Follow Your Passions

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
- Henry David Thoreau

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
- John Lennon

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
- Albert Einstein

How you perceive each and every encounter, situation, event, and relationship dictates in no small part the outcome, which in turn becomes the reality you live in. This is the summation of many things I have written about in this blog, and since it is a concept I think is so important (and it has been a while since I posted on this blog), I thought a recap of sorts pulling the concept together would be helpful.

“There are many hurdles on the way to living our dreams, but the sad part is that most of them have been placed into existence by our minds, and thus we as individuals are the only ones ultimately capable of removing them (or at least getting around them).” - from What Have You Got To Win

“If you desire something more than everyone else combined desires the opposite, then your desire is significantly more likely to come to pass.” - from There Is Only One Now

“Your mind has the potential to be incredibly powerful, regardless of how you choose to use it. Wielded wisely, it can be an incredibly potent tool for good.” - from A Brief Lesson in Mind Management

There are a lot of ways to build on the basic idea, but everything essentially can be boiled down to five simple words.

Your perception becomes your reality.

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
- Alfred North Whitehead

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
- Charles Darwin

It was about one year ago that I heard of a philosophy about change held by one of the leaders of the organization I work for. I can’t recall the precise quote, but at its essense was the idea that without change you cannot have growth. Literally! So if you want to grow personally, in any way, you must accept that change will be a part of it.

This was the beginning of a major shift for me in terms of how I viewed and emotionally responded to major change events when they occured. Something I have spoken of previously in this blog is the value of being able to look at any given situation or event and see the opportunity that exists within it. It is so easy to give in to things like fear or concern about the unknown when some drastic shift occurs in your life. But that cloud of chaos floating above everyone’s head during turbulent times often will rain gems of untold value to those who, instead of covering their heads and crouching down to avoid being hit, will stand up instead and reach out to catch them. The fear and concern about the unknown is ultimately about feeling out of control, and I have found that the best way to get that sense of control back is to seize upon the amazing amount of opportunities that are present in times of signficant change. It is, in fact, often these times that most allow you to shape your own destiny.

Change is not only inevitable, it is in many ways perpetual. Not all change happens in broad, sweeping events you can clearly identify and react to. More subtle forms of change may be easier to handle emotionally, but if you aren’t reacting and adapting well to it, you may realize the shift has occured one day and scratch your head as to how you missed it. A colleague and mentor of sorts recently shared with me the following Peter F. Drucker quote - “Do not continue to do in your new assignment what made you successful in the old one. When you enter a new assignment, ask ‘What new things should I be doing in my new assignment to be effective?’” You have many talents that you use, consciously or not, to get through the tasks of the day. I have come to think of talents as energy, which can power a vast number of tools and skills depending on what a situation calls for. By constantly assessing and reassessing your environment and the tasks at hand, you’ll not only become a natural at rolling with change as it happens, you’ll build those talents you have and become that much stronger for it.

Hello blog. I’ve missed you.

It has been six months since I have posted anything here, and they have been six amazing, inspirational months.

On a personal level, here’s a few things I’d love to share -

My wife and I bought a house we love. We did it. More impressively, we sold our condo in this less than stellar Phoenix housing market, and though we did drop our price a bit, we still did remarkably well from an equity stance. Why is the new house so great? Somewhat difficult to express, though it has something to do with having to put so much care into it that the HOA took care of back at the condo. Exterior painting, landscaping, mowing the lawn, caring for the pool, and so on. Also, the condo was new when we got it as opposed to our twenty year old “new” house, so we scraped the popcorn stuff on the ceilings, painted the interior, did a lot of electrical and plumbing work, put new tile and carpet in, hung new ceiling fans, and… I am sure other things I am forgetting. Putting so much effort and care into almost anything will endear you to it after a while, and that has certainly been the case with the new house.

Okay, now that we have the personal stuff out of the way, what will we be talking about here in the coming weeks and months? Well, plenty, but here’s a few topics we’ll tackle first -

• The power of change (and why it’s a good thing)
• The power of perception (and how your thoughts are your reality)
• The power of individuality vs being a team player (and why they aren’t exclusive concepts)
• The power of feedback (and what kind to pay the most attention to)
• The power of you (and how talented I believe you to be)

Stay tuned.