When the wind changes direction, there are those who build walls and those who build windmills. Chinese proverb.
We’re living in interesting times. The era we are heading into is demanding, for sure, and not for the faint of heart.
The headwinds are strong but they portend new opportunities, new openings and new starts for those who will build windmills.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckmaster Fuller.
Life goes in stages. You are not who you were when you first started out. As you went along, you made choices and decisions based on what you knew at the time and, in the main, you made the right calls. It was all good but that was then.
This is now and you know more. You have grown and learned and your world view has expanded. Shades of grey have begun appearing among the many bright hues that up to now have coloured your life.
Oh, you’re doing all the right things, playing by the rules, but there is a void in a your life… a feeling that something is missing. It’s kind of like getting up from the table after a delicious meal, but still feeling hungry.
Do you find the interest in what you are doing waning? Are you bored with the familiar? Defending the status quo? Could it be you’ve stopped growing?
The status quo is the enemy of personal growth. We all need to grow. Growing is as necessary as breathing. A partner of curiosity, it is part of humankind’s DNA. We’re hard wired to always be looking for the new, to be hungry for more.
We’re living in a ever more challenging time. Change is disrupting every field of endeavour. Defending the status quo is a non-starter. Put simply, you are either moving forward or falling behind.
Any change, even a change for the better is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomfort but that’s the way it is. Like it or not, change is the only way to grow.
Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been. Alan Alda.
We hear about it everyday. Creative thinking. It’s the magic elixir to improve our lives and take us to new heights, but what exactly is creativity?
Creativity is an energy that that works in that ‘middle space’ when you are at your best, listening to your right brain intuition, following a hunch about a new idea… then filtering it through your left brain smarts and experiences to effectively make the best choices and bring your new goal or objective to fruition.
How can you foster creative ideas? There’s no one secret potions. Ideas come to people at all times of the day and night and in different places…. at four in the morning, perhaps, or while driving on the highway and, in my favourite, standing in the shower.
Whenever and wherever it happens, at some moment, after you have been mulling things over for a while, something clicks in your mind and you suddenly just know.
That’s the magic of creative thinking.
The here and now is all we have and if we play it right, it’s all we need. Ann Richards.
The most important moment is the present moment. But how to live that?
Many of us live out our lives with one eye on the past, a past that’s already gone – and the other on the future, that’s not here yet. Choosing to live in the past or in the future steals your todays and robs you of living to the fullest.
Living in the present, takes work, time and humility. If you are new to this philosophy, here are just five of many practices to get you started:
Live forward. Never look back. No one knows what the future holds so give each day your best shot. When you have gone as far as you can go, you’ll know what to do next.
It’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.
The great mystery of the world is the known, not the unknown. Oscar Wilde.
This week I returned home after a wonderful three week holiday in Spain.
Twenty-one days off the grid. No constantly my checking my email on my phone or my MacBook. No texting. No TV. No internet. No radio. Not even reading the headlines on the newspaper as I strolled by the news stands. No weekly magazines. A print and digital detox.
There is nothing like dropping out for an extended period to clarify your thinking and put things back into perspective.
The trip was way overdue. It was only the second time in my life that I had the opportunity to take off three weeks back-to-back, made extraordinarily special by the warm reception of some friends and their families. We were truly blessed and will be forever grateful.
Life is very special and so precious. It is so easy to get all caught up in the daily routine and surface interests, the meaningless and the idleness of the media that clutter up your mind and serve to distract you from what you think is truly important.
This isn’t meant as a rant. Life is too complex for that. The demands placed upon each of us are unending. The pressure is intense. I don’t have to tell you.
Life is a dance, two steps forward, one step back. Yet, each day we show up, living out our personal destinies, dancing as fast as we can.
We keep on. Doing what we think we are sent here to do. Learning, growing, seeking improvement, helping others, doing the best we can with what we have. It’s what humankind does.
We are all a work in progress. It isn’t over until it’s over… and as I begin to put on the years, sometimes I’m not even entirely sure about that. It’s something we each have to decide for ourselves.
Living isn’t always easy, but if you are willing to expect the unexpected, have the courage and capacity to love, to believe in yourself and in a better future, it is the greatest of all adventures.
Life goes on…
For more information, rates, or to set up a meeting:
Email drew@drewsimmie.com or call direct 416.450.8867.
