Tuesday, January 11 2011
Hello,
How is everybody doing? Are you feeling the repercussions of the "shock and awe" of the holidays? Now is a great time to slow down, get some R&R, contemplate and swim in the reflective energy that Winter provides. This energy helps us evaluate where we have been, where we are, and where to head in the future. For more on this, check my upcoming event on Jan. 19.
So sit back, relax and reflect.
Enjoy,
Brad
Pioneering the Human Experience
I recently saw an interview where this question caught my attention: "with all the things that you have done in life, what do you think characterizes you the best?" Almost immediately, the hamster in my brain started spinning the wheel wondering how I would answer that question.
I started with the obvious. Good husband, healer, nice guy ... (boring, but true). Then the word pioneer popped into my head. Pioneer? Where did that come from? Not to mention, that sounded kind of arrogant. But that quickly faded when I realized that the title didn't put me in a class of my own. Instead, it described the quest of many. I know I am not alone.
So why pioneer? I know it didn't exist, but somehow I wanted to believe there was this "official handbook" that laid out both the rules and the roadmap that would allow one to negotiate life and all its self-imposed societal rules in an effortless, painless manner. Maybe even providing a bonus chapter on the secrets of how to cheat death. I just needed to find it and all the chaos would simply fade away and life would be just dandy.
Of course we know since such a book is not on Amazon, my default option was to observe people who appeared to really "have it together." People who I thought knew something nobody else did. Trying to be like them or mimic their process created a couple of pitfalls. When taking a closer look behind the curtain, I learned that they really didn't know "jack," and were often a bigger train wreck than me, but knew how to put on a good show. The other option was finding that someone did have a special way about them, and did seem to know some sort of secret. However, what they knew worked only for them and could not be replicated.
The more dejected I became when I couldn't find, buy, or steal the manual for "the easy life - in just 8 minutes a day", the more I found myself asking questions and exploring my inner workings and experiences. Before I knew it, a pioneer was born. Exploring strange worlds, new civilizations, and boldly going where no person had gone before…into my own psyche. It's true. No one can explore me the way that I can.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
— Mark Twain
I believe we are all pioneers. It just took me awhile to realize that nobody was in the driver's seat, certainly not me. Eventually I got the courage to grab on to the steering wheel and lay on the horn ... beep! beep!
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