
My belief in one of my sport’s heroes has been crushed. I used to think he was one of the greatest basketball players ever but I just found out he missed over 9,000 shots as a pro and lost 300 games. His team must have thought a lot of him because they entrusted him to take the final shot but twenty-six times he missed and lost the game for them. What a loser. And to think Jordan is in the Hall of Fame!
And that’s just one of my disappointments:
I was thinking about buying a new Sony TV but I’ve learned Akio Morita (Sony founder) couldn’t even make a decent rice cooker. It burned the rice every time and only 100 were sold. What a loser! Where’s the Samsung store?
Oh, and writers…. poets especially. I thought Emily Dickenson was pretty good then I found out she had to write 1,800 poems just to get 12 published. Twelve! That’s all.
I got a book off my shelf to see if I really liked old Emily. Look at this genius work: “A bird came down the walk: He did not know I saw; He bit an angle-worm in halves and ate the fellow, raw.” (A Bird Came Down the Walk, Emily Dickenson) What? Was she six when she wrote that? Ewe…. worms. Gross. Yeah, great title Emily. What a loser! Anyone want to buy a Dickenson collection?
(ok, you get it….enough with the jokes)
At least this guy hasn’t disappointed me (yet):
“Remember, failure is an event, not a person.”
“Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”
“Make today worth remembering.”
“Motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.”
Thanks, Zig Ziglar, for not only reminding me to take a bath but also that simple things lead the way to greater returns.
In my capacity as a Possibilities Coach, I use a word I made up, realmagination. I truly believe and have seen that imagination can take you to a place of new experience so life can unfold around it. However, that doesn’t mean quitting your job tomorrow and going into a business you know nothing about on an island you think is paradise.
As a Possibilities Coach, I’ve partnered with many individuals who were stuck in a life they wanted to escape. Many of them are unsure of what they want to do but think “anything is better than what I’m doing”.
I’m very good at helping them keep the dream alive while seeking balance because I recall how ready I was to quickly accelerate into my unknown future when I first self-created my life. In retrospect, it would have turned out bad. However, a friend at the time told me, “If you make decisions while imbalanced, the outcome will be out of balance with your intention”.
It is critical that I convey the importance of this because if you observe my current life, it may appear unreachable therefore cause you doubt or, for the starry-eyed, create over-eagerness. Remaining cautious that others may try to follow my exact footsteps, I divulge parts of how my life came to be and explain that I have been continually self-creating life for 25 years. That’s why it’s described as self-creating not self-created. There are few identifiable steps or stages in my journey but it’s possible that it has been one interconnected event made doable because I was always found myself to be “in shape” for whatever came next based on a natural process of expansion.
Like Jordan and Dickenson, it all turned out just as I always perceived it in my realmagination and I have never given much thought to the missed shots or crummy poems of my life.
We will never be afraid when someone hands us the ball for the final shot if our on-going self-creating life experiences have naturally developed us for unlimited possibilities.
Expanded experience after expanded experience will lubricate your mind and actions toward previously unconceived possibilities.
If you are reading between the lines, you already know I propose time-honored discernment not groundless conjecture. I admit to being in awe of many aspects of my own life. I often look around and feel I’m in a dream. Lately, I’ve felt it almost every day.
Years ago, I had the same feeling exploring a wooded glade as chubby snow began to stick to pine needles and eyelids. Cold and numb toes disappeared along with most of my sense of myself. That feeling remains to this day and enriches me because it keeps me knowing there is no difference in the appreciation of small or great experiences as we don’t separate from the feeling.
Many of my Self-Creating Life friends would tell you that new possibilities feel natural and timely. They have often reported that what they were doing felt “right” and normal. Why do you think that is?
I would like to suggest that you begin your Self-Creating Life naturally and well-equipped for change. Don’t put off the greatest experience in your realmagination but don’t postpone the start of your self-creating life either.
Nourish yourself right now developing simple, notable opportunities. Perhaps it’s not as exotic as taking off for a foreign land but it’s just as possible to untether yourself and choose to participate in life to the fullest even if it’s at the park down the street.