Monday Morning Inspiration: Leap

Scobberlotch (v) to loaf around doing nothing in particular: Monday Morning Inspiration: Leap: 

“If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore ..." 

Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.” 

Ray Bradbury

Inspiration, photo and post of the day by Karen Harrington and scobberlotch.blogspot

The Adventure of Life

“I could see how my life was going to be 20 years from now. I knew exactly where I would be, what I would be doing and I didn’t like what I was seeing at all.”

I was listening to my friend carefully, at the same time reflecting on my inability to answer the simple question “what are you going to do this weekend?”.

There we were; the two extremes: one who could see everything about his life in the future and one who had absolutely no idea, not even for the following day.

Around 20 years ago, I had my entire future before me: a very organized, safe life. I felt unhappy even at the thought of it and I left the country (and that future) immediately.

Not knowing where I am going to be is not at all scary. For me, insecurity is not about the future. It is about the here and now: how to overcome the difficulties of an adverse environment. The future? It can only be exciting, like an adventure, and I do not need to know every part of it, like in all genuine adventures.  

The Educational Paradox

We grow up learning about people, icons that are role models and an inspiration. Scientists, politicians, activists, explorers, artists, business people, religious leaders. Awakening, rebel or visionary spirits of all kinds, full of accomplishments to admire.

At the same time – oh the paradox – we learn how to choose a job that will pay the rent, how to study what will guarantee us this job, what to buy, what to have, how to live, think, value. We learn to repress our own vision and aspirations, our passions, dreams and desires just to make sure we will be able to adjust, adapt and survive.

Yet most of these figures, who we learn about in our schools, universities and families, who we read about in magazines, whose quotes we stumble upon every now and then and whose biographies we buy, had one thing in common:

They did the opposite of what we are being taught and followed their vision and passion. 

Stop Postponing Life

When it comes to procrastination, the focus is on the tasks we postpone. There is a sort of procrastination that is worse: procrastinating life.

We keep postponing our happiness, our life, for when we will have X thing, we will be in Z place, we will be with Y person(s).

We transfer our happiness to that magical moment/place, where everything happen in those imaginary perfect conditions and we ignore the here and now.

Happiness is here. If we decide it to be. Life is every moment. We can accept it or not. And we can be grateful for it and smile about it and start opening our eyes and seeing for the first time eveything that we have.

Or we can keep focusing on what we do not have, on everything that exists in that imaginary perfect place we will someday reach and, until then, be resentful and have all the "reasons" in the world to not smiling – yet.

People, your life is now. Stop procrastinating happiness and start living. 

Best thing I heard today

"Even when I have insomnia, I dream."

Photo: Joel Robison 

Happiness and the Absence of Dichotomy

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.” (Pablo Picasso)

I finished my work this evening with a huge smile on my face. I thought it was because of something new that I had created, plus the wonderful feedback from a student earlier today. Then I ran into this phrase and I realized the source of my daily smile.

I am not going to write that I am lucky, because it is not luck that has brought me here, to the absence of dichotomy in my life. It is perseverance, resilience, persistence and the determination not to compromise when it comes to my happiness.

According to Henri Matisse “creativity takes courage”. Leading our life is a creative process and if we want to experience happiness and fulfillment in it, the only thing we need is the commitment to be courageous. 

photo credit: http://stephanielevy.blogspot.gr/p/e-courses.html

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments: Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World

On Secret Dreams

“What is your secret dream?” asked the actress her co-protagonist in a movie.

“You know”, she continued, “the secret you only reveal after consuming a sufficient amount of alcohol”.

Their dialogue continued but I was already lost in my thoughts. Why have a secret dream? Secret from whom?

We keep dreams secret not from others, but from ourselves. It’s our own judgment that we are afraid of. We are either intimidated by the power our dreams can have, or we want to spare ourselves the frustration of not accomplishing them. Oh, there is also the belief we might have grown up with: that dreams do not come true; they belong to fairy tales.

What is left then? If we do not confess our dreams not even to ourselves, if we keep them so secret that not even we can know them, then how are we supposed to go after them? How are we supposed to live a happy, fulfilling life?

Martin Luther King's, Jr. speech and actions were about his dream. What would have happened if that had been a secret dream?

