Just recently I was privileged enough to work for the Aspen Skiing Company up in Snow-mass, and one of my coworkers would constantly reply "You live your dreams" to customers that would ask if they could ski a certain way or be a certain way. It was extremely catchy, and I came away wanting to use the phrase myself, and now I'm using it quite frequently with this kids camp that I'm working at over the summer. Yet, I feel there's a deeper lesson here—and one for adults. So often we're looking for our path, and our purpose, and what we're supposed to do in this life. What is the best way that we can help the world, and thus feel the most fulfilled. My good friend and mentor Cynthia Clark recently interviewed life coach Caryn McCurry in her podcast Life Is In Your Hands. In the episode Caryn goes on to explain that one of the main ways to discover your life's purpose and thus ease with success is to dig deep into what brought joy into your life as a child. I encourage everyone to follow this podcast as there is a lot of helpful tidbits, but this one point made a lot of sense to me. It tells us to dig in, and live our wild dreams.
Escaping the "Make a Living" Mentality
How to find our life purpose is the question though. More and more people are starting to ask the question instead of looking at life as making a living. One of my beloved guru's Sadhguru explains how we are here for so much more than "making a living," and explains how "an ant makes a living!" For an ant this is perfect. Humans have more potential he marks. Yet, Success does take vision, and so it can seem like a roller coaster ride finding that vision while darting around, and trying to pinpoint what that purpose exactly is. Secretly though, we know our purpose inside, I do believe. Just today I again had this momentary giant frustration on what my vision was, what my path was, and it wasn't an entry level job, as much as that seemed like a "safe" option. In this frustration, I went to social media, being in the low state I was in and the answer beamed back at me. It was actually a series of quotes my Divine had sent to me, which in turn I had then posted on Facebook a couple years back, and it came from the philosopher Rumi. He first states "There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the Earth," and then I read on, "As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears," and the concluding quote was, "If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished." The first quote was one lesson that had to be retaught to me, and still does—and it is that "you can't do it wrong." There is no way to live this life in a wrong way. Your own ego determines what is what, and to come to terms with this, and more so ease with this, leads to gigantic freedom! Then the second quote chimes in that "you're shoe will keep hitting you in the face no matter what." I got this message when I returned from my Hawaiian spiritual adventure with O and O Academy a few years back, and then was drawn by my Divine to see this weird music movie called XOXO. There is one part where one of the seemingly crazy characters actually reveals his wisdom, and we come to respect him as he explains how his "shoe is constantly coming back to him" There's some lovely lessons in that movie. I encourage everyone and anyone to watch it. Rumi explains that your dream will always be chasing you, and you'll really see that when you're not focused on it. Finally, in the last quote/lesson Rumi explains how it's good to ruffle the feathers a little. The humanitarian, and one of my beloved Guru's Sri Sri Ravi Shankar explained to me once that "through hard experiences we grow stronger." This was after I had been in Fukushima Japan in 2011 and was trying to process how the world could do its things. I personally witnessed how Japan grew stronger after this. Out of the rubble happiness and strength did come.
If You Want Ketchup On Your Salad Go For It!
In the end we don't know what success looks like until we're there. We don't know what another is experiencing at any given moment. In fact most change makers and jet setters in history were shunned for their actions, or they stumbled upon their masterpieces by making huge apparent blunders. Therefore "You live your dreams," and tell young learners nothing different in my experience, and in my opinion. We started dreaming when we learned how to harness fire, I believe. Isn't it interesting how that has become a symbol for discovery, for passion, for wonder. All it takes is few minutes around a campfire to ignite these words back into my own soul, and yet as I stare in i'm at peace. A fire is calming. We relax when we're feeding the flames, allowing change, and yet a fire not controlled can be a disaster too. Isn't that interesting, and aren't we thankful that there is water as well.
About the Creator
Sound And The Messenger
Hello and welcome. Creativity shows itself in a myriad of different ways for me. I intend to get out of my comfort zone on this page, be vulnerable and create. Follow me @soundandthemessenger
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Failure
There is the phrase that explains that failure is only good if you learn from your mistakes. To this I must disagree. Failure is good if you get up again. There is no way to not learn something from failure. We have this false illusion that we are in control. Therefore it can actually put you into a worse state if you follow the first way of looking at failure. I can see you sitting there pondering whether... "Did I learn from my mistake this time"? There then comes the battle with your ego and you regret that you did or didn't do something. I know what this is like as I've been there. Thankfully, there is no way not to learn something from failure. My good friend Paul recently opened my eyes to this even more. He has recently thrown in the towel on his business. Over the past few years he started his own company making creative marshmallows and crafting them after the wonderful experience of having S'mores when camping. His company was called Stuff'n Mallows. He told me that when he was interviewed by large companies, the first thing they wanted to know was how many times the entrepreneur had failed. This life is a process of getting up and climbing another mountain. I really go back to the bubble analogy. When I was a child I would sit there and examine bubbles. I would look at them and try to determine when they would pop. I would look into their creamy outline and see the colors swish around. What I noticed was that when the surface became perfectly clear that was the moment in which they popped. Only when they were void of color did this happen. I think in many ways this is a metaphor for life. We're always climbing another mountain in the motivation and delight of becoming a little more pure. Awakening happens when our bubble pops. Struggles will still occur, mountains will still have to be climbed, but our perspective on how we view the next path will not be centered around effort. In this form, the life process becomes effortless. Perhaps we're all bubbles. You could say that we're "slow dancing in a burning room" as John Mayer has told us. It puts a romantic edge to the process of life, but I'm going with bubbles today. So go examine a bubble for yourself. Let me know what you think. Color is the spice of life itself. It can tell so much about us. Sound is color, I feel. It's that realization that the presence of those difficulties and hoops and swings is what makes the juice worth the squeeze. I'm imagining watermelon juice, but you can choose lemon or orange if you so desire. The world is your oyster.
By Sound And The Messenger5 years ago in Motivation
It Only Took One Minute.......
It only took a minute. I was sitting at the computer in my office when the phone rang. I picked up the receiver and then laid it down my desk as I went to find the student who the call was for. Within seconds I was back at my desk, ready to resume typing, when I heard the student yelling obscenities at me for listening in to his call through the handset that was still lying on the desk. Sick and tired of the lies he was spewing, I was up running down the hall, ready to kill him. By the time I reached him, I had calmed enough not to hurt him, but as I turned back towards my room, I knew that I couldn’t go on like this any longer. The decision was clear. I had to leave.
By Gail Wylie6 days ago in Motivation
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