photo credit: serdir

“Thought is the wind, knowl­edge the sail, and mankind the ves­sel.” ~ August Hare

Wind.  It blows, some­times in our favor, some­times against us.

I  remem­ber one par­tic­u­lar day when I went out for an after­noon run.  The wind was blow­ing, at my back.  My run started so easy.  I felt like run­ning was effort­less (and it’s usu­ally not).  It felt so good.  Cruis­ing along.  And that all was fine and good, until I had to turn around and come home.  All of the sud­den, run­ning became much harder.  It was no longer easy, my pace much slower.  The wind, not at my back, was now a force to deal with instead of a push in the direc­tion I was going.

And don’t we have these “winds” in our life.  Some­times they blow in our favor, and some­times they blow against us.  And both can be ben­e­fi­cial, if we allow them to be.

When we have winds blow­ing in our favor, the wind at our back, per se — every­thing is flow­ing very well.  Things in our life are click­ing along.  At times, it feels effort­less to get done what­ever activ­ity we’re work­ing on.

And then, at other times, we face a strong head­wind in our daily lives.  Those days when things just don’t go as planned.  The days when we stub our toe get­ting out of bed.  Burn our tongue drink­ing cof­fee.  Get a speed­ing ticket on our way to work.  And that’s all before 8 A.M in the morn­ing.  You know what I’m talk­ing about.  Those days when we just seem to know, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.

And I say we embrace both of these “days” — the good, and the bad.  These are the winds that can bring last­ing change into our lives.  If we choose to allow our­selves to accept these winds as oppor­tu­ni­ties to embrace them.

In the good, we can embrace the fact that we are able to cruise along and really enjoy the ride.  Some­times it’s just nice to be able to savor the moments in life.  These are them.  We can ride these winds, steer­ing our lives in the direc­tion we desire.

In the bad, we can embrace the oppor­tu­ni­ties we have to learn and grow.  We may not learn much from stub­bing our toe.  Or do we?  We learn where “not” to step.  To maybe turn on a light.  And more impor­tantly, when we face the big­ger chal­lenges in our daily lives — when projects fail, when a meet­ing goes south, when a cus­tomer just won’t budge…these are times when we have great oppor­tu­nity to learn and grow.  If we choose to.  The choice is ours, to embrace these moments — or not.  If we embrace these moments, these winds that are lead­ing us to change our course, we have an awe­some oppor­tu­nity to really change our projects, our work, our lives.

The next time the winds of change blow in your life, how are you going to han­dle them?

photo credit: jurvet­son

“Be like the bird that, paus­ing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, know­ing that she hath wings.” ~ Vic­tor Hugo

In a post over at Lov­ing Pulse, Davina wrote Look Ma, I Can Fly.  A story about a baby pigeon and his days lead­ing up to the moment he spread his wings and flew.

This got me think­ing about how the life of a bird is like our life.

The nest is our safety zone.  A place of com­fort.  This could be our home, a famil­iar face, a rou­tine we fol­low, or what­ever else it is that makes us feel safe.  Our com­fort zone.  But some­times we have to leave the nest.  Some­times we have to head out into areas we are not famil­iar with, doing things we haven’t done before.  Some­times we have to get out of our com­fort zone.  Espe­cially if we want to grow and really live our life.

And that’s when we need to spread our wings, like a majes­tic bird high in the sky, spread our wings and soar!  Maybe we’ll crash the first few times, but the more we keep at it, the sooner we WILL be soar­ing.  Soar­ing to new heights in our life.

What nest are you in right now?  What’s your com­fort zone?  Is it time to step out of it, and fly to new heights?

Think about it.  Maybe your good where you’re at right now.  That’s ok.  Some­times your com­fort zone is the right place to be.  But maybe, your com­fort zone has become a lit­tle too comfortable.

Spread your wings and fly!

“Our great­est glory is not in never fail­ing, but in ris­ing up every time we fail.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is there some­thing that you want very much, but have not achieved in get­ting?  I’ve been there, you’ve been there.  The things that are worth fight­ing for, the things that mat­ter most to you — those are the things you shouldn’t give up on.

Watch­ing the video above, the ball looks to be one that can’t be caught.  The player gives up on it.  How­ever, the ball girl see this as an oppor­tu­nity to make a spec­tac­u­lar catch.  At the risk of get­ting hurt or being embar­rassed.  And she does it any­way.  Sure, she could have missed the ball.  Sure, she could have crashed into the wall.  If she never tries, though, she’ll never know.  She could have given up on the ball too.  Rea­son said that this was not a ball that could be caught.  Rea­son said that it should not be chased after.  And this would have been just another play in the game.  One that really didn’t mean much.  But rea­son doesn’t always win games.  Base­ball games.  Or the game of our life.

