Logically, it makes perfect sense. If it’s broken then fix it.

But sometimes logic isn’t that easy, especially if what is broken is you.

Yes, we are creatures of habits, both good and bad. Habits are old friends who can unintentionally define you, often imperfect but comfortably familiar.

Changing a habit is a big idea requiring a big first step. That big first step is to commit to the change, to allow yourself to move beyond what you know is holding you back.

It’s sounds like a lot of work. Unfamiliar work. Unfamiliar is fraught with uncertainty, and it’s in this uncertainty where the best intentions simply remain intentions, added to the list of things often talked about but never brought to life.

Sometimes it’s just easier to keep punching yourself in the head. Sometimes it’s just more comfortable to accept your own delusional self-imposed self-limitations than to do anything about them.

What holds us back is what always hold us back. It’s the usual habitual suspects; doubt, fear, and unworthiness. Not much good happens if you don’t think it could happen and you’re afraid what would happen if it did and if it did happen you wouldn’t think you deserved it.

The longer we buy into any idea, the more we come to accept it as truth. The idea hardens and solidifies into our reality. It works for doubt, fear, and unworthiness.

The good news is it also works for love, abundance, and happiness.

What would happen if we embraced different ideas, the ideas which empower and uplift, ideas which reconnect us to our own divine perfection? What if we bought into the Truth of our unlimited and expansive nature? What if we bought into the Truth in which we are all worthy in the eyes of our Creator?

We’re where we are because we’ve thought ourselves here. Where we go from here has a great deal to do with where we expect to be. The very process which got us where we are is the same process which can take us to where we want to be.

Your thoughts can hold you up or hold you back.

What are you thinking?

It’s a great day to be you!

All we see is their beauty, their stunning colors, their perfect symmetry. But equally as beautiful is the process.

It looks like a lot of work, becoming a butterfly. From caterpillar to chrysalis to finally butterfly, it is an amazing transformation, an incredible metamorphosis.

Caterpillars become butterflies because they are supposed to. It’s their natural progression. They really don’t have a choice.

For us, our evolution is voluntary. We don’t have to become anything other than what we already are. We get to decide if we will ever become the butterfly we were created to become.

Our molting is optional.

It’s much easier remaining a caterpillar. We often take great comfort embracing what is known, even if what is known falls far short of what we know could be. Personal evolution sounds quite daunting.

A butterfly’s beauty is their way of screaming for our attention in hopes that we’ll see more than just the physical.

When I see a butterfly, I often reflect on my own evolution. When I look beyond the gentle fluttering of wings I am reminded that evolution is a process, a series of successive stages, each with its own time frame, each requiring my awareness and my patience. From here I can allow my life to unfold. It’s amazing where awareness and patience will take you if you let it.

A butterfly is the culmination of an evolutionary process. For us, though, our evolution has no end. Our evolution is not about a culmination, it’s more about the process of allowing ourselves to listen to those inner soulful voices guiding us on our own evolving journey.

We are all born caterpillars, all butterflies in waiting, standing on the threshold of fulfilling our greatest purpose.

Listen to the butterflies.

Embrace your evolution.

It’s a great day to be you!

It was always a difficult day for me, report card day. That was always the day I got serious about school, but at that point it was too late. Grades were in, and the long walk home from school was never quite long enough. I had to show up at some point and await the consequences of my doing just enough just to get by.

My disinterest in school really came down to me questioning the importance of school in the first place. I knew it was important, but was it really that important? What I lacked was the big picture where I could somehow discern the significance in the seemingly insignificant.

Sometimes life doesn’t provide us with the big picture. Sometimes, though, we simply don’t see it. Lacking a clear focus, the significant can easily become insignificant. Success rates usually plunge when one half of the mind is trying to solve a problem while the other half is questioning the importance of the problem in the first place.

So what do you do when there is no map, no compass, no landmark ahead in the distance?

You show up anyway.

Our very fluid world creates both opportunities and obstacles, often unexpectedly. Big pictures become suddenly distorted. But so much of life comes down to showing up and seeing the significance of what lies in front of you, even if you feel it isn’t.

The significance of life is in the moments which it is made of. Ours is a choice as to what we will do with them. We can focus on lack and lament what is wrong or missing. Or we can show up and embrace the opportunity of what is right in front of us, learn all this moment has to teach us, and trust this is part of a Bigger Picture revealing itself on it’s own divine time frame.

It’s your life. Which do you chose?

It’s a great day to be you!

There is something about New. New is exciting and fresh. A welcome escape from the predictability of what already is.

Not that long ago, what already is was once new itself. But time has a way of making the extraordinary quite ordinary, and we again hunger for the Next Big Thing.

I’m a big fan of New. I’m a big fan of innovation, expansion, and evolution. Often, though, I wonder if our cultural obsession with the Next Big Thing is really more about distracting ourselves from our own perceived shortcomings of what we think is missing in our own lives.

My greatest moments are when I can look at my life and rediscover a sense of humble amazement for all the good I already have in my life. To find contentment and joy in what already is.

Continue reading “When Life Loses It’s New Car Smell” →

If you’ve ever felt a loving embrace, thank an adjective. Because without the adjective, all you would have felt was an embrace.

Adjectives bring words to life. They turn beer into cold beer, nights into starry nights, moments into magical moments. The colorful and descriptive nature of an adjective is based upon a perception, a judgment, an evaluation of what we think we see in front of us.

Perceptions, judgments, and evaluations are great when we are talking about beer, nights, and moments. But when we add people to that list, perceptions, judgments, and evaluations can sometimes be anything but great.

The ability of adjectives to enhance can be offset by an adjective’s ability to hurt, especially when it comes to people. Our highly competitive world is quite polarizing. Demographically we are all Continue reading “The Divisive Nature of Adjectives” →

I used to think Martha Washington didn’t know what she was talking about. She’s quoted as saying happiness or misery is more about our dispositions and not our circumstances.

Martha, I’m sorry. You were right.

Life is always a lot more fun when our circumstances are exactly as we’d like them to be. How can you not be happy when the world is going your way? But what happens when the circumstances change, when a big ol’ rain cloud shows up in your clear blue sky?

In my own life of late I’ve had a few big ol’ rain clouds showing up and spoiling my view. The clouds shifted my focus and energy in Continue reading “Martha Washington Is Not An Idiot” →