it as many times as necessary to get it right. Remember that no matter what conventional wisdom says...in spite of societal dicates, "failure is always an option."

Lo Que Sera Sera?

The song made popular by Doris Day in the 1950s echoed then, as it does now, the sentiment of thousands, perhaps millions of people in the world today. "Whatever will be will be"...is an insidious mindset that robs many of the responsibility of taking charge of their destiny. It's an acceptance of the hand that life dealt us, with little or no will to fight. It's a belief that what is meant to be is in the hands of 'the gods' who decide and control our fate; our destinies are outside of our control.

It's one thing to have the fires of ones desire quenched by the vicissitudes of life. It's quite another to have never known what it might feel like to have those fires fanned into a burning passion. To live with a constant feeling that what one might become is completely outside of our control is merely to exist, merely to occupy a vast open space, reverberating with the echoes of your empty soul. The only legitimate way to live is to embrace ones role as captain of the ship of your life; to recognize that who and what you become is completely up to you.  

The personal development guru, the late Earl Nightingale once said, "All of us are self-made but only the rich are willing to admit it." Powerful statement. The harsh truth of the matter is that while we sit on our laurels waiting on 'the gods' to drop manna from heaven, we are becoming. Our destinies are being decided right in that space, in that time. We are becoming.....dependent, unprofitable underachievers. What we are now is the destiny we have created. What we will become is the destiny we decide on, the one we make with each choice. 

Think not for a moment that I discredit the power or importance of faith. Faith, for me, is always the precursor of anything worth having. It's important to wait in faith, but it is even more important to ACT in faith. If we are to be masters of our destinies, we must exercise the God-given gift of choice. We must weigh the consequences of these choices and move in the interest of who we want to become. We must be seekers, 'askers', 'knockers'. We must be willing to step out with eyes of faith and look beyond our current circumstances in order to create the destiny we want for ourselves.

Every day is a beautiful, gift-wrapped package and we get to open that package. All around us are the people and tools to help us mold this 'shapeless mass' of life that we've been given. We get to figure it out. We get to work with the Master Designer to craft the person we become. Let's call the philosophy of 'que sera sera' what it is......cheerful fatalism. A dream killer; a incinerator for ambition and potential; the insidious destroyer of independence and freedom. Let's kick this impostor out of our lives and instead  accept and embrace the chance to step into your possibilities and create the future you dream of!

I Crave Space

I crave space. That's how I've always been.  I don't readily let people into my personal, private space. It's a state of being I created in the subconscious. Sometimes I think it's the result of an abnormal shyness that's been with me since childhood, other times I think it has to do with the fear of failure I once had. Don't know why, but I have always been like that. Cerebral; over-thinking things. My thoughts get ahead of me. I often get so caught up with my thoughts I forget the people around me.I am not exactly sure of it's source but today I am a lot the same, still getting lost in my thoughts, still craving space, still building walls, and still suffering the consequences.

And those consequences have been many. Some I've overcome over the years; some linger. I'm still, in the main, a loner. I'm pretty awkward socially. I'm still not as confident as I one day hope to be (hence my love of the computer keyboard). Life has not been as much fun as it could have been. (I'm guessing that's why they call it 'painfully shy'). Yup, life has been a pain in the butt in many ways. But I'm learning.

Over the years I've learnt the value of relationships. I've learnt the necessity of leveraging them for personal and business success. For the entrepreneur it's social capital. The extent of the success achieved is largely tied up in that entrepreneur's ability to forge relationships that lead to long term friendships, and eventually to profits. For the average human being building relationships is the natural course of life. For most, it's what gives life real meaning. We've often heard it said that nobody on their death bed ever wishes they'd spent more time on the job or acquiring things. They only always wish they'd spent more time building relationships. It's something I think about a lot, but I find I'm better at building walls than I am at building relationships.

So then, because I am so inclined to wander off in my own world of contemplation and imagination I have had to become intentional about choosing to start that conversation that I dread, or getting up- front and personal with others.  I've had to endure small talk on my way to making conversation; and because I've learned that people interpret 'reserved' as 'anti-social' I've had to pull myself out of this self-imposed shell and slowly walk away from my 'introvert' comfort zone. I've had to embrace the habit of listening (far cry from reading) and empathizing openly. I've learnt to accept formal teaching and writing opportunities as a means of engaging others. And I've had to make my passion for growth talking points with others. Am I there yet? No I'm not. I still don't call my mother and sisters as often as I should, I still don't know how to work a room and I'll never be the life of the party. But I am well on my way to letting go of 'shy' and looking forward to craving company rather than space.

Retreat to Win!

We all need a place to run to. Far from the madding crowd. Far from the mayhem of the mundane, the chaos of the common, the dogma of popular opinion. A place where our hearts are authentic and true, where we are attuned to our purpose, our passions are fueled and our flames ignited, where dreams and visions are vivid and alive...where possibilities are endless.