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” (Carl Sandburg)

Dare to dream. And dare to dream loudly. Let your dreams be known to others but most importantly to yourself. Talk confidently about them and surrender to the direction they will take you. 

Happiness

An ordinary scene: my two nieces and their buddy around a table, eating pizza and telling jokes. And just with this view, seeing them healthy, carefree, smiling, growing up, one word only filled my mind and my heart:

Staying True to My Vision

“If it’s such a good opportunity, why don’t you take advantage of it?” a friend and colleague asked me today. I had just shared with her news of what seemed an excellent career opportunity.

Well, everything did seem ideal and I had referred another colleague for the position. The company is great and the owner is a person who is delightful to work with. However, he has his own vision of what he is creating. Working with him would have meant giving up my vision of what I want to create.

The reply left my lips spontaneously and with confidence:

“I prefer to fail going after my dreams, than succeed achieving someone else’s dreams.”

© Eternal Optimists

Privileges of a Catalyst

One of the things that I love as an ICF member and coach is that our vision is about humanity flourishing.

It is this service to humanity that made me so passionate about my job. As coaches we have the unique privilege to witness the transformation; the flourishing; the unfolding of the potential that was all there from the beginning and for which we were just a catalyst.

Today I met with a former client, a very talented young woman. She is expecting her first child, she is in a loving and caring relationship and her business is doing better and better. I was seeing her glow. Our first meeting came to my mind. Seeing her now in her best self, confident and happy, I felt in owe of the greatness of the human spirit and of the wonderful things we are all capable of doing and becoming.

Once again I felt privileged to belong to this profession and humbled by the gifts it can bring. 

What is your vision?

The vision process is always self-examination. It’s never “God, I want this. Make this happen.” It’s always “What do I have to become to live the vision, to manifest it, to reveal it?” The visioning process, then, is a process of transformation of the individual.                                                                                            Reverend Michael Beckwith

Have a vision. Define it and boldly go after it. And remember: 

Some times we must let go of who we are in order to become who we can be.

Incompatible Dreams

Two days ago a friend of mine told me that not all dreams are compatible. That we can have, for example, two dreams that are totally incompatible one with another, and that is ok. Hearing that, both my mind and my spirit impulsively revolted at the idea.

Since I was a child, my dream was to live in a boat. As close to the sea as possible, yet attached to land and always ready to sail for any destination the wind should take me. Soon I became aware of another dream of mine: to have my own garden. Now that was an incompatible dream according to my friend. I obviously could not have a garden on my boat. So, what do I choose? Should I sacrifice one dream for the other?

The solution for me is easy. One day I would have my boat, my second home. I would live in a regular house, if lucky with my own garden, if not with a shared one and big verandas for my plants and then I would have my boat to spend as much time as possible, to sail away as possible.

To my understanding the solution is never giving up on one of the “incompatible” dreams. I do not believe in incompatible dreams in the first place. It is our perception that gives them this stamp. And once they are stamped as that, then it is ok not to pursue them anymore. If we say that what we dream of is incompatible, that’s what it is. If we say – as my father keeps telling me – that everything is possible, then no dream will be incompatible anymore. All it takes is to think outside of the box. To be more precise, other people’s boxes, those who “educate” us in what is compatible and what not. How much to dream and how much to pursue. What makes sense and what not.

I have many dreams. I have never stopped dreaming. Occasionally I catch myself doubting my strength to go after them; my ability to achieve them; my worthiness to live them. I may question my self, but I have never questioned my dreams or the possibility that they are all compatible, no matter how contradictory they sound.

 George Bernard Shaw wrote:

“You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”

It is the fact that some dreams have never been combined to the understanding of people that makes them seem incompatible. Our world is full of great things that never were until someone came and acted from that “why not?” point of view.

Funnily enough, the dreams that were torturing my friend, were the exact dreams that another man I know is living. Ok, with a lot of help from his soul mate, who also never saw them as incompatible.  Maybe, all it takes is to ignore what we have been taught to be compatible and expected. Maybe all it takes is to find the other soul that will partner with our dreams. 

I will keep with my own dreams. I never judge them, criticize or approve them as unrealistic, unachievable, or incompatible one with another. I just accept them as they are. After all they are my dreams and they only need to make sense to me.