You are responsible.
(We all are.
Let’s start acting like it.)
FOR GRANTED
What we take for granted -
running water,
refrigeration,
climate control,
mint tea,
wifi -
shows how
well-resourced we are.
So what are you doing
with what you take for granted?
COFFEE HABIT
When you think to yourself,
“There is no way I can form this new habit.”
just think about the last time you gave
any thought to that
first cup of coffee in the morning.
You weren’t born with a cup in you hand.
(Habits are formed by
subtly shifting one thing
Every. Single. Day.)
FEAR ISN’T MOTIVATION
Fear can push you.
Fear of
the morgue,
the mortgage,
the car payment,
failure,
not measuring up,
not having enough.
Fear can push you into your
days,
work,
life.
Fear can push you,
but so can a bully on the playground.
Fear isn’t motivation,
it’s intimidation.
EXACTLY LIKE LAST TIME
You know it’s not working
when you say,
“Let’s try that again,
exactly like last time.”
THE REHEARSAL CONTINUES
The most brilliant actors
don’t “perform” on stage.
They live into
the character
created
during rehearsals.
The same is true
for you.
There is rarely
a stage,
bright lights,
a full house.
More often,
there is you
and the
day-to-day
rehearsal
of who
you are becoming.
Rehearsal gives
the opportunity
to try,
to fail,
to block the scene
again and again
until it’s better.
Then, when the stage
does present itself,
you bring what you have,
who you are
and it is enough
for that moment.
Afterwards,
the rehearsal continues.
Because your
character is
always
being created.
NUMBER STORIES
Numbers
can be shaped
to tell a story
nearly as easily as words.
It’s just more difficult to tell
whether
the tale is
fiction
or
non-fiction.
FIXING MY BRAIN
When I started down the road
to fix my brain,
to heal my depression,
I had nothing to lose.
The darkness had been coming more frequently.
I’d jumped into the abyss before,
been enveloped by its nothingness
and
prayed I might become one with it.
I was scared.
So I began letting go of the medications
which weren’t helping much.
I began fixing my thoughts
on what I had,
not what I didn’t.
Retraining my thoughts,
rewiring my brain,
wasn’t easy.
As I began to
get better,
be better,
I started telling others.
Almost instantly,
the training got more difficult
as if revealing my healing to the world
caused a psychic pushback.
“Who are you to get well,
to learn from your depression
and
not have it be the definition of your life?”
I didn’t realize it at first,
but this
pushback
meant I was
on the right path.
So I tell myself,
“Keep walking.”
THE GIFT OF ONE
You receive one.
One life.
One year,
one month,
one day,
one hour,
one minute,
one second
at a time.
What are you doing
with your gift of one?
DRIVING ACROSS WEST TEXAS
Building something real,
having an impact,
bringing something powerful to life
is like driving across west Texas.
Off in the distance, you can see
the outline of your destination.
So you keep
driving,
iterating,
stopping for lunch,
driving,
iterating.
You might get a little bored.
You will experience tiredness.
You will begin to wonder
whether
the destination
exists
at all.
Then, as if by magic,
you’ve arrived.
You come to what you have been
envisioning,
creating,
striving for.
You stop.
You get out.
You give thanks.
You celebrate.
You wonder at the
road
and
miles
behind you.
And then you look ahead.
Off in the distance, there is a new destination.
You know what to do next.