Indeed it is important that we meet each day with resolve and purpose, for it is in each today that our tomorrows are decided. But there comes a time when our resolve must be to seek peace, to be at one with self, to shut out the influences that would pull us outside of who we are. And we find that our place of peace, our place of retreat is our place of power. Do not think for a moment that to retreat is to yield the battle to those who contend with us. To retreat is to be at one with self...to shut out the dissonance, to erase the desire to strive, to understand the power of attracting by becoming. For to retreat is to harness the power of becoming.

For some this retreat is a place - a literal week-end or holiday get-away. For others it's a diary....a private log, hidden from the scrutiny of judgment... for some its a book, a movie in which they imagine themselves the hero or heroine; still for others it's a person- a soul-mate who sees the sorrow behind their smile, feels the love that their anger veils, or understands the reason behind their silence. I don't know what it is for you.......may be meditation, personal devotion..... but what I do know is that we all need to be intentional about finding a place to run to....away from expectations and inhibitions and headlong into freedom and empowerment.

And let's be clear on this....I speak not of potentially addictive behaviours .....be they positive or negative. Neither do I speak of sojourns into self-pity. I speak of rest and refueling, of meditation and empowerment, of uplifting conversation and reflection, of self-examination and re-purposing. It's about giving yourself permission to meet life again at full force after each whirlwind experience, or powering up to face the approaching storm...and knowing that it's okay. It's part of your game-plan. It's your strategy for winning in your own race....

Change is up to You!

A thousand times you've wished things were different. I know. But I also know that even with the best intentions, wishing won't change anything. "Nothing will change until you change." That's the long and short of it. There was a time when I thought there was very little that I could do to change my circumstances....after all, I have no control over the seasons or the wind so the best I could do was curse at them. But then I learnt to read the seasons and how to turn the sails in the wind. I learnt that there are very few things in life that are pre-ordained; very few things over which we have no control. Everything else is a matter of choice, and I get to make that choice. I have the power. It was simply a matter of owning that - taking personal responsibility for creating change in my life.

But I've also learnt that it's easier said than done. I've learnt that the discipline required to create that change does not come by osmosis. I've learnt that desire (no matter how strong) is not enough to fuel that change. I've come to realize that motivation and inspiration die without constant attention. And, probably most importantly, the years have taught me that if your vision of the future is not big enough and compelling enough to provide the fire for today's engagement, change will always remain an elusive dream. Without a doubt, we must believe in the possibility, even likelihood of change. But patience must indeed be our first work, our quiet study, for without it very little can be achieved.

The truth is, there are too few of us who have accepted the mantle of personal responsibility for bringing about change in our own lives. Blaming the government, the school system, our employers become a convenient excuses. Being able to point that finger somehow absolves of us the responsibility, but more importantly it robs us of the opportunity to become the kind of person necessary to create a more meaningful existence....to become better, wiser, stronger. The people who have been successful at rising above their paltry existence are those who accept the challenge to get up off their laurels and meet life head on...despite the difficulties; those who have challenged themselves to grow; those who have been deliberate in choosing the philosophies on which to build their lives and have allowed those philosophies to fuel a positive attitude; those who have  set themselves goals and taken decided, deliberate action towards their achievement. Those are they who have evidenced change, seen the results and now live exceptional lives.

"If it's going to be, it's up to me," is as good a mantra to hold to now as any. Only you have the power to create the change that you want to see. And that change will never happen until you change.....your philosophies, your attitude, your activities (or lack thereof). We all have to own change. It's not up to the government, our parents, our children or our bosses. It's that next book you read. It's that next class you take. It's that fight you refrain from picking, it's your ego released into oblivion. It's recognizing that you have the power....and that claiming that power and experiencing the resulting change is entirely up to you.

Live on Purpose!

I made up my mind a few years ago to live on purpose. For me, that meant two things: 1) to harness the power of intentionality.... that is, make deliberate effort towards achieving desired goals and 2) to find my life's purpose and live it. I have not, for one moment, regretted that decision. But as you would imagine the choice did not come without its costs - opportunity costs as well as economic costs. And there have been times when I have wished my circumstances were different, but if truth be told if I had my life to live over again I would still choose to walk the road I now walk, to bear the pain on the way to the gain...to endure what sometimes feels like indignity on the alter of vulnerability...but hey, I've come to see it's all a part of the process, and I'm owning it.

 Living on purpose is about discovering and re-discovering day by day the value you were created to add; the difference you make, as only you can.....and making that difference day by day. It's not about being exceptional...too many people make that mistake and hold back on their contribution to life simply because they look in the mirror and see 'ordinary' staring back at them. Welcome to the club. Ordinary is what most of us are. Extra-ordinary has not been bestowed on too many of us. And let's get this straight: those who do eventually get to extra-ordinary usually start right where you are. So there's not telling how things will go...you just need to be willing to start at ordinary.

