Damn! I want one of those Genies in The Secret. I want everything to turn to gold. I want. I want. I want.
Ah, maybe there is the problem. For the secret to manifesting our thoughts is "I am, I am, I am," not "I want. I want. I want." In this week's (6/2/08) Strengths Ezine, I contended, "We can only manifest what we already are." I know! I don't like it either!
Here's the bad news. I can't manifest abundance until I am abundant inside. I can't manifest love until I love myself. I can't manifest change in others until I am changed inside.
Here's the good news! When I experience life as abundant, I can manifest abundance in my world. When I love myself, I can manifest the most remarkable love in my world. When I become the change I want to see, I can manifest the change I want to see.
Here's the irony. Once I experience my life as abundant, I'm already there. Once I love myself, I'm already there. Once I become the change I want to see, I'm already there. There rest is just details.
So what is the "secret" to experiencing life as abundant or any of the other "stuff" we say we want? I invite you to join me in this journey. For the foreseeable future, I am committing this blog to sharing my journey and hope you will share yours through your blog "comments." I've got some other ways to share out ideas, too. Stick around. You're invited.
As I watched coverage of the devastation in China this week, I was reminded how unstable, amorphous and ultimately meaningless our perception of "adversity" is. Years ago, I facilitated a special story-telling project with a group of teens in an alternative program. As we went around the circle, each student shared their stories of the abuse, abandonment, alcoholism and violence that had defined their lives. Last to speak were two new students, recent immigrants from Sudan. They described being forced to watch as family members were murdered before their eyes, being kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to warehouses where they spent their days crouching face down on the floor, each day a pistol pressed to their heads as a soldier declared, "Today you will die."
Somehow the previous stories - heart-wrenching as they were - paled in comparison. These boys were in a whole other league, a very different set of standards for "adversity." Focusing on the hurt and harm of these experiences had no meaning, for they had no answers and no end.
It was only when we turned the conversation to how each student had survived their own adversity that the students found common ground. Here was information they could use. Here they understood each other and could learn from each other. Here they all found hope.
Someone always has it worse than us. The level of hurt and harm has never defined the level of resiliency and success. The question is this: After we name and observe the hurt and harm, what do we do next?
When I coach folks about their strengths, one of the toughest stages comes when they begin to consider how they can incorporate this new awareness into the way they work. No barrier stands taller than their own assumptions about what is acceptable, how others will see them, what they can afford to do, what is possible, and what is acceptable. Me to. Today, I want to listen to my own coaching, walk my own talk.
My strengths lie in the world of writing, speaking, teaching, coaching and otherwise exploring and sharing transformative ideas in creative ways. What drains me is organizing, tracking and following up on all the details required to do this for a living.
I'm betting that there are folks out there with inverse strengths and weaknesses who would love to barter with me to help each other meet our goals. It is my intention to discover and work with exactly those folks…
Someone to help me to focus both my intentions and my activities. Someone who works with solopreneaurs and/or entrepreneurs, who understands the possibilities the new technology offers, and who shares my principles and values.
Think of an administrative assistant without an office. Someone to manage the details on both a project by project basis and for several ongoing tasks.
Conceivably instead of or combined with the virtual assistant, this is someone to manage the business end of my work, from speaking engagements to book development.
If you have these strengths and would like to simply chat about the possibilities, with open eyes and no obligation, contact me. Who know what is possible!
Whether it be at parent meetings, in mental health care, or in our own lives, being addicted to deficits is like being committed to building a house without using any of you best tools.
We have a choice. Who will make the first move?
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