Trillions of dollars change hands around the world everyday. More items, services and goods are bought and sold each minute than you could possibly imagine. More currency changes hands than you can possibly fathom.

Money, in other words, is virtually limitless. There’s more money in the world than you could ever need, want, acquire or imagine.

Your time, on the other hand, is limited. We are on this earth for 80 to 100 years in the best-case scenario. Some of us are visiting this world for a much shorter period of time.

So why do we treat our time as if its “free” and unlimited, while we treat money as though it’s a precious, limited commodity?

That’s not a rhetorical question. I believe we treat our time as though it’s not worth anything because we haven’t awoken to the greatness of our time. We’re unaware of how much we can create, and we don’t realize the possible scope and magnitude of our contribution to this world.

If we lack confidence, lack enthusiasm, and lack purpose, our time feels worthless. We’ll fritter away precious hours as though they’re free. We’ll channel-surf. We’ll devote hours to extreme couponing. We’ll handle our own tasks rather than outsourcing and delegating.

We learn to be frugal with our time, not our money, when we become aware of how valuable our lives are. Time is more precious than gold. Supplies are limited. When our time is over — it’s simply over. We can’t earn more.

So how can you awaken to the value of your time?

#1: Have a Purpose

Time feels worthless if you’re not living for anything. Your purpose can be whatever you want it to be. It can be work-related, home-related or anything else. Your purpose might be excelling at your job, or making money, or being a great parent, or being a wonderful community member.

#2: Limit Your Priorities

Stay focused on your purpose by concentrating in one or two areas of your life. Many people never achieve greatness when their mind is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Ruthlessly cull your priorities so that you’re concentrating on your mission.

#3: Accept What You’re Good At

As children, we’re taught to focus on the areas in which we’re less naturally inclined. If we’re great at reading but poor at mathematics, we’ll get tons of extra tutoring in math, while our natural reading talent holds steady.

As adults, we need to turn that around. Concentrate on developing the areas in which you have natural skill and interest. Outsource the rest.

by Paula Pant

You are in possession of something powerful. Something with the innate possibility to change the world. You walk around with it every day, but sadly, you’re likely oblivious to its paradigm-shifting potential. Don’t feel bad, however, for even the most advanced airport security scanners are completely unable to detect its presence.

What is it?

Your greatness.

That’s right, even Tony the Tiger would agree: You’re GREAT!  But I’m not talking in generic, “you’re great, I’m great, everybody’s great and should get a trophy” terms here. I’m talking about your inner superpower.

The tragedy is that this inner superpower is often under-appreciated and under-used, rendering it nearly powerless.

Your greatness is made up of the activities you are great at and most enjoy doing. The things that people marvel at, ask you to do, and thank you for. The things that come easy to you, the things you find most enjoyable.

The “easy” and “enjoyable” aspects are the trap. They lead you to take your greatness for granted. When something comes easy to us, we assume it must be that way for everyone, so we don’t see anything special in it. And if it’s enjoyable, we assume it’s not worth that much because anything worth having requires a lot of work, right?

Wrong!

This kind of thinking is Kryptonite to our inner superpower. The truth is, the things that come easy to us and create enjoyment are the very gifts we were given to help change the world. Rather than toiling away at building up our weaknesses, we need to unleash our infinite potential by focusing on our strengths. If you think about it, building up our weaknesses is our futile way of becoming self-reliant. But we were designed to be dependent on one another. Our job is to utilize the gifts of others while ruthlessly sharing our own.

Write down a list of at least 10 things you are great at (shoot for 20!) Then make a similar list of things you enjoy doing. Compare the lists and circle the things that overlap.

That’s your greatness. That’s your inner superpower.

Keep in mind, you don’t need to be the best in the world at any of those things to be great. The beauty is in the mix. Consider this quote from Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams:

I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The “Dilbert” comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created.

You may not be the absolute best at any one thing on your list. (Not many people are.) But that’s no reason to discount them. Chances are that if everyone in the world compared their lists of 20 things they are great at and enjoyed doing, no two lists would be exactly the same.

I hope you will take some time to make your own list to uncover and analyze your inner superpower.

I urge you to quit taking your greatness for grated.

I beg you to unleash it on the world.

We need you.

by Jason Kotecki

One of my coaching clients (let’s call her Sonia) recently went through a divorce. She has worked hard to get to a place where she can appreciate all the good that came from the relationship.

