And So It Begins...

In light of all the "New Year" hubbub, I decided to wait a day...and skip all the usual rhetoric. Instead, I thought I'd offer up some stuff I picked up from a fantastic workshop I attended yesterday with the marvelous Robin Rice (Be Who You Are Productions). It was, without question, one of the most unique ways I've ever spent New Year's Day. So grateful, Miz Robin. Thanks for sharing!

Moving on....

Robin isn't your ordinary Human. She is a shaman who uses her gifts to help people figure out who they really are (hence the name of her biz) and she does it in such a way as to empower anyone who moseys into her path. A right marvel, she is. Anyway, you can find out more about her by visiting her site (link above). For now, let us return to the origin of this post.

For those of you who've been reading this blog for any length of time (more than a year), you know that I don't do "resolutions". They have never proven fruitful, and have only ever served to make me feel a failure by week three of any given new year. So, I decided decades ago that I'd proceed in some other fashion. Each year has been different. And each year has shown some successes and some...changes in my original thinking on the 1st of the year. All in all it has been fun to approach each New Year's Day with some new flavor. Robin provided such flavor yesterday. And here is what I came out of it with:

Acts of Beauty and Balance ~~~ These are the things that I have chosen to focus on as the year progresses (one day a time, people!) so as to expand my own evolution. I do not look for problems that need resolving; I look at gifts I'd like to enhance. Hence the title of my list. I chose Beauty and Balance in lieu of "resolutions" because it just feels better. Also, I like the poetry of it. Acts of Beauty and Balance. Nice.

Whilst we were participating in the workshop, Robin asked us to make said list and then be brutally honest about each item. (If you would like to hear/see what we did, you can find a recording as well as a neat little listing of the things we covered HERE.). This process was both enjoyable and eye-opening. By the sound of it, I wasn't the only one who felt that way. And as we worked our way through, I could feel the change in the collective energy. It was really quite powerful. And moving. And some of the time, funny. In short, it was a splendid way to begin 2014. When the workshop was over, my list of Acts was refined and ready for my complete attention. Spent the rest of the day with those notes on my desk, re-reading each time I walked by. By day's end I felt as if I had conquered some vast expanse with nary a scratch. And I slept as soundly as I have in ages.

I shan't bore you with the details of my list. It isn't really important to anyone but me. What I wanted most to share was that there are loads of ways to grow, expand, enhance your Life. If you choose "resolutions" and that happens to work for you, then I say BRAVO and carry on! If, however, just the word (resolution) makes you feel icky, I'm suggesting you reconsider who you are and what you would like to "do" in this new year. Is there a part of you that you would like to polish? Is there something that you feel is hiding just beneath the surface? Do you feel anxious or exhilarated about this new year? Because from where I sit, exhilaration beats the hell outta anxiety any day of the week (and twice on Sundays). Wouldn't it be oh-so-much-nicer to live this new year a little bit differently than all the previous ones? Wouldn't it be grand to actually BE who you are? Wouldn't you prefer to choose JOY over angst?

Yep.

Thought so.

small accomplishments?

There is no such thing as a small accomplishment. Not in my world. I have seen, over and over, just how powerful these "small accomplishment"s can be. Baby steps. Little by little. One step at a time. Call it what you will. Near as I can tell, there is no such thing as a "small accomplishment".

Consider the infant.

First, mama gets all excited when baby rolls over for the first time. Like it's some kind of major feat. OH! LOOK! SHE ROLLED OVER!!! I remember the first time I heard a new mom screech these words as I watched that baby roll over. I'm tellin' ya, you'd have thought the baby had climbed Mt. Everest. I thought it was hysterical. She thought her baby was a superstar.

Next comes the crawling. Now that baby can roll over, she can begin to figure out the motor skills needed to propel herself from here to there. Another monumental feat. Crawling. From here to there. WOW!

And then one day, after she's got her motor skills dialed in, she figures out that she can pull herself UP off the floor by grabbing hold of the crib. Up she goes. Wobbling on chubby legs, she stands there for a few seconds before plopping down on her diapered butt. She sits there for a minute and tries again. Up, up, up she goes. Mama is, of course, thrilled to her pretty little toes. MY BABY IS STANDING UP!

Before too long that little tyke is putting one foot in front of the other, taking ... you guessed it...BABY STEPS. {where do ya think the term came from? you silly goose.} And, BOYHOWDY, the excitement that tore through the house that first time baby took her first steps. HOLY MOLY!

Pretty soon that little human is cruisin' all over the place. Faster than her mama can keep up. She's toddling here and there, to and fro, up and down. Til poor mama is all tuckered out and can't wait for the little scamp to go off to school so she can get some rest. Funny how that works, huh?

Well my Sweet, that's precisely how everything else works too. Small accomplishments turn into more accomplishments. Maybe you want to get stronger. Or drop a few pounds. Or write that book you always said you'd write. No matter what the desired destination, you just gotta start. Somewhere. Anywhere. Just so long as you start. Because those muscles aren't going to be 'stronger' the first time you pick up a dumbbell. Nor is the weight going to drop off overnight {did you put those pounds ON overnight? Me thinks NOT.}Nor is that book going to write itself. Page one is page one. Start there.

Regardless of what it is you'd like to change, gain, lose, attain, perfect, or otherwise see in your world, you just gotta do the 'small thing' first. Before you know it, you'll be picking up a 20 lb. sack of groceries like it was a little toy dog. You'll be looking in the mirror and see that fabulously svelte body of yours staring back. You'll walk into your office (or wherever it is you write) and see a tall stack of papers sitting beside your computer waiting to be edited.

Like I said, there is no such thing as a small accomplishment.

Now. GET TO IT!