“…I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today.” said Piglet
Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, and the rest of the gang can be so profound in their simple little statements. With the above quote, Piglet nailed it in one.
Sometimes, I find myself waking up with my stomach knotted as I fret over all I have to do that day and whether or not I can get it all done. It casts a pall over the morning, at least, and I start the day with a lower energy level. And I’m certainly not enthused and rarin’ to get going!
Most of the time, in spite of my early morning worry, the day turns out reasonably well–I’m usually productive with a few happy surprises coming along to brighten the day. In my end-of-day reflections, I wonder how much more I would have enjoyed the day if I didn’t start out with worry which sapped my energy.
I invite you to join me in challenging yourself this week with having your first thought upon waking be Piglet’s quote: “…I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today!”.
Write this sentence on sticky notes, put it in your mobile devices, and adhere it to other places where you’ll see it often. If things start to go downhill during the day, pull out this quote and remind yourself that the day isn’t done and there’s still exciting and happy things in store for you. Then keep a lookout for them!
Today’s update to the post following below is to sit outside today during your quiet time. Enjoy the splendor and gifts of the new season. In the Northern Hemisphere we’re enjoying springtime. In the Southern Hemisphere it’s autumn, which has its own magnificence.
Let the glories of the season surround you and infuse you. Enjoy and be grateful in your Quiet Time today!
Make time for quietness today. Whether you spend that time meditating, praying, being alone with your thoughts, contemplating, or some other practice, take the time to do this today.
It helps make space in your life; it gives you a chance to breathe and just be. It gives you an opportunity to get some perspective on your life and see it in terms of a picture that’s much bigger than you. And, it gives you a chance to process things that may be weighing on you so that you can make your peace with them, let them go, and move on.
Your homework today is to give priority to Quiet Time first thing in the morning. If you’re new to this and don’t quite know what to do, you can sit quietly and gently think about the things in your life that you’re grateful for—the small, simple things are just fine.
Another technique is to listen quietly to music that uplifts you or softly gaze at a picture that makes you feel good.
Extra credit is to do this first thing every morning and last thing every night before bed.
You go directly to the head of the class if you do this first thing every morning and last thing every night before bed AND if you spend the time focusing on thanking the Universe for all the Goodness It sent your way, regardless of the kind of day you had, and then thinking about some of the things for which you are grateful!
As we head into the weekend, take a moment to read over the following quotes. Choose one that resonates strongly with you and let it perk on the back burner of your mind as you go about your weekend chores and routines. Then take some quite time where you can be alone and undisturbed and mull over the quote you’ve chosen. Jot down the thoughts, insights, and ideas that come to you.
How can you incorporate what you’ve discovered into your days so that you can have a richer, more fulfilling life? Feel free to share in the comments below. Thanks!
Your Friend and Pep Pal,
Lauren
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. – Stephen King
Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is. – Anne Frank
In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently. – Tony Robbins
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. – Garrison Keillor
Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out. – Edwin Markham
Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do. – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. -Corrie Boom
Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable. -Walt Disney
I was clicking around the Internet and came across this poem. I liked it very much because it explains that letting go doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve given up or thrown in the towel. Letting go can mean that you’re allowing a loved one to learn by reaping the consequences of their actions–or inactions. Letting go can mean that you realize it isn’t your place to always solve everyone else’s problems.
Here’s the poem to read for yourself:
Letting Go by Author Unknown
To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring;
It means I can’t do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off…
It’s the realization that I can’t control another…
To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try and change or blame another,
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective,
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish the moment.
To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more.
I like this poem because it’s reminiscent of the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr. In this poem, Letting Go, as with Niebuhr’s poem, is filled with common sense wisdom that is deeply profound as it is simple.
Let me know what you think of this poem. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!
We all want a meaningful life, one that matters and the first step is admitting that your life isn’t working for you right now, not like it used to.
The next step is to change it. Obvious, right?