Her teen-aged daughter is foremost in her appreciation. But it is also in relation to her daughter that she struggles with the most persistent difficult feelings related to her ex.

You see, the ex is now withholding emotional and financial support from his daughter. My client sees that her daughter is hurting as a result of her father’s neglect and she wants to know how to best support her.

Although on the surface it may look like the problem is the no-good ex and the daughter’s hurt feelings, the solution lies deeper. In any event, we probably won’t be able to “fix” the ex’s behavior, so what can we do?

It’s great when people do the right thing at the right time, but if they don’t, it’s our responsibility to make peace with the present situation.

The way to do this becomes clearer when we awaken to our greatness and appreciate that circumstances don’t determine our happiness, but our thoughts about the circumstances do.

Byron Katie’s Loving What Is provided me with the tools (what she calls “Inquiry”, or the “The Work”) that became a key for me in awakening to my greatness and letting go of my stressful thoughts. I’ve learned that I can be happy or, at the very least, peaceful in any situation.

Of course, I still have stressful thoughts (like a hundred times a day!) but I know that it’s my thinking that’s the problem, and not some unpleasant person or situation.

To do the “Work” you ask yourself four questions.

1. Is it true?
2. Can I absolutely know that it’s true?
3. How do I react when I think that thought?
4. Who would I be without that thought?

And then you do what Byron Katie calls “the turnaround.” You take the stressful circumstance (“the facts”) and imagine how the opposite may also be true.

It is sometimes challenging to do this, but you will have huge awakenings when you can. In fact, you will often find that you have also transgressed — or are also suffering — in some manner similar to people or situations you have judged.

In this instance I encouraged Sonia to do the Work on her belief that, “My daughter is wounded because her dad will not be ‘there’ for her — emotionally, psychologically, financially — as other dads are for their kids. She does not get how he can be so detached and unavailable. She’s hurting.”

I asked Sonia to investigate those thoughts by applying the turnaround. Suddenly “My daughter is hurting” became “I am hurting…I can’t get how he can be so unavailable to our daughter.”

I know that even if you see the truth in this realization, you may be wondering how it helps Sonia to see her own suffering in this situation — and especially how it helps her daughter.

It helped because seeing her own suffering allowed her to work with her own thoughts and feelings. (The only thing she actually had any control over.) She now had the power to find a better-feeling thought, or do The Work again to explore her own feelings toward her ex, or even talk things over with a trusted friend.

In all of these ways she could come to accept the situation without judgment. And whenever we accept a situation without judgment, we awaken to our greatness and experience more peace. From that place of power, we can also offer greater emotional support to those who are suffering.

In short, by recognizing and letting go of her own negative feelings for her ex, Sonia had more energy to care for her own needs and those of her daughter.

She was able to validate her daughter’s feelings — whatever was troubling her — and say “I know this is really hard right now. You and I both wish your dad “got” what an amazing person you are and wanted to celebrate and support you in every way.”

When her daughter’s feelings were validated she could then say, “I know you will find your way. You are incredibly strong and you have everything you need inside you to be happy no matter what the conditions, and that is more important than anything else.”

Her encouragement came from a completely authentic place because she found this to be true for herself. And isn’t it always so? When we awaken to our greatness, we shine a light for others. We illuminate the path so they can awaken to theirs too.

by Stacey Curnow

To awaken to your greatness in your career, you must love what you do…truly love it. You must see it as a craft… as an art… and yourself as an artist. This is the way to greatness!

by John Spence

Ironically, I sit down to write this article on the evening of my birthday. Each passing year I become a little more reflective when May 1^st comes around, perhaps because I am more aware of how quickly this carnival ride of life starts spinning.

At times, a deep sense of gratitude penetrates through memories of challenges and pain. For in aging I gain the ability to clear the superficial flow that has sometimes been my life, and realize that relationships, family, and living a meaningful life of purpose and harmony are really what I want.

But other times I have a penetrating sense of urgency:

I need to hurry up and figure out how to cross that off my bucket list before I am too old!

Do you ever have that feeling on your birthday?

So the idea of awakening to my own greatness is one I ponder a little more seriously each birthday. In terms of years, I am turning 44. When I looked up the average lifespan of a white, non-smoking female in the USA, the average age is around 81 years old. Now I am not saying that I will live to be 81. That isn’t a decision I am ultimately in control of. But it IS interesting to look at my life as barely over half over.

