Posts Tagged ‘passion’

Realizing Your Dreams

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Each and every moment in your life is extremely precious. Each moment represents unlimited potential for creating the life you have always dreamed of, the life you were meant to be living, the life that fulfills your purpose on this planet.

If you are one of the few people that has figured this out, congratulations. If you are among the many who continue to think that there is something more to life than just going through the motions, then now is the time to start working towards living your life’s purpose. What are you waiting for?

What is your dream? What is it that you most desire but don’t currently have in you life? What is it that you are meant to be doing with your life?

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” Carl Sandberg

None of these are easy questions to answer, but once you ask them you will begin the process of opening the doors of perception and begin to naturally move towards reaching your full potential.

I know that for some of us it is just too hard to even start the process of thinking about how to achieve what it is that we dream of for our lives. It is just easier not to think about it. Finding the answers to these questions might mean that we have to change what we are currently doing, change who we live with , change our careers or even move to another location. These are just a few of the reasons why so many people settle and never take the powerful steps needed to reach for something more in their lives in order to discover what the purpose of their life really is.

“To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.” William James

Even if we want to change we can get stuck in a rut. Like a broken record we continue to do what we have always done because it’s more comfortable, like our favorite pair of old worn jeans. At some point you have to make the change and throw those jeans away or find a new use for them. You need to change elements of your life every once in a while otherwise you will start to get tired, worn out, and bored. This leads to complacency and a mental plaque that prevents you from seeing the opportunities around you. You are unique, you are special, you have a purpose in life and it is important to you and the world that you pursue your purpose in life and live it.

What are you waiting for?

You can start by writing down everything you have dreamed about what your life could be. Write down all that comes to you as fast as you can. Don’t think about how whacked out your dreams may be. Don’t stop and think, “This is just too much for anyone to think is real.” Don’t worry at all about what it is you are writing down. Just do it! You can do it!

“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; they nurse them thought bad day until they bring them to the sunshine and the light that always comes to those who sincerely hope that there dreams will come true.”Woodrow Wilson

After you have written down your dreams, even if just one, post them on the mirror in your bathroom. Look at them each morning. Think about what it would be like if your dreams became real. How would you feel?

The next step is to write down what you need to do to make your dreams real. Start taking these steps. It may take weeks. It may take months. It may take years. It may take a lifetime. It doesn’t matter because you are living your dreams and nothing could be more important.

“Allow yourself to dream and fantasize about your ideal life; what it would look like, and what it would feel like. Then do something everyday to make it a reality.” Brian Tracy

What are you waiting for?

In my life I work everyday to live my dreams and my life’s purpose. The more I work at this the easier it becomes. Really. I will say this. Your life will never be the same once you embark on this process because you will enter into the great unknown and the world will open up for you. You will start meeting people who are aligned with your dreams and will want to help you. You will start to experience new challenges that will stretch you, enabling you to grow. You will start going with the flow of life. You will start living your purpose. What could be more important?

If you desire to live your life with greater meaning and purpose there is no time like the present to start. You can do it!

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams and endeavors to live the life that he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Henry David Thoreau

What are you waiting for?

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Living Life

Friday, August 1st, 2008

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Just suppose you were living life exactly the way you have imagined you want it to be. What does that look like? Are you traveling around the world? Are you swimming with dolphins? Where are you living? What kind of car are you driving? How are you helping the world? Are you taking time to just be? Are you creating that piece of art you have always wanted to create? What kind of career do you have? How are you spending your leisure time?

“Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer.” Ernest Holmes

If you are already living your life exactly the way you have imagined it, congratulations. You are among the select few in the world who have achieved such bliss in life. For the rest of us who continue to dream about a life still not fully achieved there is hope. For each new day has the potential of opening new doors of possibilities. The key is to stay optimistic even through the dark times, the times when our path to living the life we know is possible is shadowed by the daily challenges of living.

It is easy to gain enthusiasm for a dream in the short term. It is a very different thing to remain enthusiastic for that dream through the passing of time. Creating and living the life you want and imagine takes time and hard work. Very few things worth obtaining in life are easy to achieve. This is why so many people fall short, giving up and settling for what is instead of what can be. Don’t let this happen to you. You have too much to give back.

When you stay optimistic you are able to see the doors of possibility opening up in front of you. You are able to go through these doors and explore the possibility to see if this new opportunity supports you to live the life you have imagined and are supposed to live. You will start to see your continued perseverance begin to pay off. Each day you make choices that either support your drive to live the life you dream of, or work to hold you back from living that life. We all need to be vigilant to keep the daily stuff that fills our lives from taking over and limiting our ability to see new opportunities.