But how do you make that change? And why would you because, probably, you’ve led a good life so far. It might be that you and your spouse are in a loving committed relationship, your finances are in decent shape, the kids are making good solid lives for themselves, you have good friends, good family relationships, and you’ve achieved a level of success in your career.
What’s to complain about? Nothing.
So, why are you feeling such discontent?
Plenty of people would change places with you in less than a nanosecond. Knowing this makes you feel guilty. You think that perhaps you’re selfish to want more, or to want something else. By the same token, you’re a little scared to try anything new because you do have it pretty good and you don’t want to lose any of it.
Perhaps you think that painting the living room, buying the snazzy sports car, going on that impressive vacation may help ease the unsettledness inside of you. And these do help…temporarily. Because your heart and soul are yearning for deeper change, pressing you for lasting change.
Here’s where the little baby steps come to the rescue!
In the space between admitting your life isn’t satisfying and getting up the gumption to make the changes that will enable you to be enthused and energized about your life, are little baby steps.
These baby steps deal with coming to grips with the realization that your Good Life is missing something—something profound. These steps involve making your peace with your realization so that you aren’t hamstrung and tripped up by it.
Each person’s baby steps are a little different because each person and each life is unique. Having said that, though, some common baby steps are:
~Doing your homework of understanding exactly where you are dissatisfied. Understanding that you probably don’t have to chuck it all. Your dissatisfaction may be only a small part of your life that isn’t working.
~Recognizing you don’t have to know all the answers of what isn’t working; you only need to start with the one piece that’s the most bothersome.
~Have a heart to heart with your spouse. Treating your unsettledness as a Big Adventure and going on it together. Also, encouraging and supporting your spouse in exploring the inner recesses of himself/herself.
~Reminding yourself that it’s normal and natural to question your life from time-to-time. People through the ages—the Ancient Greeks, and probably earlier!—have been questioning their existence all along. You’re in good company!
These steps should be enough to get you going. We’ll continue to talk more about this in upcoming posts.
Let me know what you think of this topic. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!
We’re scared to death to try new things because we think we have to get it right the first time. ~Joe Salatin
Today I arranged my schedule so I could go with a group of people to a small museum and tour their current exhibition. I didn’t know many of the people in our group and the two people I did know, I didn’t know them that well.
I was a little nervous—worried about whether or not I could easily carry on a conversation with the participants, concerned that the people might be more sophisticated and cultured that me, and anxious that my limited knowledge of the exhibition would make me appear foolish.
I quickly found that all my fretting was unfounded.
Everyone was delightful and courteous and, even though I hadn’t been familiar with the artist whose works we were touring, no one else was an expert either; all of us were there to learn!
The day was enjoyable: I deepened my art appreciation, learned about one of the Impressionist painters, met new people, and opened myself and my life to new ideas.
Today was a breath of fresh air!
I highly recommend that you try new things: hang out for a little while with people who are different than the usual people you are with, go to an event that isn’t one you’d normally attend, read or watch something that you may have initially dismissed.
Even if you tried these and didn’t enjoy a single one, you still learned something valuable: you learned what you don’t like, which is as important as knowing what you do like!
We seem to automatically assume that it’s a bad thing to have a comfort zone or to be comfortable in our comfort zone. We’re told we have to get out of it. We’re made to feel lazy or that there’s something wrong with us if we’re satisfied with our comfort zone.
This isn’t true!
To be in a comfort zone means that we are feeling good about ourselves. We feel safe and secure. There are no real threats to our wellbeing—mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. We feel capable and competent. We have self-confidence and self-esteem.
This is a good thing!
When our comfort zone is working for us we enjoy a level of satisfaction and contentment. Our life is working for us!
Comfort zones become “bad” when they stifle us, limit us, and cause us to live below our potential. We become fearful or sad or frustrated—or a smorgasbord of all of these. We can feel helpless and feel that we’re beyond hope. When we have these feelings, they’re telling us it’s time to enlarge the boundaries of our comfort zone.