There have been amazing examples in history of people coming into their greatness later in life. Anna Mary Robertson Moses (known as Grandma Moses) started painting in her seventies and produced over 1600 paintings in the next three decades. Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t write her first novel until the age of 65, and ended up writing one of the most beloved series of books of all times: Little House on the Prairie. And then there was Ronald Regan, who of course had a successful career as an actor, but didn’t hold public office until he turned 55 years old.

What does all this mean to me? And to YOU?

We all have our gifts, our talents. I know that sometimes I box myself in to the life that I think I am supposed to lead, or that someone else may think is right for me. But who’s to say that I cannot continue to explore the greatness that may be lying dormant inside? And the particular greatness that I awake to may be something that brings my passion for harmony, love, and a good life more present to me than anything I may have experienced to date?

The other piece to contemplate, friends, is that greatness often times is a collaborative event. This past weekend I had the great fortune to be called in to play for a symphony up north, who needed a few more cellists. At first I hesitated, for it had been a while since I had performed a symphony concert. But I knew that by committing to play I would be accountable to help the orchestra sound their best. For it is in everybody’s best interest to show up in spirit and energy to make the whole symphony sing.

And it was a beautiful time, sharing that collaboration of greatness. Life is much like that, when I step up to the plate, so do those around me.

Perhaps awakening to our greatness is simply a segue to awakening greatness in our neighborhoods, our communities and our world.

So, when I wake up tomorrow, one year older, and hopefully a little wiser, I will remember this lesson from the Jungle. Be great. Be open to being great, no matter what your age, your ability, or your past history. It is never, ever, too late to enjoy this carnival ride!

In Harmony,

Jen

by Jen Slayden

There’s always tomorrow. 

Have you ever thought or said that (or something similar)?

See — when we’re cruising through this thing called our life, and things are going as they normally do (and often, even if they’re not all that normal) — there’s this sense that tomorrow is always there.

And tomorrow — leads to next week, next month, next year, next decade.

Are you living up to the possibilities that are within you?  Are you actively leveling up your life — and choosing to live intentionally — EVERY day?

Or — is there always a tomorrow for that?

The Comfort Zones of Our Life

It’s within each of us — greatness.  (you, me, everyone)

The thing is — it’s all too easy to just continue doing what we’ve always done. 

Life’s good…or…life’s not so good.  It doesn’t matter — it’s easy to stay in the comfort zone we’re in.

Do you?

What if, though, the key to discovering your greatness was really quite simple?

Discovering Your Greatness

Action.

Do something. Try that new thing you’ve been thinking about.  Go to that place you’ve been talking about. Be scared, and act anyway.

Some will be great big flops.  And that’s a really great thing — because it means you’ve tried something, learned a bit along the way, and found out something that either didn’t work for you or that you need to make some adjustments to. 

Some will be great big wins.  Celebrate them!  Savor the feeling of this “being alive” in that moment!  Enjoy what you have done.

Many will be somewhere in between.  Some good, some more challenging.  All good (really good).  See — if you’re out there and “doing” something — you ARE discovering your greatness. 

Maybe it will come really quickly.  Maybe it will take much longer than you had planned (or hoped for).

The act of doing — it’s the motion that gets you moving in that direction.  And it IS out there — your greatness.

So — get out there — do something — TODAY. 

DO something — and discover more fully who you are, and move into that greatness that is you.

by Lance Ekum

Every parent wants to see their children succeed financially. It takes the investment of time, not just money, to make this a possibility. From a young age, children start to pick up habits that could last them a lifetime. This is a parent’s perfect opportunity to teach about saving money. There are a variety of different accounts that are available for children. Check out Money Supermarket to view some of the account options for kids.

Modeled Behavior

While it is not always easy to admit, children are constantly watching and love to emulate their parents. From the very beginning, children need to see their parents saving money. While they are not going to be able to watch as an online transfer moves from one account to another, they will be able to appreciate change being placed in a jar or a family piggy bank. Mom and dad need to make a conscious effort to save in front of their children. Over time, it becomes something that seems natural.

Letting Them Try It Out

A piggy bank is the perfect starting point when it comes to teaching children how to save. This is a hands-on activity that kids actually participate in. Choose a fun container that will add a little fun to their bedroom and watch them start saving money. When they receive gifts, have them place part of it into the piggy bank and allow them to spend some of the money. They learn that at least a part of every amount of money they earn or receive as a gift should be saved.

