“I believe that all humans have moments of inspiration when we perceive truth. These moments usually occur when the mind is quiet–when we perceive the force of life through our feelings.” don Miguel Ruiz
Musings: What’s On Your List? Your heart’s list?
Seth Godin is one of my favorite marketing geniuses and an accomplished writer/blogger. Whenever I need to remind myself why certain things I choose to do matter, I go back to his writings and his blog for fuel. You see, Seth is not an advocate of the herd/bandwagon effect, he is more for finding our voice, following what matters to our hearts and damn the consequences. Now, I don’t mean that in a nonchalant way, but that as we continue to follow our hearts, what we do feels solid inside of us so no matter which way the winds blow, we remain steady on our course. We might stumble or even fall down sometimes, but that is the test of our metier and can only make us stronger.
Recently, I received two posts from him that resonated with me. The first, What’s On Your List, poses two important questions: How often do you remind yourself of what’s on the list? If the first thing you do when considering an opportunity is consult the list, the list is the most important thing in your life, isn’t it? Basically, bucket lists are only good if we act on them. Another point is that many of us don’t respond spontaneously to opportunities that make us joyful because we are busy calculating our risk and wondering if it belongs on our list of shoulds. The advice is to just go with it. Live. Dare to be different. We can learn to enjoy the liberating feeling of stepping out of our comfort zone and there is tremendous personal growth there.
“Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.” Ronald Reagan
Musings: What’s On Your List? Fire Up your muse…
The other post is Do we have to pander? In this one, he exhorts us to stay true to what matters to us and to not allow shifting winds to distract us from our hearts desire. There were a couple of lines that stood out for me: “Restaurants serve chicken fingers to their guests’ kids, because it’s the only thing they’ll eat. Some comedians give up their best work in exchange for jokes that everyone will get.” and “Yes, you can have a blog that follows every rule of blogging and seo, but no, it won’t be a blog we’ll miss if it’s gone.” The point he makes is that we go back to why we started it all and refocus on that original impulse as that is what will sustain us. Why settle for sameness? Stay true to you. The fact is that we can’t be everything to everybody. I started this blog in 2008, and I recall that for many months I barely had any traffic. Then I had one subscriber, then another, and one committed blog friend and then another. Over time, it changed and has gotten infinitely better. I thank all who have supported this blog both outwardly and silently. Actually, the silent readers continue to be a surprising source of amazing grace too.
Two other bits of reading on my mind are Things To Stop Dwelling On from O Magazine. In it, Oprah offers advice on 10 things to stop sweating over and they include whether or not someone is mad at you, doing better than you, and the rudeness of strangers… Rudeness is a pet peeve of mine and I had to laugh when I saw it on the list… Let it go. I encourage you to read the rest. Finally, Mamakat’s recent workshop prompt asks us to: List the 6 best things about being an adult. Making decisions and standing by them is adult for me. Honoring ourselves even if others don’t is another important one. When was the last time you treated yourself to something fun or pampered yourself? What’s stopping you? Other people’s opinions? What a waste of precious time, please go for it! The operative word for me this summer is FUN! Live boldly. 
More below!
