You have often heard me say "Our thoughts create our reality" or "You get what you focus on."
You've seen it play out in your life... You are playing tennis and a woman on the other team has an amazingly hard serve. You start thinking to yourself, "oh no, I can't hit this!" and sure enough you miss. And the more you think "I can't return her serve, it's too hard" .... the more you miss and the more nervous you get and - well, your game really starts to fall apart.
We often see this with our sons and daughters. Have you had the experience of helping them study for a class and they say, "This is too hard"? They get frustrated (and you probably do too) and they actually create the circumstances where it really is too hard for them to absorb right now.
Notice the places in your life where you are telling yourself that "This is too hard. It will never happen".
Recently I thought about this as I spent a weekend at the Southeast Peace Conference here in Atlanta. The focus of the conference was connecting us with what peace means to us (peace in the world, in our schools, our neighborhoods, our homes, and in our own minds) and generating ideas for how we can support an idea that is starting to flourish on Capitol Hill here in the states.
The idea is for a program to support starting a Department of Peace. The goals are to provide research, studies, and peace alternatives to the President, and to provide funding for conflict resolution in areas of domestic violence, gang activity and bullying in schools, as well as alternatives in international conflicts.
As I came back to the 'real world" (so to speak) and started talking to people around me about this conference, I noticed their eyes glazed over and they gave me excuses why this won't work. What I realized is that most of us don't have a vision for what peace really would be like.
Which brings me back to Miss America. We have a culturally accepted sterotype of Miss America. We often jokingly say ...."She is beautiful for sure, but she isn't too bright." She will say her greatest dream is world peace. (Now pay attention here...) When we hear "world peace", we all laugh! And say, "See, I told you she wasn't very intelligent, what a silly dream. How naive!"
Well, No wonder we don't have world peace. We don't believe it can actually happen.
I felt frustrated at first. And, then I realized the cool part. These new visions for what is possible in our businesses, our lives and even in the world, start with a seed.
So, I think of it as planting a little seed of a new way of being. A seed was planted at this conference, I planted seeds in my recent conversations, and I'm planting a seed now. Sometimes we can get frustrated when someone else doesn't see the whole vision right away. Know that you are creating change by planting the seed of possibility.
Notice your thoughts about what YOU believe is impossible. Maybe it's a dream you have for yourself, for others or for a change in the world.
Start giving attention to what IS possible.
Just start conversations and plant a seed.
Start a conversation with yourself. Some questions to contemplate or journal with:
"What if......?"
"What would be different if I.....?"
"Here's some evidence that the change is wanting to happen...."
Start today by planting a seed and creating a shift.
As in the story in the book, Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leadership, you never know when the 3,741,953rd snowflake will drop...and break the branch.
(To see what the Department of Peace and the initiatives are all about....go to....www.thepeacealliance.org)
To joyful seedlings and pagent queens who've had it right along!,
Laura
This quote stood out for me as I read TIME magazine's cover article on Martin Luther King. This week in the U.S. we honor King's birthday. I took some time on his celebrated birthday to reflect on this powerful man and others who are creating change and who are so full of purpose and power.