Taking Savings to the Next Level

At some point, a child is ready to move their money from the piggy bank to an alternate location. When this happens, it is time to find a kid-friendly savings account. In the U.S., many banks offer special accounts that come with incentives for a child when they save. A parent’s name is always on the account and they determine when money is withdrawn. As a child grows, they can be given more freedom with the account. However, regular deposits into the savings account should be maintained.

In the UK, a Junior ISA is a savings account specifically designed for children. It grows over time and receives full access when the child comes of age. This money can be used for anything including education, the purchase of a vehicle or even a favorite video game. In each instance, a parent can point out that saving money was a great way to accumulate the necessary funds for important purchases. The funds consistently earn interest.

Giving Them Control

When children are younger, show them the account statements, so they actually see their money grow. Older children will be able to appreciate the growth of the account from one statement to another. At every turn, encourage them to save. Make it seem exciting and fun and something that will benefit them in the long run. At some point, allow an older child a limited amount of control. They will get a feel for what it is like to have money and the ability to continue to save or spend.

Written by a staff writer

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Rosanne Cash: Land Of Dreams

~ Com­ments Closed ~

There is a well-worn path for people in their 20’s and 30’s. After an education has been completed it is time to build a career, find someone to marry, and start a family. This often involves dating sites, speed dating events, meet-ups for singles, and blind dates from well-meaning friends.

For those whose marriage ends in divorce, there is another well-traveled path often followed: a rush to the altar a second time. Too many times this happens quickly after a divorce is finalized with little time spent contemplating what went wrong the first time and what a good partner should possess for a successful relationship to be possible in the future.

The expectation that life is not complete until there is a spouse and children often leads to making bad decisions in choosing a life partner. Similarly, the pressure post-divorce to do it again is often not a wise path to follow down a second time.

So how is it possible to make better choices, leading to more rewarding, longer-lasting relationships?

It’s simple:

Step off the beaten path and date yourself first.

In a rush to follow where others have tread before, there is not often a well thought-out plan or criteria for the ideal partner. This is impossible to accomplish without first knowing yourself well.

• Get comfortable being alone.
• Take yourself out to dinner and a movie.
• Enjoy your own company.
• Spend time thinking about who and what makes you happy.

Once you are happy and comfortable dating yourself, you are ready to date others. When you begin to date again, be mindful of what you like and dislike in each dating and relationship experience. This will help in choosing the right partner. Also, the time you spent dating yourself will ensure the fear of being alone will not be the determining factor in finding a partner.

Step off the path and seek happiness first with yourself and then with a partner.

It’s the best path to choose for a fulfilling relationship and happy life.

by Kelly Sajonia

You are exceptional. I recently heard Deepak Chopra say: your body is literally made out of stardust. Can you hear the whoa-ness of that?

You are LITERALLY made out of stardust.

AND…

In this moment, your very presence is making the world exactly what it is. Without you, the universe would be different.

So it bears repeating: You are exceptional.

How will you honour your exceptionality?

People come to coaching because they have seen a glimmer of what could (might?) be. A divine whisper of “you can”.

Often times, we ignore it. Largely because we can’t trust it. It’s too crazy. Haven’t you been stockpiling all the reasons you “can’t” your whole life? Why yes, I do believe you have.

And yet, there is something about the whisper that compels you. You keep coming back to it.

That’s because it is the TRUTH, my friend.

And in that truth is a vision. YOUR vision. The one that you can barely name. The one that makes your heart expand and your toes tingle just thinking about it. So you don’t.

But there’s that whisper again. “You can”.

So you tentatively consider the “how” and that shuts you down again. Because it’s too much. This vision takes work. That’s another truth: THIS VISION TAKES WORK. There are requirements expected of you. You must define your vision. You must see it. Feel it. Taste it. Trust it. Move towards it. Be obedient to it.

What magic happens when you honour you vision by naming, owning and obeying it? A light will beam from your heart, illuminating a path for you, rendering the “how” insignificant. Because you are getting there.

You will start to notice that you are now on a new path. One you don’t recognize. One that has no others’ footprints. That’s to be expected.

No one has been on THIS path before. No one has your very iteration. Oh yes, there may be points along the path that merge with others, and frankly there is comfort there. In fact, there may be times where intentionally switching back to the beaten path is the right call. Like slipping into your favourite worn jeans. The ones that know your curves so well. The homeness of the experience. Rest here. Recharge here.