When we aim high, some­times that means tak­ing risks.  And it’s in tak­ing risks that we have the great­est oppor­tu­nity to suc­ceed and reach the next level, what­ever that is.  Some­times we’ll fail, espe­cially if we’re aim­ing high.  That’s ok.  It’s in fail­ing that we are pre­sented with a real oppor­tu­nity to learn and grow.  And if we really want that some­thing, then we shouldn’t give up.  We should try again.  Suc­cess may be just around the next corner.

What’s hold­ing you back from mak­ing that “great catch” in your life?  Dare wildly, act coura­geously, and live the life you desire!  Don’t ever give up on yourself!

UPDATE: I have just found out that the video above was staged.  Still, the idea behind it, that we shouldn’t give up, is one worth pur­su­ing in all endeav­ors that hold spe­cial mean­ing to us.

“I pray for a more friendly, more car­ing, and more under­stand­ing human fam­ily on this planet. To all who dis­like suf­fer­ing, who cher­ish last­ing hap­pi­ness, this is my heart­felt appeal.” ~ Dalai Lama

We have a win­ner!  Cheer­ful, come on up!

What do you choose — cheer­ful or depress­ing?  OK, are you por­tray­ing that?  With all of your com­mit­ments, all of your busy-ness, is cheer­ful the mes­sage that comes across?  Or, some­times does your demeanor show some­thing less than cheerful?

I stopped at our local gas sta­tion a cou­ple of days ago.  After fill­ing the car up with fuel, I went inside to pay the cashier.  And the gen­tle­man behind the counter was just gen­uinely cheer­ful.  He radi­ated hap­pi­ness.  At a job that prob­a­bly is mostly thank­less.  It wasn’t just take my money, give me a receipt, and move on to the next cus­tomer in line.  It was engag­ing me in con­ver­sa­tion, gen­uinely enjoy­ing the oppor­tu­nity to be of ser­vice to me, and giv­ing me a lit­tle extra bounce in my step as I left.  Will I go back here for gas in the future?  You bet I will!  Through a sim­ple act of being cheer­ful, one employee left a last­ing impact on me.

Think about the pro­found effect we could all have if we did this just a lit­tle more in our daily lives.  If we were all just a lit­tle more cheer­ful.  Cheer­ful is con­ta­gious!  It was for me after I left the gas sta­tion.  Just like depress­ing can be con­ta­gious.  We have the choice of how we treat oth­ers. What we choose can and does affect other peo­ple around us.  What do you choose — cheer­ful or depressing?

I chal­lenge you today to find ways in your every­day life to be just a lit­tle more cheer­ful.  To spread hap­pi­ness a lit­tle more than you already do.  It doesn’t have to be big and grand.  Look for the lit­tle things you can do.

Make it a GREAT day today — for you and for those around you!

photo credit: Cheeky­biker­boy

“When you love peo­ple and have the desire to make a pro­found, pos­i­tive impact upon the world, then will you have accom­plished the mean­ing to live.” ~ Sasha Azevedo

How do our actions (or inac­tions) affect other peo­ple?  Some­times we know right away.  Some­times we never know.  The thing is, though, that we never know when our actions might affect some­one in ways we never realize.

Life is full of oppor­tu­ni­ties to be a pos­i­tive influ­ence on oth­ers.  Or a neg­a­tive influ­ence on oth­ers.  We have the choice.  And what we do or don’t do can be the dif­fer­ence between some­one else soar­ing to new heights or floun­der­ing where they are.

When I began writ­ing here, I was writ­ing mostly for me.  At first there were very few vis­i­tors.  That’s prob­a­bly com­mon.  In a sea of blogs, mine was another one amongst many.  I had no estab­lished post­ing pat­tern.  I was new.  I was still learn­ing (I still am).

Then one day I stum­bled upon a site that had many answers to some of the ques­tions I had in this new world I’d entered.  A site that seemed to gen­uinely care for it’s vis­i­tors, and it’s vis­i­tors for the site.  I had hap­pened upon Bar­bara over at Blog­ging With­out A Blog.  Bar­bara had a strong com­mu­nity of sup­port­ers, and peo­ple who gen­uinely wanted to help oth­ers to suc­ceed.  What a great place to visit!

