Lean Into It

More often than not, I won’t lean into it. It being working for something or someone else. It being carrying out the mission of another. It being doing those things which seem to be a distraction from my reason for being on the planet. More often than not, I will not lean into those things as they seem to be a distraction. But at times we, the financially dependent on others, must travel those roads of seeming despair, desperation, and distraction, in order to get to where we need to go.

For months now, I’ve been thinking of how I can move into another iteration. A better version of myself. A version of myself that’ll deliver a message of grace, greatness, and genuineness. For months now, I’ve been contemplating what it’ll take to become the ideal version of myself. The version I see when I think of and envision my future self. For months now, maybe even years, what I’ve seen and what I am don’t really align. They aren’t the same and the reason is mostly, if not all, my fault.

I’ve been traveling down these other roads. Doing things for others in exchange for a bit of monetary compensation. I’ve been lending my skills, time, and expertise in the service of organizations, not in the service of my Creator. I’ve been hiding, evading, and doing a fairly great job at avoiding destiny. When Forrest Gump asked his dying mother, “Momma, what’s my destiny?”, she delivered the famous line, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” I believe that was a great line, but another one of those half truths we tend to believe in its entirety.

We know what we’re gonna get tomorrow by the actions we take today. We know what life will be since it’s a reflection of our mental state. We know. We have always known. And if, for some peculiar reason, you didn’t know…I just told you. Your current physical and financial state is a manifestation of your mind. We become what we think about. We become what we obsess over. We become those things as our mind brings them to us without any, or without much effort on our part. We are what we say we are, but we become what we think we are. “Human thoughts have a tendency to transform themselves into their physical equivalent.” Spoken by Earl Nightingale decades ago, those words ring true today and will ring true in every tomorrow throughout time. We are reflections of our thoughts.

Today, Thursday, August 31, 2023, I am grateful that:

Herb and I had our weekly conversation. From music to public speaking to writing and a few other things, we covered an enormous swath of information in our allotted 30 minutes. It’s great we have the type of camaraderie we possess.

Diana and I spoke a couple of times today. It was raining cats and dogs in Guam, but a torrential downpour won’t slow her down. She’s an indomitable spirit and doesn’t yield. It’s great to have her in my circle of friends.

Works about to begin. I’ll do better today than yesterday or last week. It’s a bit of progress every single day. Kaizen is a Japanese principle which, in essence states that small improvements over long periods of time, make significant changes. I’m doing that with personally and professionally.

How of

This is the first part of the entry.