Choosing Your Experience

I was greatly humbled and inspired when I came across an excerpt from the journal of Anne Frank today. It was a powerful reminder that we choose how we experience everything in life. You can choose to experience the negativity, spend your energy lamenting in your victimhood, or you can choose to experience the adventure, challenge, excitement of the unknown, all while growing and becoming stronger along the way.

As I read this, I found it so incredible that a girl of such a young age, in such a horrific experience, had the strength of mind and resolve to go about her struggle with such a mindset. Knowing that whatever the outcome may be, only she could make the choice to find a way to experience joy in each day. If she could do it, faced with the terror her and her family we placed in, so can we all. It reads:

“I’ve often been down in the dumps, but never desperate. I look upon our life in hiding as an interesting adventure, full of danger and romance, and every privation as an amusing addition to my diary. I’m young and strong and living through a big adventure; I’m right in the middle of it and can’t spend all day complaining because it’s impossible to have any fun! I’m blessed with many things; happiness, a cheerful disposition, and strength. Every day I feel myself maturing, I feel the liberation drawing near, I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me. Every day I think what a fascinating and amusing adventure this is. With all that, why should I despair?”

This truly is a testament to the power of the human mind and human spirit. How much more could you accomplish each day if you chose to focus your energy on the opportunity before you, and the growth that you experience with each challenge? What kind of greater momentum could you bring into your world if you shift your energy from the negative to the positive? What have you got to lose? Think of it this way-

“It's a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go” ~ Bertrand Russell

How Committed Are You?

I was intrigued on a flight tonight, while reading on the topic of commitment, as I looked to my left and the man next to me was playing Sudoku- in red ink. Now that’s commitment!

Too often we make only a partial commitment to fulfill our desires. It may not be a fully conscious decision, but the partial commitment is why so many goals go unmet and dreams un-chased.

Fully committing requires you to go outside of your comfort zone in new and scary ways. It is so easy to find an excuse not to journey into that uncomfortable space, and then blame that situation for not accomplishing what we set out to do. The world was against me! So-and-so got in my way! This is the result of partial commitment- ending up back where we started.

As humans we are conditioned to stay in that comfortable place, but while you sit there, think about what you are missing out on. A good excuse may feel a lot easier than self-motivation in a new, scary moment, but the result is considerably less rewarding. If you struggle with it yourself, find a friend or a coach to help you light that fire under your ass and propel you into action!

“You elevate your life by taking responsibility for who you are and what you’re choosing to become. You can transcend the ordinary, mundane, and average, with thoughts of greater joy and meaning; you can decide to elevate your life, rather than have it stagnate or deteriorate with excuses. Go beyond where you presently are.” ~Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Next time you identify a goal, commit to it, write it down in red ink, not pencil, and make it happen, no excuses!

"Success" vs. Success!

“Success” vs. Success

What is success? Getting up in front of a room of professionals and posing the question leads to very common answers:
• An esteemed title
• A “C-level” position
• A significant salary
• Owning a luxury car
• Living in a extravagant home
• Holding a power position
• A spouse & 2.5 kids in a 5-bedroom house with a white picket fence and a dog that pees outside only on command…

But I digress…

The point is, most people answer that question with stereotypical responses based on societal expectations, and most people are not as fulfilled or happy as they could be.

I know it sounds crazy, but you can have both. I didn’t believe it myself for too many years. I believed, as many do that:

Success means hard work and hard work must be painful and frustrating, and require you to sacrifice much that you love (including self) and live with a few (or constant) migraines. But that’s the price of success, right?

It is amazing how adding two little words to the end of the first question triggers much pause, and more varied answers. What is success, FOR YOU?
And perhaps your list includes some of the answers on the first list, and that is great! As long as it is about what makes YOU happy, and not what you feel you must prove to the world, or what you think the world is expecting of you.

What I’ve learned is:
Success means hard work but that kind of hard work is fun when you do something you love. It will be rewarding and the world (at least the part that matters) will love you for it, and abundance will naturally follow. Not a bad price for success, right?

So think about it, what is “success” vs. what is success FOR YOU?

Keep Soaring!