I have long given up on the idea of trying to help people find what their purpose is. I don't know that I can ever do that. I've heard it said, you've found your purpose when you've found something to do that you could easily get lost in, something you never get tired of, something you do that you always get complimented on.  Friend, I don't know that there is a formula for helping you find it, or what that formula is, if it exists...but I know that you can make up your mind to add value to room, a situation, to create improvement, bring about increase....to pour into the lives of others, and to be able to do so without a desire for personal gain being foremost in your mind....and that would be enough. It would be enough that. It would be enough that you used your talents and gifts, your personal interests and invested your time in the pursuit of your own growth, and that your growth redounded to the benefit of others...

Living on purpose is never about making an impression. It's always only about making a difference...It's about making up your mind to find a worthy object of your attention. It may be a person, an environmental issue...a cause bigger than yourself.....and pouring out yourself ..over and over again. There's nothing quite like it. Live on purpose!

I love Words...

I find I am fascinated by words.  By what is said, by the way they are said, by the way they make you think and feel, by the the way certain combinations resonate and leave impressions on your soul that nothing else has the power to. Whoever said 'a picture is worth a thousand words' never really understood the potency of words. Have you ever wondered, for example, why the book is always better than the movie? I love words like some people love music. For me, music is simply poetry in motion; the cinema or theatre a chance for words to take center-stage, right where they belong.  Maybe that's why I have always hated small talk. It's a tragic waste of words.

And some people have a way with them. They know how to make words dance across a page, to create a symphony of sounds, to bring to bear the creativity of the imagination. To motivate. To inspire. Words have longevity. They stand the test of time. Things said eons ago remain in the back of our minds, securely stored in the crevices of our hearts becoming the driving force of our lives, the source of our power, the purpose of our existence. Words uttered by obscure human beings, once in the darkness of oblivion, have propelled them to the forefront of movements today that are larger than the lives they ever dared to imagine for themselves. I think often of the words of Abraham Lincoln's mother as she is said to have uttered on her death bed..."Be somebody, Abe. Be somebody." One life so inspired, went on to inspire a nation. Oh, the power of words to inspire, to regenerate, to create.

Today we have millions of words bundled into quotable quotes that continue to inspire millions of people to action. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech brings into sharp focus the plausibility and possibility of a mere trifling notion. Philosophies expressed thousands of years ago by men of varying literary abilities still cause us to reflect deeply upon the issues of life, to pause to ponder the substantive, to consider their life-changing and life-giving nature. Fortunately for us, words never got in the way of these men saying what needed to be said.

 But think not for a moment that I contemplate the matter of the power of words merely as a one-sided affair. For whether we accept this as truth or not, in the same way that words have the power to create and re-create they have the power to demotivate, to hurt, to destroy to kill. Many a dream has died at the tip of a naysayer's tongue. Many relationships have ended because of words laid carelessly on the altar of unrequited love. Recognizing, therefore, the power of words to inspire or demotivate, to create or kill, I choose life. I choose everyday, deliberately, to read words that are life-giving, to listen to words that inspire me to greatness....to aspire, to learn to speak words that have the power to call out the best in others and inspire those in my sphere of influence to speak and write and live like the existence and prosperity of future generations depend on it. I choose life!    

It's not the harvest, but the seeds that matter...

In our quest for personal growth it is easy to become distracted and discouraged when we look back over the years and try to trace our results. Unkept resolutions, unmet targets, unfulfilled goals can have a daunting effect on your desire to keep making the effort. Failures, of whatever magnitude, overtake the psyche and manifest in a reduced estimate of our value. The fact is, the reason we work so hard is so that we can generate the results we seek - family vacations, a new home, a larger customer base or greater market share. Nothing motivates us more than what we'll get at the end of process. We envisage, we engage, we produce for the sole purpose of reaping the harvest that comes at the end of our labours. But the harsh reality is that nobody guarantees us the results we look for.

Oh don't get me wrong....the old adage "as a man sows, so shall he reap" still holds true. No-one would readily deny that that the quality of our harvest is directly linked to the quality and quanitiy of the seed. And to take it even further, life has taught me that indeed very often we reap more than we sow......be that good or evil. No doubt, we "sow to the wind and reap a whirlwind." But there are times when the seeds we sow fall by the way-side or on fallow ground; You may plant and neglect to tend........ There's no telling just how many ways the harvest can be affected. It's a truth we must all prepare for and learn to live with.

And so, though I have come to realize that the results I produce are crucial to my material and emotional well-being, I have also learned that though we may work to change the seed, the soil and the sower (ourselves) to improve our chances of success, there are many times when the results we seek are outside of our control. And in those instances I resort to the wisdom of the nineteenth century author and poet, Robert, Louis Stephenson, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." Talk about saving me some anxiety!! What better formula is there for taking life's anxieties down a notch and being gentle with yourself?

