Now that I’m about to embark on another Blissdom Canada adventure (heading off on Wednesday in fact) I thought it would be a good time to revisit the goals I set after Blissdom 2013 . I felt so energized, so revived and ready to take on the world. It empowered me and I vowed to embrace my Be Brave moment!
Here’s what I’ve been working on in the past year:
1) How can you receive if you never ask? Sure, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some opportunities essentially drop into my lap but this isn’t something that happens all the time. And, who wants to wait around for those? I’d like to have a little more control over my own destiny and reach out for what I want the most. Have I done this? To a degree, yes.
I’m actually quite a shy person and I’m not comfortable with initiating these kinds of conversations but each month, I’ve challenged myself more and more. If anything, It’s been the time constraints in my personal life holding me back and now that I’m freer to pursue these, I have put a plan in place to seek out even more! How can you receive if you never ask? As the saying goes, what’s the worst that can happen?
2) Saying yes to something means saying no to something else. I remember years ago in a religion class being given an example by our teacher. To sum it up, it’s a story illustrated with two jars to represent the amount of time in your life.
There was a pile of large rocks which he had us help him label with the most important things in our lives – what we truly wanted to spend our time on. These were things like time with family and friends, time with God, time to pursue our dreams. Then he had a pile of pebbles. These he had labelled with things like household chores and other less important activities than those on the big rocks.
He poured the pebbles into one of the jars and it filled the jar to the brim. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t squeeze even just one of the large rocks into the jar. Then he took the large rocks and poured them into the second jar. Adding the pebbles from the first jar, they were able to fit in and amongst the spaces between the large rocks.
What was the meaning of all this? If you don’t put the large rocks in first, you’ll never find time to fit them into your life! Saying yes to something means saying no to something else. Not only am I more careful about what I say yes to now (knowing that it likely means giving up something else) but I’m also looking at my life and work in terms of what “yeses” I would envision for myself if I could have just what I want and I’m actively seeking them out!
3) You don’t always get what you want. Stepping out of that box and asking means you are going to hear some “No’s”. Not everyone is going to see the brilliance of your idea and just how amazing you are and jump all over every proposal you bring to them. Hearing no is ok. It means you are one step closer to yes. Sometimes, that may mean letting go of a current dream – sure, it may never happen but for now, it just might need to be shelved. Or reworked. It might mean that the ones on the receiving end of what you’re asking for aren’t quite ready to take as big a step as you are. Perhaps, you need to break out the shovel. You don’t always get what you want….at first. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep trying though.
I see Blissdom Canada as a stepping stone on my journey. I learn something new, I meet new, amazing people, and I get re-energized and strengthened to take the next steps.
Leave a Reply