Then get back out there, machete in hand forging ahead with the searchlight emanating from your heart. Your vision awaits.

You can, and you will. Because you are exceptional.

by Tanya Geisler

Photo Courtesy: noahg

When you are surrounded by hundreds of people what do you see? Think about walking downtown in a big city such as Chicago or New York.

Is everyone fit and healthy? Or, rather, do you notice some fit folks mixed with some overweight and others obese? If you were to dig deeper into the lives of those who look fit and healthy you would find out that most are suffering through some sort of health problem.

You may look at a marathon runner and immediately assume he is healthy. However, he may have joint issues. He may have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He may have sleep or digestive issues. We assume he has no issues even though this fact would be rare.

Is your doctor healthy? It’s amazing how many overweight doctors there are today.

What has happened to the health of the world? Why does it continue to decline? Shouldn’t we be getting healthier as we “progress” forward? We can fly, talk to anyone around the world via a cell phone, connect to the internet, drive cars, lift off into space…

Yet our health continues to decline. We may die at a later age but are we really living?

Begin challenging conventional wisdom NOW

Maybe it’s time you throw a few punches at conventional wisdom. Challenge it. If most people still tell you that saturated fat is the devil then ask them why. They will tell you it leads to heart disease even though there is zero evidence that it does.

Challenge everything you read and hear for the rest of your life. Do your best to make sense out of everything.

It may be “normal” to believe that animal fat will get you sick (heart disease, etc.) but guess what? It is “normal” to be sick.

It is normal to suffer through something very serious in today’s world.

Are you sure you want to continue to do what everyone else is doing?

Baby steps are important

You may be able to ditch bread or pasteurized skim milk cold turkey. Do it if you can. Realize that these individual things are baby steps to much improved health.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients of 100% whole wheat bread? Do you have any idea how it is created? It’s not real food. Where it comes from? What about pasteurized skim milk? Raw, whole milk from grass-fed cows is one of the most nutrient dense foods on this planet. Why mess with it to make it “skim” milk?

Realize that there is no final destination when it comes to achieving super health. The final destination is in fact death.

Be proud of new discoveries. Run around your home when you quit drinking soda pop. Or smoking. Or binge drinking or eating. Each one of these accomplishments is a baby step. It’s part of the endless journey.

You don’t want to follow the same path as the average person. That average person is sick or is on the path to sickness. I’m not saying you will achieve perfect health. Perfect health does not exist. But, that does not mean you can’t be full of energy and be excited about each and everyday because of how you feel day in and day out.

Challenge the status quo. It takes guts. Bravery. But, if you want to feel like you are 25 when you are really 75 then challenging the norm is an absolute must.

Where do you begin?

Focus on real food. You don’t have to give up junk for life. Meat is real food. Buy from local farms if you can. Grass-fed beef is best but any beef that you cook and prepare yourself is great. Veggies are real food. Fruit is real food. Whole, raw potatoes are real food. Cook them yourself. That means skip french fries. Butter is real food. Eggs are real food. Liver is real food.

Think about what you put into your mouth. Increasing your awareness of what goes inside your body may be the most important habit that you can possibly develop.

After all, you are what you eat.

Are you ready to challenge the status quo when it comes to food? To go off the beaten path and discover what it feels like to have vibrant health? Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

by Todd Dosenberry

There’s a popular saying in the world of money management: “Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else.”

Sound redundant? What it means is that in order to be prosperous, we must depart from the beaten path. Instead of doing conventional things with your money, do something extraordinary — and you’ll see extraordinary results.

***

Most People : Rack up credit card debt while they’re in college. More than 96 percent of graduate students and 70 percent of undergrads have a credit card, and of those, more than 90 percent don’t pay the bill in full each month, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Business and Social Science.

Off the Beaten Path : If you can’t pay for an item NOW with the cash sitting in your checking account, don’t buy it. It’s a radical idea.

***
Most People : Graduate from college and spend every cent from their first real-world paychecks.

Off the Beaten Path : Socking away $5,000 per year ($416 per month) in a Roth IRA at age 22, instead of age 30, will yield you an extra $1.4 million dollars by the time you’re 65. That’s right: those extra 8 years of investing will net you a cool $1.4 million, if the market performs as it has been and you follow a moderate-growth investing strategy, according to Fidelity’s MyPlan.

Remember: the majority of people don’t have a million-dollar retirement portfolio. Creating one requires making moves that are off the beaten path.

