THE DAILY SPARK

IF… WHEN

We all have them.

“If _______ happens, then I’ll do _______.”

If this emergency passes, then I’ll take a break.

If this customer closes, then I’ll invest in my education.

If we get this finished, then we’ll focus on that.

Too often, the ifthen is nothing but a stall.  As a result, we burn trust, and worse, postpone a future we’d like to spend time living in.

Take your ifthen’s seriously.  The future always happens sooner than we expect.

Source:  Seth Godin’s Daily Blog Post.   

REFLECTION:

  • What “ifthens” do you have?
  • Is it time to stop the stall?
  • What is a future you are postponing that you can begin living in now?

REALLY GREAT PEOPLE

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Quote by Mark Twain

REFLECTION:

  • Who in your life makes you feel great?
  • Who belittles your ambitions in your life?
  • How can you ensure you tune out the small people and turn up the volume of people who make you feel great?

ANGER

“Anger is a bodyguard for hurt.”  

To be angry is so much more accepted than actually being vulnerable.  When our heart is hurt, struggling to find an acceptable way to express it can be challenging.  For men it is much more acceptable to show anger.  Women are often conditioned not to show the same kind of anger that is ok for men to express.  Such gender conditioning around expressing emotions is deeply ingrained.   

Yet if it is just a coverup for true hurt, how can this shift? 

Quote by Lama Rod Owens – a Buddhist Minister, Black activist and author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger.  And my thoughts… 🙂

REFLECTION:

  • Can you unpack something that is making you very angry?  If you examine it on a deeper level, is it hurt at its core?  Or a fear you have of loss? What is it?
  • How can you tell the truth and be vulnerable to express what is really going on with you?