The Stretch September 20, 2023

It’s OK to change your mind. It’s healthy to accept that you might not know everything. It is reasonable to accept that there might be more to a situation or reality than you initially believed.

Our strength is not determined by our rigidity, but rather by our ability to grow and to stretch and to evolve. Science proves this theory in nature over and over again. We are not immune to extinction, whether it be physical or spiritual.

Instead of feeling angry or threatened, we can choose to embrace the truth that we are ever-growing and ever-expanding beings. While we cannot abandon our core values, those which make us better people, we can allow ourselves to grow and to adventure into new ideas without fear.

 

#stretch #growth #evolution #lifesjourney #extinction

A Tiger Without Teeth Will Not Live September 18, 2015

A tiger with no teeth will not live. Un tigre sin dientes no vive.

“A tiger without teeth will not live.”

My son gave me that piece of advice recently.  Though I always admire him very much, he really impressed me with this little nugget of wisdom.

I’ve thought about it often in the last few days.  I believe that there are instances in which this truth means that we must be strong, aggressive even, if we wish to survive and thrive.  The world we live in demands that.  That was just the first level of understanding I gained as I contemplated my son’s words.

The next level brought me to the realization that there are other instances in which it means that we must give our dreams “teeth”.  What I mean by that is that dreaming is not enough.  We must be willing to act, to sacrifice and to sometimes to face our own fears in order to see our dreams become reality.  Sacrifice isn’t a very popular word lately but it is an integral part of success, whether in the professional or in the personal areas of our lives.

My friends, I wish you strength and fortitude on your path to making your dreams come true.  Whatever you are working towards, give it teeth!

Belief Systems…they’ll make you or break you. July 21, 2010

For a long time in my life I believed that if you aimed too high or reached for impractical dreams you were destined to be disappointed. I’m not sure when I picked up this belief but it’s one of the few that I have clung to for far too long in my life. We all have our insecurities, but some of us take a darn long time to move past them, sometimes clinging to them until the day we die. I have waited far too long for a lot of things in my life. The sad truth is that my fear of embarrassment or rejection has been greater than my desire to create the life I really want.

I was brought up to have some humility. There’s nothing wrong with that. Arrogance is what gets so many people into big trouble, isn’t it? I’m Catholic and as a child I learned that the humble and meek will inherit the earth. I believe that it is bad manners to help myself to the best portion or last bit of food without offering it to the others sharing the meal first. I believe that a sense of entitlement creates bad character. Those are all good beliefs and I plan to hold on to them.

But there are few beliefs that I want to reject, delete, erase, etc…

I reject the belief that I have to be a size 6 to be attractive to the kind of man I want. I also reject the belief that I can never be a size 6. I embrace the belief that it’s up to me what size I am and that I’m a damned sexy woman either way.

I “control, alt, delete” the belief that I can’t make a living as a writer. Today at lunch with a friend I verbalized for the first time ever what I really want to believe. I had the nerve to say that I’d rather be a mediocre writer than a stellar anything else. As soon as I said the words I heard that little voice inside me saying, “You are so melodramatic and ridiculous! Who do you think you are, Faulkner?” This time I told the little voice to shut the hell up! I hope to keep the damned thing muzzled from now on.

I reject the belief that my new business may not provide enough income for me to stay afloat. I kick that anxiety out of my head, out of my stomach and into God’s very competent hands. I’ve made my way through this world on my own for a long time and have had great success. I’m only going to have more of it now. Say amen with me, will you?

I erase the belief that it’s ok to be someone’s sometime lover. I warn you all, this could take a while so bear with me on this one. I pray for the true belief that the man for me is around the corner, in the bookstore or at a friend’s dinner party. I will try willing his apparition on the sheer force of my belief that he’s out there, that I deserve him and that he’s not going to take another ten years to show up!

So tonight sit down and take inventory of what you believe and ask yourself what makes you cling to those beliefs that stop you from what you really want. Write them down. Then write a list of the beliefs you’d like to replace them with. Take the list of all those limiting beliefs and flush it down the damned toilet or burn it or whatever floats your boat. Pin that other list somewhere where you can read it every day.

What you believe will be.