***

Most People : Buy more house than they can afford and struggle to make the mortgage payments.

Off the Beaten Path : Buy a smaller home than you can afford, with easy mortgage payments, and invest the additional money on buying rental properties or dollar-cost averaging into the stock market. Alternatively, you could continue to live with roommates even after you’re a homeowner, as I do. My roomies pay my mortgage, and I invest the money in buying more rental units.

***

Most People : Dream about taking risks — perhaps traveling the world or launching a business — but never take the first step.

Off the Beaten Path : Take the first step! A journey of 1,000 steps starts with the first one.

by Paula Pant

We’re often told that the secret to happiness is to take the road less traveled. Oftentimes, it certainly seems like there must be a better way to do things than our current approach. But the problem is that the “beaten” path is so well-paved, well-marked and well-lit, that frankly, it can be hard to imagine that there could even be another way, let alone a better one.

One small example is the arena of organized sports. My kids are too young to be involved in things like baseball or soccer, but I hear stories of peers who are looking down the barrel of a summer in which the majority of weeknights and weekends will be spent at the ball field. For some families, this is a cause for joy, but for most, it brings a feeling of dread. Apparently, it’s a necessary evil required to make sure our children are well-adjusted, socially competent and attractive to institutions of higher learning.

And besides, everyone’s doing it.

I myself spent many summer nights of my youth at the ball diamond, as did my brothers and my parents. It was a good experience for me and I grew a lot through it. But I have to be honest: the idea of spending the bulk of my future summer nights at the sports field is as appealing as a Spam sandwich. Especially because in the years that have past since my ball playing days, the games and practices have gotten more competitive and more numerous, as if we are training children to become pros. I do want my kids to learn how to compete, get some exercise, and have fun, but the cost that comes with the “beaten path” seems too high. I fear the busyness will exhaust and strain our entire family. Is there another way?

It seems that there may be, thanks to an email I got last fall from a guy named Jay. He wrote to tell me about “Dirt League”:

It all started when Ted, the Dad of of three kids ages 9, 8 and 6 found it overwhelming — if not impossible — to keep up with all the scheduling of t-ball and the other programs the kids wanted to sign up for. He decided summer should be FUN, not scheduling. He rapidly found many like-minded parents and decided we should get together for some good old fashioned pick-up games just like when we were kids. We decided to get together at St. Dennis field in Madison every Thursday night. Everyone’s welcome: parents, grandparents, kids of all ages. The parents respect the kids’ size, the kids respect the parents age and slowness;) If someone drives by looking, we wave them in and invite them to play.

We played baseball, soccer, gatorball (also called speedball, a combination of football, soccer, and basketball), and quidditch with the help of a hula hoop and some duct tape. We also played kickball in 90-degree weather, in which you had to go through the slip-n-slide from third to home. We make up a lot of little twists.

The rules are very loosely interpreted. We all bring something to pass to eat and drink or just order 10 pizzas. Everyone comes and goes in and out of the game as they please. Sometimes it ends up mostly parents out on the field and the kids watching us and laughing. The one major rule is: No electronic devices.

On any given night we had anywhere from 6 to 10 families. It just kept growing. All of us agree it was the awesomest part of our summer! The funniest thing is that now we tell people “Is that on a Thursday night? Can’t make it. Got Dirt League.” We also call ourselves The Dirtballs now

Holy. Freaking. Cow.

Now THIS is how I’d like to spend my summers with my kids. It’s truly a small rebellion of epic proportions.

I love how all the ages are included, as normally, kids have their own leagues and adults have theirs. To me, this makes the experience much more rich. And I also love the little twists they add, which reminds me of Calvinball from the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes.

When my kids get a bit older, I’m going to look into joining this Dirt League or starting one of my own. Perhaps this is the summer for you to do the same.

It takes a brave person to break free from the interstate and head down a road less travelled. But it’s often the roads less traveled that end up being way more fun.

by Jason Kotecki

Helen Keller once said, “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.” I would amend that statement to include “and if we never got off the beaten path.”

If we try, we can remember our own past bravery as a way to help us feel more courageous as we contemplate stepping onto the road less taken.

Sometimes, though, when we look back on our life, we can only remember the times things didn’t work out. And those memories can get in the way of choosing to be brave today.

We say to ourselves: Things went wrong in the past, what if things go wrong again?

