Ask and it is Given

A few weeks ago, I followed a recommendation, or accepted a challenge might be a better description. I increased my weekly blog posting from twice to thrice. At first, I was worried I’d have trouble coming up with enough topics to keep up with my self-imposed demand, but as always, when I set an intention, the Universe steps up to make it happen.

Even now, I’ve had the topic for this post set for the last 6 days, waiting for me to turn the title into another of my 1500 or so words of wisdom, or at least, what seems wise to me. I also have at least one topic waiting for me on my blog site which means I need only come up with 2 more to fill my queue through next Sunday.

Keeping Our Eyes Open for Inspiration

Inspiration comes from a number of sources these days, though Linda Clay is my muse, more often than not. Her words of wisdom resonate so well, I’m often inclined to expound upon a message she delivered in one of her Facebook Lives or posts.

As you may have noticed, inspiration comes, too, from the simple act of day-to-day living. When we’re open to the messages the Universe delivers, each day is an opportunity to learn something new, or stretch ourselves beyond our own self-imposed and often arbitrary limits.

Facing Our Fears and Shutting Them Down

One of my biggest fears as a ghostwriter is committing to something and being unable to deliver. Despite the fact I know I need only shut off the monkey mind and let the words flow as I do when I write for myself, that nagging voice in my head insists on telling me I’m going to fail, if not this time, at some point. My challenge is to tell that voice to STFU and go bother someone else who might be more susceptible to its lies.

I know they’re lies because, throughout my entire life, no matter how high the mountains or how terrifying the obstacles, I’ve shown up and done what I had to to scale the mountain, slay the demons, and get the job done. What those voices have accomplished up to this point is to keep me from realizing my full potential.

Doing More Than Getting By

In the process of facing the challenges, keeping my head down, and soldiering through, I’ve lacked a single powerful element to not only getting by, but succeeding beyond my wildest dreams. That element is foresight.

I’ve been so busy trying to get past the obstacles, I’ve failed to take advantage of the much more frequent periods of time when the road is clear. Instead of charging up the road in search of new adventures, I’ve hunkered down in my hermit hole and caught my breath before the next challenge smacked me between the shoulder blades. The fallacy to this methodology is in thinking I might avoid a challenge by making myself invisible.

Remember the Rolling Stone

Nowadays, I’ve learned the best way to avoid that rude awakening is not to remain motionless and hope I won’t be noticed, but to keep moving so when the monster looks for a victim, I’m long gone. Monsters in our lives are often situational. If we stay in the same situation year after year, they know where to find us.

It’s kind of like doing weight work for your body. If you work the muscles the same way week after week, month after month, they grow accustomed to a particular exercise and a stagnant amount of weight, and progress slows to a crawl. But if you keep surprising them with increased resistance, different exercises, and changes to your routine, progress will come more quickly because the muscles don’t have time to become complacent.

In my complacence I welcomed every new obstacle with open arms instead of getting out of the way before they could block my progress.

Charting Our Own Course

In life, we can either chart our own course or be blown around like flotsam at the whim of outside forces. For too long, I was the flotsam, frustrated at the small amount of progress I made as the years flew by. Yet experiencing life from a myopic perspective is a lesson in and of itself. It teaches us what happens if we allow outside forces to choose our direction. Even more, it teaches us how unsatisfying life is when we aren’t the captain of our own ship.

Hopefully, we also learn to be more involved in decisions about our life path and more motivated to take charge and choose our next destination consciously and deliberately.

The latest homework assignment in the #HeartfeltAcademy is to state our goals, then come up with smaller steps we can take to reach them. I’ve been sitting on the assignment for nearly two weeks, making excuses and procrastinating. Once again, I’m letting fate choose my direction.

Choosing to do Nothing is Still A Choice

Taking charge of our own lives is a repeating lesson for some of us. We need constant reminders that if we don’t make a choice, we’ve chosen to let someone else (or something) choose for us. I’ve become impatient with waiting for something to happen, and am inspired by quite a few people who’ve taken life by the balls and gotten exactly what they wanted from it. I want to be like them!

We can choose to be survivors and simply get past one challenge or another, making slow, if any progress towards our own dreams. Having done so for decades, I can assure you, it’s an unfulfilling way to live. We can also choose to be the Knight of Wands from the Tarot deck; charging forward even without a solid plan in place, trusting in the Universe to provide the tools and opportunities we need to get to the next level.

Let Passion Lead the Way

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in the last 4 years or so since I quit my job with no reliable means of support to sustain me through what has been a really long learning curve is to go where my passion leads me. When I’m passionate enough about what I’m doing and want to accomplish, opportunities, inspiration, and even motivation plant themselves in my path in place of the obstacles I attracted before.

Which brings up another interesting point. By sitting and waiting for the next brick to fall on our foot, we’re getting exactly what we’re asking for. In short, expect obstacles and that’s what you’ll receive.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to expect rainbows, sunshine, and smooth sailing ahead? In Alice in Wonderland there’s a scene called the “Mad Tea Party”. Alice is unaware that the words you speak are the foods you’ll eat. When prompted to make a speech, she expounds quite eloquently, but the words, when presented as food are dry and tasteless.

Finding Inspiration and More From Lewis Carroll

As I child, I failed to see the deeper meaning in many things including the words of Mr. Carroll. Now I understand there were some pretty astute observations about life and people, and the world in general. I can almost see a politician spouting the words of “Jabberwocky”. What they do spew these days is often even less comprehensible and more meaningless than “t’was brillig and the slithey tove…” At least if they quoted Jabberwocky, people would know they were speaking nonsense and ignore them…or would they?

At any rate, following Mr. Carroll’s guidance, when we speak words about our likes and dislikes, our dreams, and our future, we must choose our words carefully as what we ask we shall most assuredly receive.

 

About the Author

Sheri Conaway is a writer, blogger, Virtual Assistant and advocate for cats. Sheri believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. She is available for ghostwriting to help your business grow and thrive. Her specialties are finding and expressing your uniquely genuine self. If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author.

Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming release of “Forgotten Victims: Healing and Forgiving After Suicide”.