YIKES! I'm of two - possibly more - minds

Recently, I asked a young friend - a successful entrepreneur who specializes in nurturing new ventures - for help in making my successes more... intentional. 

While it's true I've been blessed to accomplish - it feels like accidentally - some pretty cool things over my 64 years, my here & now goal is to place FOCUSED  structure around desires, transforming them into goals & completed project.  To know what I truly want to accomplish, to know what I truly do NOT want to accomplish, to do more of the things that will help me MAKE the first happen, to eliminate as much of what doesn't as I can.  To do a Jean Luc Picard, know what I really want & make it happen.  New territory for me!

Much to my original frustration, Andy didn't share any great wisdom with me.  He directed me to a BOOK!  And a pretty old one, to boot - The Greatest Salesman In The World.  He mentioned that I didn't have to read it as he had, which had taken him 10 months to complete. 

t first, I shrugged off the advice.  It had not come in the form I'd expected.  No great pearls of wisdom, just a book published back in the late '60s.

The more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me that I'd asked Andy for advice & it had been given, albeit not in any fashion I'd expected. Couldn't very well ask him for more advice if I hadn't followed the help he'd already offered.

So, I ordered it.  Boy, was I shocked when it arrived.  How did it take Andy ten months to read such a slim volume?.  Could not have been the right book.

But it was.  And I understand why it took Andy so long to read all the way through - he was going for transformation, rather than settling for simply inspiration.  Me, too!

So far - it's been several weeks - I've discovered an interesting fact.  I do not set my entire mind on what I am reading. Part of my brain is reading, but it feels like another, equal part is off playing in the  meadow, much like Tootle the Train. 

Because of the book Andy recommended, I notice how my brain works - amazing.  And unsettling. 

How do I set about - at 64 - getting my mind to focus, to stay on task without part of my mind lollygagging somewhere else?  Don't know, but gonna find out, gonna make it happen that I bring my full attention to a single task.  Goodbye multi-tasking, hullo aware action accomplish!

It takes as long as it takes

A young friend - barely fifty - heard me talk about longing to learn more productive ways of transforming my deepest dreams into reality.  I didn't realize when it first came up that this young man was already a successful serial entrepreneur.  Turns out that one of the things that gives him great delight & profound satisfaction is helping people discover how to realize their dreams.  

He mentioned that when he was starting to think about stepping away from a longtime job for a major company - a job complete with topnotch salary, serious benefits, a certain degree of career satisfaction - a book came across his path, a slim volume that took him nine months to read, nine months he believes changed his life.  Mind  you, he said, there was not reason I'd have to take so long as he.  I could read straight through to get the gist of its wisdom.

Reading the book made me smile, smile & realize how still young my young friend is.  At 64, I know - for certain sure - that if I read the same book straight through, instead of as its laid out to be experienced, it would be enlightening, perhaps even somewhat life transforming.  But it cannot have the deep wisdom, cannot hold the potential for the profound transformation my friend experienced UNLESS read as outlined, one short chapter read & reread each day for a solid month, then onto the next one.

I was just a year of so older than he is now when I first learned the lesson that things take as long as they take.  It is going to take me 10+ months to potentially reap the benefits of reading processing living each chapter - scroll - in Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World.  

Mind you, I have no intention of going into sales, but I have more than an inkling that what Og (short for Augustine) covers will help set me on the path I'm seeking.  Part of getting the most from what he offers is taking the time to read each "scroll"/chapter three times a day for month  - on first rising, at mid-day, aloud before going to bed - before heading to the next.  Part of what's required to draw out the wisdom is having the dedication to commit to & follow through with reading as instructed.  My guess is that it's how the words are read - at a steady, disciplined pace, respecting what's shared as it is intended rather than rushing forward - that makes the difference as much as what new lights dawn.

I've started.   "Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."  The story of the thousand sparrows outside the young man's window, yet only one had the courage to make his way through the tightly woven lattice into the room.  "You must prove there is more behind your words than air."  The counter-intuitive gift the young man gave to parents & their new-born that shifted everything.  

I've barely started & already found words that speak to my heart.