Things haven’t always worked out great for me. When I returned from Mexico after working with Doctors Without Borders, I had no job waiting for me. My husband wasn’t working and we had used up all of our savings.

As soon as I got back to the States I applied for every job in the nursing field I could find — even jobs that were way below my level of expertise (and former earnings). I went 2 months before I received a job offer.

The job was as a community health nurse. It would have required working 5 days a week, with very little time involved in actual patient care because it required a lot of travel and paperwork.

I knew I needed the income but when offered the position, I just couldn’t accept it. Every fiber of my being knew that I would be miserable at that job. I thanked the nurse manager but declined the offer, hung up the phone, and BURST into tears.

I felt cursed by the warnings of my father and so many well-meaning others who had told me that I was foolish for quitting my good job to take a volunteer position in Mexico, and that I was crazy to think that I could find an even better job on my return.

All that is to say that I am familiar with the demons of grief, anxiety, self-doubt and despair that can haunt you when you get off the beaten path. Very familiar.

My leaps of faith and acts of bravery haven’t always worked out exactly the way I had hoped. In fact they’ve often found me down on my knees in despair asking God how I could have been brought this far to fail.

Another month after that “down on my knees” dark place, I did get my dream job, working as a nurse-midwife for a busy hospital-based birthing center that cares for predominantly Latina patients — working 24 hours a week for more pay than I made working 50–60 hours a week in my former midwifery position.

I worked that job happily for 8 years before I decided that it was time to leave it for my next leap — where you find me today.

And, yes, one year after quitting that job, this particular leap hasn’t worked out exactly the way I hoped either.

My experience of the road less taken has not always been filled with bright sunshine and frolicking unicorns. And yet, when I finally stopped fighting the questions and the doubts and the fears and allowed myself to simply be sad or confused, I realized that everything actually was okay.

Even when things are not at all the way I want and expect them to be, they are still okay.

“Things are still okay”? What does that mean?

What it means to me is that I can focus on what I am doing and-most importantly–how I am doing it, and then I can let go of needing to control, or even worry about, the outcome.

I have survived failures before, and I will survive them again.

And I practice remembering that things always get better, eventually.

As a character says in Kate DiCamillo’s children’s story, The Tale of Despereux, there are many wonderful things out there to be afraid of. But your regrets about the past or worries about the future probably don’t make the grade.

In these instances, recognizing your fears for what they are-stories about the past that might not now apply, or stories about the future that might never come true-will help.

The Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho has said, “Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not, then it’s not the end.” I’ve contemplated that quote enough in good times that it helps me to keep putting one foot in front of the other when things get tough off the beaten path.

What about you? What helps you feel brave as you travel the road less taken? Please share your challenges and triumphs in the comments!

by Stacey Curnow

Several years ago I read a book called the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. To summarize this and credibly weighty tome, it basically said that to become world-class at anything you need the 4P’s.

Passion: if you don’t really love what you’re doing, there is no way you will ever become an expert at it.

Persistence: as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in his book Outliers it takes about 10 years or 10,000 hours to master a skill or specific area of knowledge.

Practice: but the key here is to do “deliberate practice,” which means that every practice session is a little bit more challenging than the last, constantly pushing you to improve and grow.

Pattern Recognition: once you invest 10 years or 10,000 hours in something that you are deeply passionate about and consistently push yourself to improve through deliberate practice… You realize that you have discovered how to “connect the dots” and understand your area of focus at the level far beyond others. This is how the chess grandmaster “sees down board,” were great actually see the entire field of play and anticipate their opponents next moves, or how a virtuoso musician can simply look at a piece of music and begin to play it immediately… they see the pattern.

The more I studied this topic, by many different authors and experts, the idea of pattern recognition kept coming up over and over again — there was a pattern around pattern recognition! The interesting thing though is that most often the things that allow a person to connect the dots are the unique, different, surprising and interesting things you find… when you get off the beaten path. When you read a book on a topic you would normally never study, watch a movie on something that you know little about, or go to a museum look at paintings in style that doesn’t necessarily fit your normal pattern for the type of art you typically like to look at.

Don’t get me wrong, routine can be very good, it is comfortable, it is predictable, it is safe… but routine often creates a rut — the absolute epitome of a beaten path!

So if you want to make new discoveries in your life, find new ways to see things, new perspectives on some of your thorniest problems — then push yourself way out of your comfort zone, far, far off the beaten path… and as if by magic the dots will begin to connect.

by John Spence