Posted on

What will you plant?

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

The alarm rang and you have arrived at your first cup of coffee facing the opportunity of being on this planet another day. You look at the calendar and the to-do list and see the required “what’s happening” moments that lie ahead.

Perhaps you often think in terms of “What do I want to complete or accomplish?” which seems to resemble the harvest you reap. If you chose to focus on seeds instead:

Where will you deposit kindness?
What words of compassion will you speak?
What soil will receive seeds of love?

Posted on

What is “too far”?

“Unless you go too far, you don’t know how far you can go.” William Friedkin

Yet that means I might overstep my bounds, make a fool of myself, fall off the virtual cliff. I might make a mistake. Then what?

Then, I clean up any mess, take stock of what worked and what didn’t, and evaluate the last step that took me over the edge. Was it:

  • A mistake?
  • Too much too soon?
  • Right step, wrong place?
  • Critical for my learning?

Then what? You got it! Move on. Take the next step.

Where have you gone too far?
Where have you not gone far enough?
What is too far?

Posted on

Baseball Part II: The Grand Slam

Last time, we talked about the home run and what it takes to achieve this feat. And it takes a lot! Today we’re going to talk about the Grand Slam – hitting a home run when the bases are loaded.

What’s the difference between a home run and a grand slam?

The real difference is this: it takes a team to create a grand slam from your home run. You cannot do it alone! All the preparation in the world, all the weightlifting, all the practice, all the strike outs, everything that leads to the perfect match between the pitch and your swing and results in a home run will never produce a grand slam without your teammates’ prior arrival on first, second and third.

What is your grand slam?
Who do you need on your team?
What leadership does your team need?
What now?

Posted on

Baseball Part I: The Home Run

If you know a bit about baseball, you know that a home run means you’ve hit that ball out of the park and you score for the team without being challenged as you trot around the bases.

What does it take to hit that home run? Years of physical training and practice, concentration and focus, and a good read on that pitcher. It also takes a lot of:

  • swing and a miss
  • bunting
  • strike outs
  • walks
  • hits resulting in outs
  • base hits
  • getting to first on the other team’s error

In other words, that home run was preceded by many failures, minor successes, and some measure of the misfortune of others. I suspect it is also the result of good coaching and lots of attaboys!

What is your home run?
What effort are you willing to expend to get there?
What are you unwilling to experience along the way?

Stay tuned for Baseball Part II …

Posted on

Learn to look inside!

“Whenever I’m in a quandary about the day ahead of me, I seek advice from the ones I trust. I look inside of me.”
from True Advice by Jeanne Loehnis

Life offers us decision points all the time. Daily we have little choices. Sometimes, the decision will have a big impact and it may feel like heavy challenge or amazing opportunity! Often, decisions which feel big weigh heavily and are hard to make. If that is the case for you, here are two thoughts:

First, consider using a variety of perspectives to help you “think outside the box” to discover options. Here are just a few of my favorite perspectives:

  • My Higher Power, God, Spiritual Guide
  • My emotional body
  • Society’s viewpoint
  • Self-compassion
  • Leaving a lighter carbon footprint
  • Playful
  • Seven generations before and hence

Second, practice seeing different perspectives in the little, day-to-day decisions. That way, when the next “big one” comes along, you’ll be in the habit of opening to possibility!

What answer do you find when you look inside?