My young friend thought I might balk at reading the book as it is intended.  Perhaps he thought I'd find the repetition boring & chaff at taking TEN months to complete a slim book.  I have some experience  under my belt.  

Over ten years ago, came across the suggestion that if you read the book of Proverbs straight through, one chapter a night, then read it through again, then read it through one last time, life will shift for you.  I did that.  Life did shift because something in me shifted, got...  tenderized, less stiff, less fearful.

One slim book, 10 scrolls/chapters to read, each one three times a day over thirty days then onto the next.  

At 64, I've learned that living authentically takes as long as it takes.  Ten scrolls/chapters, following through on what each one shares, not rushing ahead or dipping back, opening & processing each in its time.  

Bring it on!

 

 

Eyes wide open - walking through Penn Station

It has been over 30 years since I last walked through Penn Station, close to 20 since walking through any major train station.  Back in those days, I'd ease my way into whatever took me to Manhattan with an amble up to 44th Street for a kick-back cup of coffee at The Algonquin.

Not so on Thursday afternoon.  I was a woman with a purpose - to get to Book Culture on Columbus, almost fifty blocks distance.  No way I was walking.  And it was around 5:30 p.m. - no way I was flagging a taxi.  For the first time ever, I headed to the subway.

What an experience!  Most of the chaotic crowd seem to know the choreography of rush hour, instinctively navigated through multi rivers of people flowing through the wide hallways.  Not me!  Yet, instead of feeling overwhelmed, found myself wishing I could watch the scene from above, the movement was so fast, fluid & fascinating.  Was fully engaged with awe, even as I did my best to not get run over by a well-dressed woman in bright pink Reebok's.

While the whooshing rush of humanity sticks most in my mind, what still chills my fluttering heart is the image of the police & National Guard troops along the perimeters of the station halls, well armed, holding weapons.  It was the first time for me, seeing that level of  "prepared for the anything" officers.  My breath still goes shallow, remembering my immediate response to just the site of them standing outside Duane Reade  &  Tim Hortons.   

They are there to protect & serve a city still heartbroken after 9/11, but... 
There is something that put even me on edge, seeing the fire power, the body armor & stance.  Necessary, but it comes with a cost.  The constant edge of fear that rises just seeing them.

 

This recent memory came to mind seeing a photo of a woman looking like she was almost dancing with two officers in riot gear, at a protest in Baton Rouge, LA.  

I understand why police would feel the need to bulk up their protection, especially after the tragedy in Dallas, but - again - it comes with a cost.  If my breath went shallow, my heart revved just seeing the armed police in Penn Station, can't imagine my physiological reaction to full riot gear.

And here is something I learned at this year's Leading to Well-Being Conference - - our heart sends more messages to the brain than the reverse.  Way more.  A tensed heart is going to send alarm signals to the brain must faster than the brain can send reassuring messages of "All clear here" back to the heart.  

Imagining how it feels to see lines of officers in riot gear, imagining how it feels to be one of them.  

 

I get the reason for the gear, although it absolutely looks super scary in ways that naturally puts everyone on greater edge.  But it's one of the many things we need to seriously factor into our understanding that 2016 is not the '60s.  Our police are trained in military tactics rather than community law enforcement, they - as a matter of course - often dress in flat-out frightening gear, past experience tells them to stay on high alert.  

My eyes were opened on Thursday, walking through Penn Station.  Looking at the picture of the young woman's ballet with the two officers deepened my sense of what I'd seen.  

We are a nation armed to the teeth,  putting on a show of potential devastating force at a peace rally, on the ready to be triggered into action.

Back in the actual '60s, my considerably older sister impressed her baby sister with an observation made seeing pictures of ready-to-roll police securing the perimeters of a peace march.  Walter Cronkite was describing the scene, the undercurrent of tension.  Mim said that having police at the ready was a double-edged sword, providing protection but also amping up the possibility of violence, even through an unintended or misunderstood action.

Never thought I'd be reliving those days.  But, walking through Penn Station on Thursday - hours before the tragedy in Dallas, which only amped things up even more - my eyes were opened WIDE.  Just writing this, my breath has gone shallow, my heart's revved up.  Imagine being in the midst of it.