Small inspirational stories help you to build a dream (I cleaned it out of my drawer from AdvantEdge, Nightingale-Conant, 2004):
When I was researching the history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge as a major illustration for the ideas of success and motivation, I became engrossed with the story of how the first bridge was built over Niagara Falls. You see, to build a bridge over a giant gorge, first you have to get a line over the canyon, from one side to the other. Easier said than done at Niagara Falls.
The engineers couldn’t cross the falls in a boat to take the line from one side to the other because the boat would go over the falls. And the airplane hadn’t been invented yet. The distance was also way beyond the bow-and-arrow range, which had been a common method at the time of getting the first line across to build a bridge.
The designing engineer, Charles Ellet, pondered the question until he came up with a revolutionary idea. He decided that, while solving the problem, he would also have some fun and generate some publicity for the project. Ellet sponsored a kite flying contest and offered five dollars to the first person who could fly a kite across the gorge and let it go low enough to the ground for someone to be able to grab the string. In 1849, five dollars was a prize similar to a small lottery today. The boy who won the price relished his accomplishment until his death, nearly 80 years later.
It all began with an idea and one thin kite string. The kite string was used to pull a cord across, then a line, then a rope. Next came a iron-wire cable and then steel cables, until a structure strong enough to build a suspension bridge was in place.
I’m stuck by how that string is like a single thought. the more vivid and clear the thought, and the more you come back to it, the stronger it becomes–like the string to the rope to a cable. Each time you rethink it, dwell on it, or layer it with other thoughts, you are strengthening the structure on which you build your idea, like building a bridge over Niagara Falls.
But unlike a kite, there is no string attached to how high and how far your goals may take you. They are limited only by yhe power of your imagination and the strength of your desire.
Source: The Psychology of Motivation by Denis Waitley.
I am still trying to get rid of the STUFF cluttering up my office and I was distracted by TED.com. I stumbled on a short talk by Richard St. John speaking on “Success is a continuous journey.”
How do they relate?
I think that if I continued on the path of success, I wouldn’t have so many unfinished projects on my list. I am looking forward to clearing out my success path and getting walking.
I was looking to write a post on clearing, since I was clearing my office, and I found an article about the Mobius strip by Parker J. Palmer, that I
thought enough about at the time to rip out of the magazine and hold on to the perspective.
The article asks questions related to what we are putting “out there” and what we are letting “in here.” When I was clearing all the extra paper out of my office, it was a metaphor, for me, to what I am allowing to enter my space–my head and my office.
Mr. Palmer has the reader cut a strip of paper from a piece of paper for a visual reference. One side of the paper represents your outer affect–your image, influence and impact. And the other side represents your inner life.
As we pass through to adulthood, we gradually bring the strip of paper to our eye level so that it becomes a wall. Our inner life–feelings and vulnerabilities–is protected by our outer self. We can feel that the world is a dangerous place and we hide the most fragile parts of us.
At some point, we can feel isolated from our true self–from our truth–and we integrate our outer facade with our inner yearnings.
With some soul searching, we can create a life on a Mobius strip. (Here’s where our visual aid comes in.) Holding the strip of paper with the ends in each hand, twist one end half a turn and join the two ends together.
Holding it in one hand, trace one side with your finger. What you will find that what is inside becomes what is outside. The two apparent sides keep creating each other.
The message becomes clear:
“Whatever is inside us continually flows outward to help form, or deform, the world–and whatever is outside us continually flows inward to help form, or deform, our lives. The Mobius strip is like life itself: here, ultimately, there is only one reality.”
There is no place to hide. “We are constantly engaged in a seamless exchange between whatever is “out there” and whatever is “in here,” participating in the creation of reality, for better or for worse.”
Understanding this has helped me to purge a lot more “out there” so that I can enrich and simplify what is going on “in here.”
As T.S. Eliot suggested:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
From Your Soul’s Journey to Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer, Spirituality & Health , September/October 2004
Tags: inner work, mobius strip
In working with successful clients, I have been looking at the two definitions for fulfillment:
Webster’s has:
1 : the act or process of fulfilling, which leads to
Fulfilling- -
1 archaic : to make full : fill <her subtle, warm, and golden breath…fulfills him with beatitude — Alfred Tennyson>
2 a : to put into effect : execute b : to meet the requirements of (a business order) c : to bring to an end d : to measure up to : satisfy
3 a : to convert into reality b : to develop the full potentialities of
2 : the act or process of delivering a product (as a publication) to a customer
Whether you look at the self-fulfillment of your potentialities or the fulfillment of a customer order, they both seem to come at the end. They are not so different.
What if fulfillment were only the beginning?
In business, when we fulfil a customer order, we now have the opportunity to begin a relationship that can lead to more and more fulfillment, for both you and the customer.
In your self, developing your potentialities, you now begin to live your true and precious life.
What is your next step after fulfillment?
Tags: finding perfect, fulfillment
Today is e.e. cummings birthday. Expose yourself to some perfect lines:
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here
Tags: e e cummings, poem, poetry
I was enjoying a Pumpkin Spice latte this morning. The cafe was crowded and every chair was taken. The table beside me was occupied by a 
portly gentleman and, what seemed to be, his employee. A friend of mine once told me that God wouldn’t let you overhear a conversation unless you were meant to. So I felt I had God’s permission to eavesdrop.
