Intent and Purpose

Intent and purpose is everything. It means that you must be awake. To do anything with purpose and intent, you must be fully in the moment. Your intentions must be clear and definite. Sliding by is not good enough. Waiting to see if things go your way will not get you to where you could be. This does not mean that you have to force your will. It simply means that if you act with intent and purpose and not waver from your conviction, whatever you decide to do will be accomplished. Look to your goal and envision your success, create the detailed plan to get there and then with intent and purpose stride confidently forward.

Let Your "Dreams" Unfold

Let your “dreams” unfold. Dreams are those fleeting experiences that occur when we are in the transition between being awake and being asleep. That is an interesting time to be in. Interesting because being awake is what we consider as the time when we are most fully aware of life. Sleep is that time when we consider ourselves most disconnected from what we know as life. We sleep to recharge our batteries. We go to sleep at the end of the day with the anticipation of getting up in the morning to face a new day. In the transition between sleep and waking we dream. Sometimes we remember our dreams, but usually we don’t or if we do, they tell a disjointed story comprised of a mishmash of events. Sometimes folks claim they have even dreamt of the future.

Since dreams occur in this transition between being wake and being asleep and during that time we are not fully in control of our thoughts and experiences, maybe our dreams are expressions or experiences that are unrestricted by the control of our minds. Many people have gotten fantastic ideas in dreams. Some have dreamt the solutions to problems in their lives. Others have gotten the inspiration to write great novels. These ideas and inspirations for some reason were not manifested during waking hours, they came alive at a time when they were least expected, at a time when the mind was not in control.

Think about that. When the mind was not in control. Is that true? I don’t know the answer to that question; however, I do know that all of us have all of a sudden gotten an idea totally out of the blue. In an instant, a light bulb snapped on and the answer to a problem that had been weighing on us for a long time suddenly became so evidently crystal clear and obvious that we scratched our heads wondering why we had not thought of it before. Maybe the light bulb, like our dreams, lives in a time period where our minds are not in control. Think about that…………………...


That makes no sense at all.

We can’t deny our mind’s role in being the vehicle for our genius.

What we must do is recognize that our mind is the vehicle.

We need to set our mind free ………...........

Give it permission to be the limitless vehicle that it is …….......

The limitless vehicle that will take us to a new level of discovery with every new idea.

Ideas that if we let flow ……........ will let our “dreams” unfold.

Recognize Each Breath

Every breath we take validates our existence. Each moment is a celebration of our lives. Most of us view our lives on a daily basis. We reflect on the day. We say the day went by fast or slow. The days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into years. Pretty soon it is a lifetime and it slipped by. We look back and remember and wish we had and with clarity know what we missed and wonder why we didn’t see it when it was passing us by. We live in a world of 20/20 hindsight that passes too quickly.

Along the way we love and lose love. We laugh and cry. We celebrate and fight. When we look back we wonder why? Was it worth it? I’m not who I want to be. I’m not who I was supposed to be. I didn’t do the things I wanted to do. I am not who I want to be with and I don’t understand why not?

Stop!

Take a deep breath.

Stop.

Take another deep breath.

You will notice the second breath was deeper than the first.

Stop.

Take another one.

Now how do you feel? Keep on taking deep breaths. Stop reading and close your eyes and keep breathing. After a few minutes come back and read some more.

Exactly how long were you gone………………….

It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you were breathing and living, one breath at a time. Only each breath matters. Breathe each breath. Live each breath. Listen to each breath. Listen to the life in each breath. Love with each breath. Love in each breath. Fight in each breath. Plan in each breath. Do everything in each breath. Each breath is a celebration of our lives. Each breath validates our existence.

Stop now. Take a breath. Take a longer one. Close your eyes and just breathe for a while and when you open your eyes again recognize to live life one breath at a time.

Celebrate Who You Are

When someone reaches a level of accomplishment or stands up for something that many benefit from, the real beneficiary is the person doing the deed. When a black woman becomes one of the most powerful business women in America, when Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of the bus, when two gold medal winners raise their fists during the playing of their national anthem. They are the ones who benefit. Each one of them blazes their own trail and stands triumphantly on their accomplishment.

Each one uses their unique talents and exercises their right to maximize the potential of the situations that cross their path. Their accomplishments are perceived as being noteworthy and trail blazing. Paving the way for others to follow. Some take up the cause and find strength in being like them. They are looked upon as being role models or radicals. Icons, leaders in their field, innovators and social visionaries.

