Not Impossible

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Our ability to imagine is one of the greatest gifts we as humans have been given. The brain has a science all to itself in which I am sure someone much smarter than I could explain all of this. But in simple terms, millions of neurons contain varying bits of information we have collected over our lifetime.

Much of this information can be reconstructed in an ordered fashion as we learned the information. Such as retrieving '2', '3' and knowing that adding them together equals '5'. Or maybe knowing that 'light', 'switch', 'up' should result in the light turning on. Very basic, but you get the idea that we tend to reassemble all of these bits of data back into a learned pattern.

What if we took all those random bits of information and put them together?

This is what imagination is all about. Taking things learned and mixing them up. Looking for different possibilities. Some would say that much of what we imagine has already been imagined. Could be, but not to you. When you imagine something new, it is new to you, a first time acknowledgement.

When you act upon the imagination, you may find someone has already thought of it. But it wasn't thought of the same way you did. Take your imagination and run with it. Try the impossible that may have been said repeatedly was impossible. Achieve what others may say is unachievable.

Imagine all of the possibilities...

Stay inspired my friends!

The Comfort Zone

Comfort Zone: "a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk."

Each of us have one of those things we call our "comfort zone" in which we stand. We can even see that our abilities should allow us to stretch our boundaries.

What can you find outside of your comfort zone will never be found until you step out. Taking a chance to stretch beyond you ability will present you with new and greater things. You see, it is said that we exist in one of the following conditions.

- We want to maintain our current comfort zone.
- We are dissatisfied with current conditions and want to move to another comfort zone.
- We were suddenly thrust from our comfort zone and want back in.
- We need to make decisions without supporting facts.

The comfort zone can be a decision making tool.

There are many different reasons for either staying or wanting to move beyond or to another comfort zone in our lives. But nothing can be done without a decision. Even staying in one place requires a decision to keep things the same.

So how do you break habits; how do you step out of your comfort zone? Here’s a few suggestions on how to do it from Adrian Savage:

Understand the truth about your habits. They always represent past successes. You have formed habitual, automatic behaviors because you once dealt with something successfully, tried the same response next time, and found it worked again. That’s how habits grow and why they feel so useful. To get away from what’s causing your unhappiness and workplace blues, you must give up on many of your most fondly held (and formerly successful) habits. and try new ways of thinking and acting. There truly isn’t any alternative. Those habits are going to block you from finding new and creative ideas. No new ideas, no learning. No learning, no access to successful change.

Do something—almost anything—differently and see what happens. Even the most successful habits eventually lose their usefulness as events change the world and fresh responses are called for. Yet we cling on to them long after their benefit has gone. Past strategies are bound to fail sometime. Letting them become automatic habits that take the controls is a sure road to self-inflicted harm.

Take some time out and have a detailed look at yourself—with no holds barred. Discovering your unconscious habits can be tough. For a start, they’re unconscious, right? Then they fight back. Ask anyone who has ever given up smoking if habits are tough to break. You’ve got used to them—and they’re at least as addictive as nicotine or crack cocaine.

Be who you are. It’s easy to assume that you always have to fit in to get on in the world; that you must conform to be liked and respected by others or face exclusion. Because most people want to please, they try to become what they believe others expect, even if it means forcing themselves to be the kind of person they aren’t, deep down.

You need to start by putting yourself first. You’re unique. We’re all unique, so saying this doesn’t suggest that you’re better than others or deserve more than they do. You need to put yourself first because no one else has as much interest in your life as you do; and because if you don’t, no one else will. Putting others second means giving them their due respect, not ignoring them totally. Keeping up a self-image can be a burden. Hanging on to an inflated, unrealistic one is a curse. Give yourself a break.

Slow down and let go. Most of us want to think of ourselves as good, kind, intelligent and caring people. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it isn’t. Reality is complex. We can’t function at all without constant input and support from other people. Everything we have, everything we’ve learned, came to us through someone else’s hands. At our best, we pass on this borrowed existence to others, enhanced by our contribution. At our worst, we waste and squander it. So recognize that you’re a rich mixture of thoughts and feelings that come and go, some useful, some not. There’s no need to keep up a façade; no need to pretend; no need to fear of what you know to be true

There is much you probably want to achieve in your life. By stepping "out of the ordinary" into areas of discomfort, your world will expand. With that expansion will be greater opportunity and success.

Stay inspired my friends!

Huge Small Changes

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." ~W. Edwards Deming

I get inspiration from a lot of different places and in a lot of weird ways as well. Today it comes from a cartoon called Speed Bump by cartoonist Dave Coverly. It shows two sperm traveling and one telling the other, "eh, you go on ahead...I don't like change." It may take you a moment to get it, but change is what will happen when the one tail meets up with its destination.

Even at the earliest stages of life, change is happening to us. To think that the one that did meet its destination and accept change is actually us. We are the product of what was a fight to experience change. As tiny as life creation starts, such a huge impact it has on everything.

One might argue that a biological force of nature doesn't do so by choice. But since we are a product of that biology, we are also instilled with that same force which drives us forward. What happens is that the driving force exists inside, but we become too smart for our own good. We can overcome our reluctance by getting out of our own way thus allowing ourselves to achieve great things.

Then again, we each have free will to choose not to move forward. We can sit still and let life pass us by. We can choose to fall back and let others move forward to meet with change. When we do though, we leave so much undiscovered, so much unfullfilled not only for others but for ourselves.

Think back to my beginning story of the two sperm. One decides to stay back, only to live a short and lonely life; very short as a matter of fact. The other moves boldly forward to meet with its future. A long and great life filled with expectation and excitement.

Our ability to change doesn't begin and end at conception. It can happen at any point in our lives. We only have to choose to move forward with it; to push through and meet up with our own future.

Stay inspired my friends!

What is in a Jar

"Go for it now. The future is promised to no one." -Wayne Dyer

A Saturday morning in fall, the sun starting to spread its warmth across the landscape and breakfast at the kitchen table comes to life. The coffee is done brewing, a short glass of orange juice and two slices of toasted bread are before you on the table. The butter melts across the browned grains and you wonder which type of jam to use this morning.

It is a great morning to relax.

Where did you get that jam or jelly? It is very likely that you got it from the heart of a man whose passion was birthed in that jar. If you listen closely to the opening of the jar, you will hear the love escape from it. You see this is a story of a man that loves a woman into something special to share with others.

This man, Big Papa, cared for his wife as she battled sickness. Every day he would come home to care and tend to her. For many of those hours she would sleep but he kept attentive to every breath she took.

In all those hours he found a passion for canning. The jams, the pickles, the various things that one can; pun intended. With each jar, a piece of their love went into each. Big Papa lost his wife but their love and passion fills each jar.

All of us have the ability to bring a passion to life.

The passion you bring to your life can create great things from the sorrow or pain that life sets at our door step. We could simply sit at an empty table and do nothing or we could get up and make toast and coffee. All we need is a jar of jam to open on that Saturday morning in the fall.

Stay inspired my friends!

If you are interested in meeting Big Papa in person, visit him at Suwanee Days if you are in the Suwanee, Georgia area this Saturday (09/21).