Change and challenge
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Willing to stand out
“You’ve got to be willing sometimes to stand alone. You’ve got to be willing to piss some people off. You’ve got to be willing to look different. Sound different. Be different. And those are risks that many of us are not willing to take.” ~Iyanla Vanzant Human beings are wired to belong. We want to feel accepted by our family. We gravitate toward friends who share our lifestyle, moral standards, and viewpoints. We thrive in a tribe. Yet each of us also has a different set of experiences and personal opinions. One of the gifts of maturity is learning to value authenticity — and individuality — in ourselves and others.…
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Seek the life force
“There is a force within that gives you life. Seek that. Ignore those who make you fearful and sad.” ~Rumi Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re hyper-aware of the chaos in our country and the rest of the world. Even if you don’t follow at least one (reputable) news source, your social media accounts are probably keeping you on edge and fueling your anger or anxiety. While I’d love to start the new year with renewed optimism, it’s hard not to feel uneasy, exhausted, and worried about the future. But we can’t rebuild what’s broken or recover from a national crisis without believing that something better is entirely possible. It helps…
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Rethinking my resolutions
“Beginnings are notation for the symphony of the possible in us. They ask us to break the pattern of our lives and reconfigure it afresh — something that can only be done with great courage and great tenderness, for no territory of life exposes both our power and our vulnerability more brightly than a beginning.” ~Maria Popova, The Marginalian Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? You might loosely define a “resolution” as a self-improvement goal — such as eating healthier meals or exercising more often. Then again, a New Year’s resolution could serve as motivation to achieve or acquire something specific — a clutter-free storage room, for instance,…
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Adjusting our perspective
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” ~Maya Angelou Whether I’m writing my own life stories or coaching others who are writing theirs, I’m amazed at how often we allow our experiences to define us. We might blame our suffering on bad luck (or someone else) and stop trying to improve the situation. Or we might label ourselves as “survivors” who had the courage to overcome a personal challenge or tragedy. Writing about our lives in a journal motivates us to take a closer look at how far we’ve come. We can view negative experiences from…
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Small changes
“Few of us will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” ~John F. Kennedy Sometimes I’m completely stalled by the idea that it would take a huge effort to make a change in this troubled, turbulent world of ours. It’s much easier to sit in front of the TV or my computer while I criticize politicians or complain about everything else that’s gone wrong. But as today’s quote reminds us, each of us has a sphere of influence in our own…