Sometimes we hesitate to move out of, or expand, our comfort zone. We’re not sure what’s “out there”—if there is anything at all “out there” other than some sort of abyss.
We must remember that this state of unknowing is only temporary. As we gain our footing, the Bravery Zone where we find ourselves will turn into our new comfort zone. Isn’t that amazing? I think it is!
Here are the three points to remember:
~Comfort Zones can be a good thing for us. It can be the safe and stable place where we bloom and thrive;
~Comfort Zones are “bad” only when they stifle us and cause us to live below our potentials, accepting less than what we know we’re capable of;
~Outside of our Comfort Zone is our Bravery Zone. Once we step into our Bravery Zones and give ourselves a chance to get used to it, our Bravery Zone becomes our new Comfort Zone!
Let me know what you think about this post. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks!
Here are a few thoughts to keep in mind from our discussions on the comfort zone this week:
~It’s good to have a Big Vision to strive for but day-to-day keep your focus on the one or two or three steps ahead of you—create a Small Vision for these few immediate steps. Doing this will help you stay calm and feel more in control of situations. This leads to confidence, which then dramatically increases the likelihood of you taking steps outside your comfort zone. And all the Good Stuff in life is outside of your comfort zone!
~Change your thoughts about what’s beyond your comfort zone. Ros Place of http://www.angels-with-ros.com/ refers to moving outside of her comfort zone as moving into her Bravery Zone. I think this is brilliant! To me, this sounds much less risky. I know that might sound a little odd but just stating that I’m moving out of my comfort zone without saying anything else about it leaves me feeling like I’m hanging out there in an abyss. If I say I’m moving into my Bravery Zone (or that I’m moving out of my comfort zone into my Bravery Zone) then there’s a name for and a definition of what’s beyond my comfort zone. If I can name it and I can define it, then I have a shot (at least) of handling it. It makes sense to me! 🙂
~You can do this; you can move out of your comfort zone into your bravery zone and achieve your dreams. Take it one little tiny step at a time and keep taking tiny steps after tiny steps. And finally, stay at a pace that works for you regardless of what others are doing or saying.
This concept isn’t a new one for me. I first heard of it years ago and even made several vision boards for myself. Over time I found they didn’t really work for me.
In reading Judith Sills’ book and her explanation of creating a vision, it occurred to me why the vision boards never worked for me. It was because even though I put on my board dreams and goals I really wanted, they were too far in the future and too big for where I was right then in the moment. No wonder I always found myself back at square one!
I realized that the most effective visions are ones that are two or three steps ahead of where I currently found myself. While it’s great for me to know where I’m headed—the big goal and big dream—it’s more effective regarding moving forward if I focus on the one, two, or three steps ahead.
For instance, if you want to pay closer attention to maintaining your health, your overall large goal may be becoming slim, trim, and physically fit. This might be a long way from where you are, though. In that case, start with creating a vision one or two steps ahead of where you are.
Your next-step vision might be acknowledging that you like to snack while you watch TV. The next-step vision after that could be deciding to add something healthy to your snacking, such as fresh blueberries or another favorite fruit (it’s important to keep things positive so that at this very beginning and vulnerable stage, you don’t feel as if you must give up something, do without, and miss out on something you like and enjoy).
Another point to understand is that, once you get to step one or two, you can—and should—create a new vision for yourself. Not only can you make new visions, but you can tweak and change the ones you’ve already made—nothing is cast in concrete or chiseled in stone. What a concept!
What are you going to create a vision for? Feel free to share in the comments below. Thanks!
My “big” vision is to be fully prepared for the panel discussion I’ll be on in June at the health and wellness expo which will be hosted by Hearst Publishing (more info to follow soon!). My next-step vision is to design a business card as well as a brochure that highlights the benefits of subscribing to Yes I Can Pep Talks.
I’m looking forward to working together through our visions!
Yes I Can Pep Talks 