One of the fea­tures on Barbara’s web­site is some­thing she calls “New Blog Of The Week” (NBOTW).  She picks a new blog each week (one that has not been around very long, less that four months I believe) and high­lights it on her site for the week.  And, although Bar­bara had already made an impact on me just from the read­ing I was doing at her site, through her gen­er­ous heart, she asked me to be high­lighted on her site as NBOTW in early July. And, this is where her impact had a very pro­found and pos­i­tive affect on me.  She offered me her world, and in turn, I was able to intro­duce my blog to a group of very community-oriented peo­ple.  A group of peo­ple that could help to give my writ­ing more mean­ing.  This moment became the one where I was able to take my writ­ing to the next level.  A chance to really share with oth­ers.  A defin­ing moment in my writing.

And, she does this every week, choos­ing a blog that is new and still get­ting estab­lished, that she sees poten­tial with, and gives them a chance to soar.  For Bar­bara, it’s about help­ing oth­ers suc­ceed.  In a world where we’re plas­tered with mes­sages about “me, me, me”, Bar­bara shows us that to make a real dif­fer­ence, it’s about “you, you, you”.  About help­ing oth­ers.  About being a pos­i­tive influence.

Thank you, Bar­bara, for giv­ing me wings!

We all have the oppor­tu­nity to affect oth­ers in pro­found ways.  Every day.  What are you doing today that is hav­ing a pos­i­tive affect on oth­ers?  What can you do to be a light for some­one else?  The oppor­tu­nity is always there…

photo credit: sek­tor­dua

“The unex­am­ined life is not worth liv­ing.” ~ Socrates

Tues­day.  A beau­ti­ful, sunny day.  A brisk, late sum­mer morn­ing.  I head out the door, and hit the road.  Less than a mile out — fog.  Quickly, I had went from bright and sunny to dark, damp, and foggy.  From see­ing for­ever, to see­ing just a short way in front of me.  Fog.

And don’t we have fog in our lives some­times?  We’re going along, and every­thing is bright.  And then, out of nowhere, fog.   Not the fog we expe­ri­ence in nature.  But the fog that can cloud our vision.  The fog that can men­tally slow us down.  The fog that chal­lenges us to look at things with a closer eye.  The fog that causes us to really exam­ine our lives.

Fog In My Life

I“m going back a few years, to a time when I wasn’t tak­ing care of my body the way I should.  I made poor choices in my diet, and didn’t exer­cise at all.  Every­thing seemed bright and sunny.  This was a grad­ual process of putting on extra weight and becom­ing less active.  I wasn’t “see­ing” any notice­able changes — life was sunny.  Then, we attended a health fair, where basic read­ings were taken.  The results:  I should see a doc­tor.  High triglyc­erides, pre-hypertension, and bor­der­line high cho­les­terol.  Just like that, I had went from bright and sunny, into the fog.  Fog that made me slow down and think.  Fog that made me have to look more closely at what I was doing in my life.  To look at the choices I was making.

And so I did what we do when we’re dri­ving in fog.  I slowed down.  I paid more atten­tion to what was going on — in this case what I was feed­ing my body.  I exam­ined where I was going with my life — in this case how it related to my body and to my health.  Through doing this, I dis­cov­ered the impor­tance of eat­ing healthy and get­ting proper exer­cise.  Once I dis­cov­ered this, the fog lifted.  I made it through the fog, and moved my life down a path that was much brighter.

The fog, in this case a wake-up call on my health, had been just what was needed to make me real­ize the sun-laden road I thought I was on was really lead­ing me into the fog.  What I thought was a bright and sunny path really had fog lurk­ing right around the cor­ner.  For me, the fog had been with me for some time, I just wasn’t see­ing it right beside me.  Once I did, and exam­ined why it was there, I found my way back to the true sun­shine of my life.  A healthy lifestyle that really changed my whole out­look on life.

Fog In Your Life

We all have had ‘fog’ in our lives.  How we deal with that fog will deter­mine how we come out of any given sit­u­a­tion.  Maybe it’s been a men­tal fog.  Maybe some sort of phys­i­cal fog.  The fog I described in my life was really a com­bi­na­tion of the two.  Do we slow down in the fog, and really exam­ine what is going on?  Or do we just keep dri­ving through it nor­mally, even though we can’t see where we’re going?

I encour­age you to slow down when you dis­cover fog in your life.  Slow down and take the time to exam­ine why there is fog.  For it is through this exam­i­na­tion of the fog in your life, that will lead you back to the sun­shine of life.  To roads that are brighter.  And to a life worth liv­ing.  Worth liv­ing on your terms.