Just living in today’s “super human” environment is enough to drag anyone down. When you let skepticism and pessimism take over your state of being, you derail your efforts to living the life you have imagined. I have met many people who have let the challenges of living take over and suppress them from becoming what they know they can become. They have given up and, worst of all, in many cases only complained about their situations as if they had nothing to do with it. They did and you do too.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Suppose for example, that you are making only the best choices for your life from this point forward. What choices will you make? Who will you choose to hang out with? Who will you choose not to hang out with? What health choices will you make? What will you choose for your life?

I suppose life is a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows. It is how we choose to respond to these highs and lows and ups and downs that allow us to appreciate the highs that much more. Sometimes this may mean taking a day as a do over or just going to bed, looking forward to tomorrow and a new day. When you are able to focus on the positive even during the times when your path to living the life you know is possible is shadowed by the daily challenges of living, you are on your way to making the most out of your life and the life of those around you.

“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.” Anon

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Have You Hugged Your Barn Today?

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

As humans we have more in common with each other than some people might realize. We all need to get at least 5 to 6 hours of sleep each and every night. We all need to eat food and drink water if we are to survive for very long. Every one of us has something that we are passionate about, being passionate is something that we all are born with.

One of my greatest passions is an old barn. I love them, hug them, collect them, dismantle them, and I creatively adapt the barn wood for new purposes. Right now I am taking old wood flooring from a barn that had a previous life on Patricia Island and I am now transforming the rare material into a bar top in my downtown Tulsa loft. Looking at the old and visualizing how I can transform it into something new is one of the ways that I explore and use my creativity.

What are you passionate about? What do you hug?

“Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

My passion for barns was not something that I was aware of until I moved to Grand Lake. I discovered this passion quite by accident. One day when I was driving through the back roads of Grand Lake I passed a barn that I had admired for some time. It had a lot of character and I often wondered what stories it could have told of times past. That is why I was horrified to see that it was on fire. My heart raced as I drove straight to the barn and started pulling its smoldering wood out of the flames. I wondered why this wonderful barn wood was being so carelessly and permanently destroyed.

It was at that moment that I discovered a new passion within myself, a passion for barns and barn wood. I became a barn hugger. The important thing to remember is that things you are passionate about give you clues to better understanding and living your purpose in life. This was the first of many barns that I began saving and salvaging before they could be burned to the ground. They became one of the cornerstones of my purpose, which is making a positive difference and showcasing what is possible.

“A hug delights and warms and charms; that must be why God gave us arms.”
Author Unknown

We all have something we are passionate about enough to hug. What is it for you?

Dismantling and salvaging old barns is hard work, I mean really hard work. The first barn I dismantled was in Jay and I had no clue what to do or where to start, muscling the barn siding off with a crowbar was time consuming. Bugs, snakes, wasps, and heat made the work more challenging to say the least. I did not know what I did not know. I was fortunate to be able to enroll others into my vision and with their help figure out how to accomplish my goal of salvaging barns.

No one said that what you are passionate about will be easy or that it will not take effort to achieve. I could have chosen to throw in the towel and let my passion for barns go away. I could have let the hard work win. I could have given up and let my passion burn like the barn I found on the side of the road. Instead I persevered, because I felt passionately about my desire to salvage old barns and I could see how this was tied to my purpose. I now have over seven barns worth of wood saved from the flames of destruction, dismantled, stacked, and ready at anytime for a new life.

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.” Amiel

Many of us identify and feel our passions, it is only natural, and then we do nothing with them. We do not take the next step which is to follow the passion and let it take us on a journey to a new place, a place where we can discover something new about ourselves and move closer to reaching our full potential. Many of us stop when we experience the passion and we run from the feeling. Your passions are what it is all about. Take them by horns and run with them. Nothing could be more important than to live your passions. You can do it!

In my life I have many passions and I work to fulfill and feed each and every one of them. Some are more challenging to fulfill than others and some are yet to be discovered. One thing is for sure. Being passionate about following your passions is one of the most important ways to make the most out of your life.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
Harold Whitman

Have you hugged your barn today?

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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The Game of Life

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

As children growing up, we all learn how to play with one another through games, all kinds of games. I can remember playing flashlight tag with the other kids in my cul-de-sac. Monopoly was the most popular game with my family on rainy days. Candy Land was another favorite and then there was The Game of Life. I can hear the wheel in the middle of game board spinning right now. Where it lands nobody knows. Growing the biggest family, securing the best career, buying the house on the hill, all while avoiding the pit falls of playing The Game of Life.

If only playing the real game of life was as easy as the board game. How do you play the game of life?

“Life’s not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow.” Cherralea Morgen

Growing up I was never taught how to play the game of life. In fact, I have rebelled against buying into this game and instead created my own rules. I have experienced this game as unhealthy and full of low integrity people serving themselves before others. By creating my own game on the sidelines of the larger game, a kind of ghost in the machine, I have been able to excel with an “out-of-the-box” way of life that has served me well. At least, that is what I have thought. I have been proud to be an example of someone who has not played the game and been able to succeed in life against all odds.