I gathered that the gentleman either owned or managed a fitness store (note my reference to portly). The employee had taken up fitness training which meant that he wasn’t available to work as much as the boss wanted. I guess he was a good salesman too.
The boss said something that almost got me into the conversation. He told the young man that he didn’t want him to make a mistake with his life. Ten years from now where would he be if he chose to pursue fitness training instead of a stable sales/retail career. The boss really felt that the guy had great potential in working at his store.
Now let’s be clear. This young guy was not straying down the dark dirty road that leads to damnation, or welfare, or jail. He was doing something that he liked to do, that he made a living at.
Who was he, the boss, to say, what ten years from now looks like? Maybe, fitness training will be the premier career? I couldn’t believe that this man was prepared to cut his employee’s dreams at the knees.
Studies have shown that we are not good at predicting our future happiness. Deciding something today because it will bring you happiness in the future doesn’t work.
Better decide what will make you happy today, make sure it won’t hurt yourself or anyone else and live your perfect life now.
Tags: coffee talk
In my perfect life, I reflect on country and sea living, my homes warm and clean, and I am reminded by how important our physical 
environment is to our sense of well-being.
The weather in our area has turned from pretty late summer stretch to crisp fall days. The clear blue sky sharply contrasts the gold, read and green of the leaves
And inside my home, the kids complain about being cold.
The thermostat in my dining room reads 19 degrees Celsius. I informed my son that if he was outside, and it was 19 degrees, he would have shorts on. Instead, he is sporting warm pants and a sweatshirt, cuddled in a blanket while he watches television. And he is complaining and stressed.
I could turn on the furnace, warm the room up to 21 degrees and he would be content.
A couple of degrees of change and his attitude would change. A change in locale, inside vs. outside, and his behaviour would change.
Small changes in our physical environment can change a lot.
What in your environment is adding to your stress? What could you change that would bring about a change in your behaviour? Start small. Adding a cozy throw can add to your comfort. Emptying a box of clutter can lighten your attitude.
Start creating an environment that encourages perfect moments and a perfect life. Make your environment perfect and you will adapt to it perfectly.
Tags: changes, environment
I was reading Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and I related to the idea of writing on what is directly in front of you. Then this blog post from Charlie at Productive Flourishing that brought the world into perspective through a one inch frame:
At one point, I happened to look up. Above me were some once familiar friends who were now strangers to me. The city lights and 
busyness of modern living had made the night just another time, but without all of those artifacts, and by complete chance, I looked up. The moon was hiding behind the Earth, so the only light to be seen came from the untold billions of stars shining back down at us.
The band of the Milky Way showed its faint light, and along the band, I saw collections of stars that I knew made the outline of constellations. I used to be able to name them and tell stories about them, but now all I could do was gesture towards them. They were there, waving at me – pulling at my imagination, whispering their tales to me; yet I could not hear their words or see their faces.
We took a while to take in the breathless beauty of the night’s sky and watch shooting stars streak across the blue-black expanse. We imagined living two or three thousand years ago, before science and before you could just run inside and turn a light on.
Every night, those friends would be there, and what many of us don’t often think about is that the landscape of the night changes. Five of the lights walk around fairly obviously; in time, we came to know them as the planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The constellations shift through the seasons, so being born “under a sign” quite literally meant that you were born when one of the constellations was overhead. And every night, some of the lights streak across the sky and fade into brilliant nothingness.
In many ways, the night sky is more foreign to us than it was to our ancestors. We know about it – but it’s neither as familiar or as wondrous as it was then. You can’t help but look up at the night sky without being wonderstruck, and, for our ancestors, the lack of explanations birthed tales of gods and spirits. Not having an explanation for what they were seeing was just unacceptable, since they were as familiar with it as we are of gravity. Human curiosity is something that will always remain – I hope – but the questions we ask are different.
What is right in front of you?
To read the whole post that offers additional food for thought and a great reflective tune, go here.
Tags: Books, perfect in nature
There are no ancients before me,
No followers behind:
Only the vastness of heaven and earth
On this mountain terrace.
Though heaven may know the ultimate,
Joy or sorrow is our will.
Sitting in solitude this morning, reading 365 Tao Daily Meditations, I was struck by the honesty and simplicity of this wisdom. The passage went on
to say:
We stand alone in this life. No one lives our life for us. Neither drug nor sorcery can remove us, even for a moment, from our own life. We can deny it, but it is useless: We are hear alone, to engage every precious moment according to our wills
The precedents of the ancients may be helpful, but in the end they are only references. The thought of those who will follow after us is likewise merely a consideration. What matters is being, pure being. Accept who you are. Be who you are.
If there are gods in the heavens, maybe they know the future. As a human being, I can only say that the future is yet to be made. Let us go forth and make it, but let us make it as beautifully as we can. The degree of elegance is determined by our will and the perfection of our own personalities. Therefore, do not sigh over misfortune or adversity. Whether you are happy or sad is entirely up to you.
Today is your time to live. Live it beautifully.
Tags: Books, perfect life
Sydney’s sky yesterday was divine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanc/3949007198/
Paul Woodruff in Reverence suggests that:
“Reverence begins in deep understanding of human limitations; from this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lie outside our control–God, truth, justice, nature, even death.”
This is a time for reverence.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33868550@N07/3946404532/