And so, for me,  each day now now is not so much about taking inventory of the harvest. It's not so much about the things I gained.....how many points I scored, how many targets met or goals achieved. These days it's much more about the seeds I planted....the relationships I invested in, the effort I made to ignite hope in someone else's heart, the faith I engendered in a dispairing friend, the money I saved or gave away....Yes, it may seem counter-intuitive (aren't most of life's deepest truths, anyway?), but you will find that the best measure of your day's productivity is not the size of the harvest but the seeds you sow. Remember, the harvest is not guaranteed. It behooves us, therefore, to focus our attention on the seed - its quality, the way we scatter them and the timing of our planting.

"Purchase Bewilderment"

In this age of extreme self-awareness and conscientious living – when people are striving to be intentional about their decisions and actions, there is a curious lack of a pulse, a disconcerting absence of a sense of wonder that leads me to ponder the words of the poet Rumi, “sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.” Sage advice if you ask me, but one hardly likely to be taken seriously in this so-called era of enlightenment.

As a people we have taught ourselves to see yet not feel, to look yet not discern. It’s been all head and very little heart. Who knows, maybe that’s a strategy that serves its purpose well. I believe it insulates us. The busy-ness, the sleeplessness, the rush to achieve has caused us not to be awed by the beauty all around and to not take hold of the sense of wonder that is so available to us.

But were we to sell our cleverness and purchase bewilderment, how awed we would be by our babies’ first steps, the innocence of childhood, the eloquence in silence, the miraculous mundane,  the potent words of a song that speak hope to our souls. How awed might we be by the light of someone else’s wisdom; how connected we could feel to humanity. We have chosen instead a cloak of cleverness and enlightenment, unwilling to be exposed to the vulnerability of ignorance or dependence. We have become adept at building walls of control and power. “I’ve got this” is the natural consequence of our ‘can do’ attitude.

But beauty and awe, wonder and bewilderment are all around us. It is the joy of family chatter around the dinner table; it’s the feel of your own heart, with hand pressed firmly against your chest. It is the tear that you allow yourself to shed as you learn to let life in; it’s the doting of your little girl. It’s insight. It’s emotional intelligence.

So much has been lost on us because of our lack of this sense of wonder. To our own detriment, we have called everything common. From this point on, why not let’s get deliberate about purchasing bewilderment? Let’s practice to feel even as we see. As we acquire knowledge, let’s seek understanding too.  Let’s apply a keen sense of discernment, let’s 'take a trip inside our minds to find wonders we can't define,' let's pursue, at risk of losing the facade of our emotional security, life's all important “ah-ha moments”. It'll be well worth it.

What do I do in the meantime?

This is a question I find I have been turning over and over in my mind in recent times. The period of waiting – that time between where you are now and where want to be- can be hard. Whether it be a long-term life improvement process or short-term waiting for a change in our circumstances, it’s no different. Be it the empty womb of a woman waiting through years of barrenness and harsh seasons of emotional drought, an ill-at-ease mom sitting in the waiting room of a hospital theatre, or simply an unemployed person yearning for the words ‘you’ve got the job’ the period of waiting can be lonely and desperate. Yes, that ‘in the meantime’ has the power to make or break you.

Yet it is at this time that we have to most vigilantly guard our attitudes. Worry and anxiety have a way of deteriorating into self-pity and bitterness. The very potent nature of our concerns, the immediacy of our needs will tend, if we are not careful, toward us becoming victims of our circumstance. Resentment, anger and envy very often attend this period, as time unbearably appears to stretch into eternity. It is a time when we must ensure that our vision of the future is so clear that we are able to borrow from its inspiration. The more clearly we are able to see the future and sense its promise, the more likely we are to overcome the challenge of the ‘meantime’.

Attitude is everything. Whether we are aware of it or not, our attitudes eventually determine the extent of the vision that is actually realized. And the fact is, that no-one can control our attitudes except us. We get to decide what happens on the other side of the ‘meantime.’ We have the choice of coming through unscathed or, on the other hand, falling prey to the dangers of a volatile attitude.

But how do we guard against those feelings and actions that have the potential to drag us down the wrong path? While we wait, we must learn to pull on the positive personal philosophies that have kept us grounded in the past. We must get deliberate about reminding ourselves of what is good and right in the present moment. We must teach ourselves to ‘think summer all winter;’ we teach ourselves to be grateful in all things; we "lift our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help"; we remind ourselves that ‘This, too, shall pass;” we make conscientious effort to create change…doing all that is in our power to do....and then we extend our faith beyond ourselves.... and trust, knowing that we will get safely to the other side.