Looking back on my childhood I can see that everything I needed to learn about playing the game could have been learned from my time in the sandbox. We had to share the toys that were available to us. Collaboration was necessary for those in the sandbox to get along and create something. When a bully would take a toy or your sandwich you had to decide to fight or flee. The interactions that took place in the sandbox are a great place to reflect upon how to play the game. What happens between childhood and adulthood that we loose these lessons?

“As we struggle to make sense of things, life looks on in repose.” Author Unknown

As I have become more motivated and focused on sharing the power of What Box? and have been consciously living it, it has become clear that I not only have to start playing the game but embracing playing the game. This is a major challenge. How does one step into the box, yet remain out-of-the-box and keep their sanity? Sounds like one of those wise sage questions that have no answer doesn’t it?

How odd, that to support people, organizations, communities and corporations to think more out-of-the-box you have to step into the box and play the game. This is the way it is and to create a meaningful impact in people’s lives it is critical to become a champ at playing the game. I have been in awe and at the same time in contempt of people who can play the game with great ease.

How can we learn to play the game even better and still remain unique?

“Life is not a final. It’s daily pop quizzes.” Author Unknown

I don’t even know how to fully enter the game. Is there a starting point? Did I miss it and now am I in the middle somewhere on the game board? How do I catch up? What are the rules and who created them? Is there more than one game? Is there a get out of jail free card? Do I get to pass Go and collect $200?

I believe the challenge is to stay conscious of the fact that we are all playing a game, while staying true to our values and mission in life. It’s kind of like standing next to yourself watching and reminding yourself not to take it too seriously and have fun while playing. Aren’t games supposed to be fun?

Like so many things in life and written in What Box? it takes tremendous practice to achieve the desired results. I have a feeling this one is going to take the rest of my life to figure out. I guess we all have to figure it out for ourselves.

“To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach.” Havelock Ellis

Playing the game is part of life. We can embrace it or repel it. Which will you choose?

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Passion for Life

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

The idea that we own something is really quite strange if you take the time and think about it for just a minute. Because our lives are temporary as such, so are our possessions. You can’t take them with you. When we are overly attached to the things that we own or desire to own, we run the risk of identifying ourselves with those things. Things we own and money we accumulate can be lost in a matter of minutes. If we become so attached to things that we loose our own unique self in the process we are setting ourselves up for disappointment and depression. That is because our ownership is temporary just like us. The measure of our greatness is not based upon what we take from the earth, but what we leave behind.

There is one thing that you have that is uniquely yours and you will still own no matter what is taken from you or lost. It is the most important thing you have and no one else has it except for you. No one can take it away from you. What is it? It is your passion for life, living your unique life in harmony with all life. This does not mean the drive for day-to-day lusts or the pursuit of self-actions. These will only prove to be short lived and unfulfilling, failing to bring any kind of lasting fulfillment.

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.” Amiel

Life is a great journey with ups and downs. Part of the process is living your life with passion and joy. Joseph Campbell liked to call it “following your bliss.” Here is what he had to say on the subject. “If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are, if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”

Living your life with passion has the ability to release the attachment of self-centered goals and aspirations that only fulfill the needs of your ego or self. Let’s face it. This is hard stuff. No one said the journey was easy. It is worth the pursuit because it means you are allowing your true self to arise and that nothing of real importance and value can be taken from you. When you are living your true passion, you become identified with your unique self, not things, stuff, or the limitations of the physical world.

So how do you discover your unique and powerful passion? Each and every moment of your life is an opportunity to uncover and live your unique passion. You will know when you are living your passion because everything will feel right. There will be no hesitation, no second thought. There will be nothing but harmony and bliss. You don’t need to do anything but let the harmony and passion flow through you. When you feel this kind of alignment with life, your unique passion, follow it, live it to the fullest, and don’t stop living it.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Harold Whitman

When you are living and following your passion, you align with what has been there all along just waiting for you to start living the life you are suppose to be living. When you can become aware of this you begin to meet people who are in alignment with your passion and new doors of opportunity will open. Please don’t be afraid of what is behind these doors. Stepping into the unknown will allow you to open the doors to live the life you are meant to be living. Go ahead, open the door and step on through. It is here that you will discover the passions that have the potential for you to live your life to the fullest.

Living your life of passion in the end will come from within and not from striving for outer appearances, what people will think, or from outer circumstances, what is happening to you. Nothing is more important or joyous than living and dancing the life that is uniquely you.

When you are living your life with passion you are quite honestly the richest person on the planet. No amount of gold or money can take its place. And here is the clincher. When you are living your passion, monetary rewards will flow through you more naturally. Your ability to detach will allow you to give more freely and in return gain greater rewards than you have ever thought possible. Just like a boomerang when you give without being attached to the outcome the rewards that come back to you are that much greater.

Go ahead. Align with “what is” instead of “what is not.” You are only here a short time. Make the most of it by “living your life with passion.”

Remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create for yourself.

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