In reality, what they accomplished was for themselves, for their own personal growth, for their own obligation to be who they really are. These individuals arrived at their destinations by dealing in the present and looking towards the future. Their accomplishments become past tense when they occur.

These individuals don’t blaze trails, they sow seeds. Their accomplishments are but messages that they live eyes wide open and today accomplish what is required to ensure the future they envision. In a sense, they set the bar higher and higher each day. They do so by simply being who they are. For what they do is not beyond them, it is totally within them.

To that end they are not blazing a trail for others, they are by their accomplishments saying to everyone, find your selves by living today. Live today by releasing the past. Live today by breathing each breath. Live today and envision the future that will through your daily Life become reality.

What is Patience?

Patience is a virtue. Youth does not have patience. One must be seasoned and worldly to have patience. Our parents at times had patience, if we were lucky more often than not. Grandparents, counselors and professors have patience. As kids we never had patience. We were quick to respond to things we did not like. We would make sure and we would nag our parents until we got exactly what we wanted.

We shared stories with our friends about how we got our way. It seemed like the louder the Dada the more the kid got his way. Those patient Dads always seemed to win. Those guys never raised their voices and no matter what you threw at them they never seemed to bend. Their patience served them well.

Patient folks seem to be able to remove themselves from the emotion. Step back and handle the situation from outside the turmoil. They seem to avoid the mistakes of youth. They control the situation then sit back and drink in the results. Once we reach a certain level of maturity we too can be patient.

Is that so? Is patience really what is being displayed? Patience, the ability to remove yourself from the emotion of the situation to gracefully endure the pain and persevere. Are the people in our lives that we turn to when we need help the patient ones? Are these the parents, coaches, friends and mentors that have pushed us to our wits end to find the best inside ourselves?

What about the Dads with short tempers that react to what we do and then let us get away with it anyway or the Dads that never raise their voices and let us never get away with anything? Is one more effective than the other because of their level or patience? Obviously, the patient one has the upper hand.

What if patience is not what is at work here. How is it that some patient Dads are hated? Why are some impatient Dads so loved? Do all patient Dad’s kids turn out better? Some kids with impatient Dads turn out really well. Some of the best loved coaches and teachers have no patience at all. Some seem to be yelling all the time. Displaying no patience at all. What if patience is not at all what is at work here? What if we looked at this from the point of view of the mentors of the world? Why is Dad always yelling at one child but not the other?

Is there something else at work here? From the child’s perspective its degrees of patience. From the adult’s perspective it’s a matter of perspective. The perspective that the child does not see. The perspective that allows the parent to see that one child needs to get yelled at while the other needs to be reasoned with. The perspective that allows them to see how best to guide given the personalities involved.

It is not patience that is the virtue. Patience involves detaching yourself from the situation to persevere through it. Nothing long lasting comes from detaching from anything. The only way to succeed is to engage. To engage into the emotion of the situation to allow you to see every level of the reality. To be able to know when to push and yell or sit back and let things ride or gently make a suggestion or two.

To fully engage and stay engaged in a situation you must be able to envision the goal. As a child you are not able to see the goal. As an adult you have the responsibility to see the goal and stay engaged through to the end. The virtue at work here is wisdom. The virtue that can be attained at any age, but the virtue that seems to elude so many.

Open Your Heart to the Possibility

Open your heart to the possibility. Each day, when you wake up open your eyes and look around. Do you like what you see? If you don’t, today is the day you can start to change what surrounds you. What do you do now? Now that you have made the decision to change what you see. Change what you do? Change who you are? Do you have to change who you are to change what you see? Do you have to change who you are to change what surrounds you? What control could we possibly have over our surroundings?

Why so many questions? Why such uncertainty? The answer is simple you don’t like what you see so you’ve made the decision to change but you have no clue about what to do. You don’t know what the first step should be. Your uncertainty creates fear. Fear of the unknown, fear that brings you to a complete stand still. You are paralyzed. You know you want to change what you see. You have made the decision to change but you don’t know what to do.

Stop thinking, you have already made the decision. It’s time to listen to your heart. Lie there quietly while you breathe transitions from short and punchy snatches of air to smooth long deep calm easy exchanges of fresh flowing waves of the air that surround you. Then when you have no thoughts in your mind get up out of bed and start your day.
As you step forward your mind is clear because you do not know where that first step will take you but you are at peace that it will take you in the right direction because you have made your decision and have opened your heart to the possibility.