You are currently browsing the archives for the Inspiration category.
August 18, 2008 by enchantingsunshine.
The next time you think that you’re having a bad day, think about Eric Drew. Some people have so much courage and fortitude that words cannot capture the essence of who they are. This is the most gripping story I’ve read in a long time and one that really brings home the many “mundane” blessings we have every day.
The Man Who Lost His Name—and His Genetic Identity
Posted using ShareThis
Posted in Inspiration | Print | No Comments »
May 6, 2008 by enchantingsunshine.
“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.” - John Foster Dulles
What problems do you have right now that you don’t want next year? Brainstorm some reasons why the problem exists, and how to take action. Be as imaginative as you can with possible solutions, allowing even the most far-fetched possibilities to be added to your list. Next, pick the solution apart. Create a list of at least 20 small steps you can take to gradually implement the solution and move forward toward what you really want. Finally, pick a day on the calendar as the start date for each step.
The smaller you can break down the action steps, not only will moving forward feel less overwhelming, but you will be more likely to experience success. Each success invigorates us and leads to further success.
Sometimes our problems seem too big to conquer. My violin teacher has a wonderful strategy for helping students struggling with a piece of music that serves as a smart analogy for approaching other issues in our lives. She cuts a hole in a piece of paper the size of one measure. Then she places the paper over the sheet of music and asks her student, “Can you play those four notes?” The student nods, “Oh yes, of course, I can play those four notes” and proceeds to play the only four notes visible on the page of music. Then my teacher moves the piece of paper to expose four different notes, continuing with the exercise until the student has internalized the strategy.
If we take on the whole project at once, focusing on the end result, we can obsess about the many interim steps we have to take in between. Instead, we must understand that everything is easier if we can break it down into smaller parts. We begin with the end in mind, but make a map, and focus only on the immediate tasks to get us there.
A piece of music is a series of four notes played together. Similarly, our lives are just a series of steps we take every day. Sometimes we can only take a couple of steps at a time until we have mastered them. Sometimes a couple of steps are the only thing we have the time or emotional energy for. The smaller the steps, the less difficult it is to start each one. Eventually, we add another step, and then another until we reach our goal.
As toddlers we learned to run by first learning to walk. We learned to walk by taking tiny shaky steps a little at a time. Everything we’ve learned to do, everything we practice became a habit through repetition.
Change your habits. Live deliberately. Create the life you want tomorrow through simple planning and action today.
Posted in Inspiration, Quotes | Print | No Comments »
May 6, 2008 by enchantingsunshine.
North Carolina is holding it’s primary today. It seems like it took forever for this particular election day to arrive. I want to keep this post positive so I won’t say much except that, I harbor no positive feelings for anyone in the current administration and have felt frustrated for a long time with the shenanigans that we have let them get away with. I would love to see many of them locked behind bars until their skeletons turn to dust. I’ll stop there.
When I cast my vote a few minutes ago, I felt a little choked up. For one, when I vote, I feel lucky that I have some reasonable certainty that my vote will be counted (at least in this election). On the Likert scale, I’d choose “I agree somewhat.” In the 90s I would have chosen “strongly agree,” but we all know the awful stories and all about the cronies who control the machines.
The other reason, the primary one (so to speak) why I felt a little tickle in my throat is that when I pushed the “cast ballot” button, I voted for a change, a change for which our country has long awaited. I’m hopeful once again. With Obama, there is a prospect of a president who is still close to his ideals, who hasn’t been in Washington long enough to be ruined by the tit-for-tat game of politics, compromising his fundamental beliefs and selling out on one count to get his way on something else.
Maybe I’m wrong and Obama isn’t all he promises, but from where I stand now, I see a man who is intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, and values the people and the future of this country. I believe that he will make decisions that have nothing to do with growing his own purse, that he won’t be in Washington because he has an ego bigger than the state of Texas. It will be refreshing to have a president who has integrity, who refused to participate in the mud-slinging, who is so good that he could be elected for who he is and what he stands for, instead of lifting himself up only by pushing others down through lies and spin and hatefulness.
There will be a lot of pressure on Obama. He will inherit a costly war that seems to have no desirable way out, an economy is that is floundering by many counts, a staggering national debt, a country with a lot of corporate welfare and comparatively little social welfare, an agenda to reform the health care industry, and damaged foreign relations. He has his work cut out for him. Obama will succeed though, better than maybe anyone else could. His ego will not blind him the way it does others. He will be open to diverse opinions and will be able to make informed choices instead of operating in a tightly-controlled, single-focused, top-down hierarchy of secret agendas where only “facts” that concur are discussed. Obama won’t have to wait on creating green policies while he rearranges his stock portfolio. Obama won’t have to disguise pro-pollution laws in environmentally-friendly names.
Obama’s election campaign showed us his cool-headed poise and grace, his ability to think quickly on his feet and respond eloquently when he had no scripts to tell him what to say. The only controversies with Obama were contrived and hollow. For the voters who couldn’t see through them, Obama responded with characteristic dignity and brilliance.
Obama’s agenda will be what is best for our country as a whole. Perhaps he will help re-create a country that we’ll be proud to pass to future generations.
That is what I see in Obama and that is why I am hopeful today.
Posted in Inspiration, Ponderings/Musings, Charlotte | Print | 1 Comment »