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Posts Tagged ‘failure’

  1. All Aboard for Greatness

    November 22, 2013 by Diane

    green retro cartoon locomotive

    Feeling a size smaller than when you stood up this morning?

    Well, you’ve come to the right place.

    Here, you’re as tall as you want to be.

    Here, you’re the next best app.

    Here, you’re wealthy with friends and creative ideas and energy and oh yeah…money. But money isn’t the focus. It’s what you do with your chops that inspires folks to open their billfolds, their purses, their money clips, their back pockets, their bank accounts, their cookie jars.

    So lay it out for all to see. Display the goods. There’s no failure here. There’s no right or wrong. This is the no-judgment zone.

    Those squirrelly thoughts that pooh-pooh your magnificence…don’t listen to them. They’re all lies.

    Hope dwells here.

    You’ll find faith and motivation here, and the juice to motor you through the day and night and the next twenty years. Because here, my friend, is where you be. You are here. You’ve got all the tools, all the answers, all the necessary hope packed inside you. No need to look elsewhere. It’s all aboard.

    All aboard!

    No  limits, here.

    Something grand is coming.

     

     


  2. Only One Person Can Kill a Dream

    November 4, 2013 by Diane

    Superhero kid. Girl power concept

    Gloria remembers to turn on the porch light. She remembers to brush her teeth and set the alarm clock and give thanks for her blessings. But she forgets her yearnings until the lights are off and the covers draped over her shoulders and her eyes are closed behind the fuzzy pink sleep mask. Then she remembers:

    The inner child wanted to be a famous writer. Now the child is only allowed to read her work aloud in dreams, making garbled sounds, and someone in the audience yells “booooring!”  She wakes up, hearing the garbled sound leave her throat, and realizes that even in dreams the inner critic is awake.

    She drags herself through the day. She makes pancakes and drinks coconut milk. She practices her literary scales on the keyboard. She scraps it all, walks in circles around the neighborhood, and then confronts the keyboard again, daring it to write crap.

    Her inner critic whispers in her ear. No one wants to read your novel. Don’t embarrass yourself.

    “I’m not afraid of embarrassment,” Gloria snaps.

    You’ll fail.

    “What’s wrong with failing? Giving up is failing. Is that what you’re advising?”

    Don’t try. That way, you won’t be disappointed.

    “I’ll be disappointed if I don’t try.”

    Round after round, Gloria knocks him back into the corner. The critic smiles his twisted smile as a trainer sops sweat from his muscles then builds them back up with a brisk massage. She squeezes in a line of text before the critic is back swinging.

    If you publish your book and it bombs, you’ll be depressed. The pressure of writing will make you tense, raise your blood pressure. You’ll have a stroke. You’ll die.

    “Ah! At last. You’ve wound up in the gutter of death. Like a corpse, all decked out. If I’m dead, I won’t care what people think. And what people think is none of my business anyway.”

    You don’t believe that.

    “Listen to me, old man. Listen to me good. You won’t bring me down. You might knock me onto both knees, you might box my ears ‘till I can’t hear my wise self, but I’ll stagger up again. I’ll pull myself to the keyboard. I’ll write one lousy word after another and then come back a day later and mine the gems and write again. You can’t kill my dreams. You tried. You tried, and I let you. But not again. And if I see you in my dreams, I’ll squash you then too.”

    She left spittle on his face, on that twisted, contorted face.

    But no, it was the mirror she was looking into.

    It was the mirror, all along.


  3. Eliminate Regrets in One Easy Step

    October 7, 2013 by Diane

     eyeglasses and rose

    Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention…

    Paul Anka’s words, not mine. From the song My Way.

    Me, I’ve had more than a few; and if you’re like me you’ve got a truckload of your own. I say it’s time to mention those regrets. Here. Now. It’s time to exorcise those squirrelly voices that niggle us awake at three a.m. saying: If only you had done this instead of that, gone here instead of there, spent time with them instead of those. You shoulda, coulda, woulda, mighta–but you blew it. On and on, until you’re ready to scream UNCLE!

    Go ahead. Scream.

    Then take a deep breath and relax. I’ve got a prescription that will make us both feel better. I’ve got the antidote to this particular brand of squirreliness.

    Are you ready?

    Grab a pen and a notebook. At the top of the first page write the word “Regrets.”

    Underneath that, write the words “I regret I didn’t…”

    Now finish the sentence by listing those regrets, one by one. A dozen regrets.

    Here are mine:

    I regret I didn’t…

    Act with compassion instead of anger

    Accept what is instead of fighting it

    Spend more time being in the moment instead of trying to escape it

    Challenge my distorted thinking

    Break out of my comfort zone

    Set realistic goals

    Honor my need for rest

    Practice being mindful

    Spend more time with others

    Focus on the positive instead of the negative

    Play more

    Explore the spiritual realm

    Whew!

    Okay. Now it’s your turn. Make your list. Write down all those regrets that are rattling around in your gut, boxing at your heart, clogging up your throat, whining in your ears, pounding in your head. Spill them. Quickly! A dozen regrets.

    Then, when you’re done, cross out the word “regrets” at the top of the page.

    Replace it with the world “goals.”

    Underneath that, cross out “I regret I didn’t…” and write the words “this year I will…”

    That’s it.

    Same list, but you’ve turned your regrets into goals. Those are your intentions for the year. Your to-do list. Presto! No more regrets.  How easy is that?

    Here are my intentions:

    This year I will…

    Act with compassion instead of anger

    Accept what is instead of fighting it

    Spend more time being in the moment instead of trying to escape it

    …you get the picture

    Now for the not-so-easy part. Start at the top of your list and work your way down.  One intention a month. For a whole year. Starting now. Do it. Your way.

    And let me know how it goes.