I've recently come out of a tunnel. The tunnel I've discovered since getting copious amounts of sleep and being away from work was mostly work stress and fatigue. I feel like a million dollars these days. Nothing has changed in my life besides a new attitude. I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions as I fail early and then feel bad for being undisciplined. However, I have decided to make my life more balanced and give more time to fostering relationships outside of work. I have great friends and family who understand my life and are patient but the relationships can develop shallowness which I'm aware will have little pay off as I age. I'm also very pumped about doing a world tour in two years time and my focus has to shift to savings rather than spending. I am off to the Mayan Riviera in Feb and that will be the last trip I take until I leave Canada in 2012. I will be able to take a year's sabbatical and rent my house out, which means I can arrive back to a home AND a job.
I am reading a book right now called Getting to Maybe, it's a book for those who are not happy with the way things are and would like to make a difference. It's for ordinary people who want to make connections that will create extraordinary outcomes, making impossible things happen. I'm proud that I do this kind of thing at work - we are social innovators where I am, we believe the system is flawed - however by working together we get past our insignificance and can make a difference. I want to apply this thinking to my personal life. I want to make a difference and believe I can.
This is an invite to anyone reading - do you have a burning passion? Do you feel like nothing you can do will change anything? I'm telling you that's not true - innovation can occur - brand new ways of thinking are required yes - but change can occur one community, one business, one person at a time.
To be honest I haven't figured out yet what it is that will capture my heart, mind and ya even soul - but I will. I'm hoping others will join with me, maybe even inspire me to make change. I'm not saying this just to say this - I want your thoughts, hopes, purpose, discontent, challenge - let's be a think tank for innovative change. I mean it join me. If there is one characteristic I could sum myself up with it's this: Earnest. I mean what I say, and say what I mean. I'm simple and yet complex - deeper than I appear but still relatively untarnished - if this means I can be a catalyst I'm willing - do you want to help me?
Here's a couple of quotes I'll leave you with.
"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." Valclav Havel
This is where I'm at right now - not optimistic - but hopeful. I believe we are only hampered by fear and ourselves. Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love, says this, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented fabulous? Actually who are you not to be?...Your playing small does not serve the world..."
I don't want to play small anymore. I have a habit of self-deprecation in order to make people less insecure around me. I'm going to stop. I'm going to be proud of what assets, strengths, possibilities I have rather than hide them to make others feel better about themselves. I have no fear I'll be an ass - I care too much about what others are feeling to lose sight - but why do I need to diminish myself? I don't. Plain and simple.
I'll end with this because it moved me.
Yes, a dandelion
because they are the flower
of wishes. You blow that ball
of seeds and the wind carries them to the one
assigned to grant or reject.
And it's a good thing
that it's the dandelions
who have this power
because they are tough
and sometimes you have to be tough
to even remember
that you have any desires left at all,
to believe that even one
could be satisfied, would not turn
to an example of
"be careful what you wish for,
it might come true."
Maybe that's exactly why
there are so many of them-
the universe gives us extra chances
to keep dreaming.
Each one an uprising,
a burst of colour
in the cracks of our hearts,
sunrise
at an unexpected time,
in an unexpected place.
Ellie Schoenfield, "Lucian's Birthday Poem"
I am reading a book right now called Getting to Maybe, it's a book for those who are not happy with the way things are and would like to make a difference. It's for ordinary people who want to make connections that will create extraordinary outcomes, making impossible things happen. I'm proud that I do this kind of thing at work - we are social innovators where I am, we believe the system is flawed - however by working together we get past our insignificance and can make a difference. I want to apply this thinking to my personal life. I want to make a difference and believe I can.
This is an invite to anyone reading - do you have a burning passion? Do you feel like nothing you can do will change anything? I'm telling you that's not true - innovation can occur - brand new ways of thinking are required yes - but change can occur one community, one business, one person at a time.
To be honest I haven't figured out yet what it is that will capture my heart, mind and ya even soul - but I will. I'm hoping others will join with me, maybe even inspire me to make change. I'm not saying this just to say this - I want your thoughts, hopes, purpose, discontent, challenge - let's be a think tank for innovative change. I mean it join me. If there is one characteristic I could sum myself up with it's this: Earnest. I mean what I say, and say what I mean. I'm simple and yet complex - deeper than I appear but still relatively untarnished - if this means I can be a catalyst I'm willing - do you want to help me?
Here's a couple of quotes I'll leave you with.
"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." Valclav Havel
This is where I'm at right now - not optimistic - but hopeful. I believe we are only hampered by fear and ourselves. Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love, says this, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented fabulous? Actually who are you not to be?...Your playing small does not serve the world..."
I don't want to play small anymore. I have a habit of self-deprecation in order to make people less insecure around me. I'm going to stop. I'm going to be proud of what assets, strengths, possibilities I have rather than hide them to make others feel better about themselves. I have no fear I'll be an ass - I care too much about what others are feeling to lose sight - but why do I need to diminish myself? I don't. Plain and simple.
I'll end with this because it moved me.
Yes, a dandelionbecause they are the flower
of wishes. You blow that ball
of seeds and the wind carries them to the one
assigned to grant or reject.
And it's a good thing
that it's the dandelions
who have this power
because they are tough
and sometimes you have to be tough
to even remember
that you have any desires left at all,
to believe that even one
could be satisfied, would not turn
to an example of
"be careful what you wish for,
it might come true."
Maybe that's exactly why
there are so many of them-
the universe gives us extra chances
to keep dreaming.
Each one an uprising,
a burst of colour
in the cracks of our hearts,
sunrise
at an unexpected time,
in an unexpected place.
Ellie Schoenfield, "Lucian's Birthday Poem"
