An Experiment

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are those well known experiments that little kids perform. The young lad with a magnifying glass seeing just how much sunlight an ant can endure. Or the little girl trying to figure out just how far she can kick a soccer ball over the fence.

Each of these acts are the mind trying out new things, figuring out what works and what doesn't. Life is pretty much like that regardless of the amount of formal education we achieve. We step out of safety of knowledge onto a ledge of uncertainty.

But without this urge to try new things, a door to opportunity will always be a barrier to us even when it is open. Sometimes we simply have to go on faith and learn through experience. Not always will it work out the way we had planned, but you will have learned what doesn't work for your life.

So experiment with chance by stepping out of your normal and experience something different. You may very well be surprised by the outcome.

I'm Possible

"It always seems impossible until its done." ~Nelson Mandela

What do three thousand bottles of water, three thousand bags of chips, three thousand buns and three thousand hotdogs have to do with the impossible?

Less then two weeks ago, the church my wife and I attend were asked to do do what seemed by many impossible. A decade old event on the city square in Lawrenceville, Georgia provided a safe and fun family event to celebrate Halloween. At the 'last minute' the event was in jeopardy and our church was asked if we could pull it off.

Fearless as we tend to be, the answer was a resounding yes. And then for a few moments you feel like the dog that finally caught the car. What are we going to do now?

But the impossible is only impossible if you let it be. We jumped to it and a lot of great people pulled off an amazing event. In pulling off that amazing event, thousands of families were impacted with a touch of goodness. Why yes, everything was free to these families, the food, the water, the juice drinks, the chips, and yes lots of candy.

Each of us can accomplish so much we overcome the fear of the impossible. We each can step forward and face it head on and achieve something greater. For us it was impacting a community. For you, it can be as simple as impacting just one person.

Don't fear the impossible in your life. Don't let others convince you that things are impossible. Take the word impossible and turn it into "I'm Possible."

Cheers To Your Journey

"Is fhearr fheuchainn na bhith san duil." ~Irish saying

Translation: It is better to try than to hope.

We each live our lives the best way we know how. Today there are students at a bible school that are headed out on The Journey. It is a program that will help them discover more of whom they are. Each knows that there will be difficult obstacles to overcome this weekend, but each knows that there will be great mountains achieved as well.

The journey of life itself provides different outcomes for different people. Each of us will find something inside that either we didn't know existed or were too afraid to let out. But isn't that really what all of our lives are about? Isn't our own journey about getting beyond our fears and concerns in order to get on with a greater life?

The potential in each of us exists and yearns to be released. We can sit silently, hoping that the greatness comes to us. All the while the greatness is inside waiting to be let out.

As the Irish say, "it is better to try then to hope." So let go and make movement in your life. Get out on your journey to greatness and "Slainte" (cheers) to you as you live the journey which is your life.

Comfortable Skin

"I'm okay in my skin, you know... I'm okay with who I am." ~Dana Plato

So many years ago, I had quite a bit of shyness in my personality. I'm not quite sure where it came from as I remember in my mind not being that way in the early days of elementary school. Then for some unknown (and not really important) reason I remember third grade being the point of rising shyness.

I think much of it came from becoming self-consciousness. I know I had become aware around that time of many physical differences being pointed out by other kids. And no, I'm not blaming anything in my life on my childhood or others. It is a realization that came to me sometime back that actually helped me put it all to rest.

The bright red hair I had became a source of discomfort and torment. Although the 'old women' always thought it was cute. My thin and gangly body that really was not athletic despite my best efforts added to the discomfort of growing up.

One could probably say that I developed very thin skin over those years. It also was the excuse I used for not enjoying so many of those years in my youth. Wasted time, wasted opportunity as I look back on it. I only have myself to point at for those years gone by. But when the day came that I let it go, that I became "comfortable in my own skin" was the day that life changed.

We each can become comfortable by better understanding ourself. The more you understand why you react, why you feel, why you are who you are, then the comfort begins to take over. I guess a lot of that really causes one to become more self-confident which then brings on the comfort.

In Psychology Today there is an article by Barton Goldsmith that provides ten steps to help you build that confidence. And as I say, you can read these articles over and over, but until you start moving or actually doing these things, nothing will change.

Today I still have tendencies to be shy and lacking confidence, but I have also learned to recognize these things. And in knowing that, I can quickly work to overcome them so that I never miss another day to enjoy. Become comfortable with who you are and enjoy each of your days as well.