Wednesday Wisdom 2/18/09

This week, while reading about the creative process, Carl Jung’s words leaped off the page and slapped me up side the head:

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

Ouch! And, it had to be written by one of my heroes! Double ouch. So, I say to myself, “Okay, no more postponing, procrastinating or excuse-making, get on with it.” Only to continue, “Get on with what? What is it that really makes me experience life fully lived?”

Ben Franklin wrote: Hell is when who you are meets who you could have been.

So, the questions begin:
• Who is it I long to become?
• What do I really crave from life? Better, yet, what is life asking of me?
• What yearnings are starved for attention?
• What dreams have never seen the light of day?
• Where do I hunger to contribute, yet remain non-productive by hesitation?
• Before I pass over, what do I really want to have, do, or be?
• What legacy will I leave with those I love?
• Who is it I really desire to become? Each day, are my routine, ordinary actions creating him/her?

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Wednesday Wisdom 2/11/09

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks. – Johann Gottfried Von Herder

Our beautiful and exceptionally talented goddaughter, Lauren Delapaz, plays for Eastern Michigan University’s women’s baseball team. Last week I found out one her coach’s strategies for success. Each and every day, a player brings an inspiring thought to team practice and the team contemplates it. Hum, great idea, huh?!?

It’s no wonder their team is motivated to drive for results. Somehow we all know it works for sports teams, so why wouldn’t it work for us? Why live without regular inspiration? Lauren’s coach, Karen Baird, teaches us that without specific intention, it’s easy to rush through our days with little or no attention to the small and great opportunities each day offers.

Some start each day with prayer to increase their awareness of the day’s gifts. Some meditate. The meditation may be contemplative prayer – a way to listen rather than always do the talking – a way to eventually reduce the mental chatter that so easily occupies the mind. Some read an inspiring passage to begin their day with mental readiness. What do you do to begin your day with a zest for life and attention to what the day will offer? If it’s nothing, you may want to reconsider the start of each day. And, today’s as good as any to begin.

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Wednesday Wisdom 2/04/09

Our beautiful daughter, Courtney, sent me this message last week:

The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating – in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.”
– Anne Morriss, from the back of a Starbucks cup

After commiserating with myself over what message she was trying to send me specifically (my internal critic is so tenacious!) I thanked Starbucks for sharing Anne’s insight. To let go of the counter-productive mental chatter, to disregard the self-hindering internal limits, to bypass the uselessness of second-guessing ourselves into hesitation, to finally commit and remove the greatest barrier – our head!

. . . the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. How many times have you deceived yourself into believing those hesitations were actually rational!?!

There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

What one step can you take today to move toward the achievement of a commitment your heart has been yearning for and your head has been hesitating about?

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