Good day my friends. I’ve been reading lately about the power of positive thinking and how the opposite creates such unnecessary drama in our lives. All the stress we create begins with one negative thought. One pin prick in the back of our mind that went unchecked, then more thoughts came and more, until stress manifested. The effect is stress, but the cause was negative thinking, and it all began with one little negative thought, one small crack in the pavement of your mind. No matter what you might have manifested, you can change it…with one small positive thought and then another. Your positive thinking will be infectious and it will spread like wildfire to all those you surround yourself with. Let that negative shit go like a balloon – it will drift away, slowly disappearing into the sky until it’s gone. Be kind. Be inspired. Love hard…always.
The world is a better place with you in it
Good morning folks and Happy Friday! I hope everyone’s week was a good one and that it’s off to a great start today. Haven’t really written in a while and feel it’s time to start back up again. Over the last several months, I’ve been focused on drawing, painting and hand lettering. It’s something I’ve grown to love and never really thought I could do until I decided to dive in. The same could be said about the relationships with my family, friends and the people I love and care about the most…I dove in and focused to make it a priority in my life. Paulo Coelho writes: “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” Focus on what & who you love and give it everything you got. You won’t regret it. I read somewhere that the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart. Follow it. The world is a better place with you in it. Peace. Love Hard. Always.
Driven
I'm not sure when it started for me but I'd like to think it did when I was a kid...around 9 or 10. I remember building model planes and cars, etc. You know...the Revell kits you'd find at any discount store, I believe it was Zayre's or Gold Circle at the time. My dad and I would walk through the isles and I'd find the one. The Mustang, The Cherry Bomb Chopper...No wait...The Aircraft Carrier. Yes! That's the one. Hundreds of tiny little plastic pieces. The picture on the box made my eyes bulge. I wanted to be on that ship. I wanted to create this! I knew I could make it look like it did on the box. I had the glue, the decals, the paints..everything! All laid out. Exciting, until I realized glue takes time to set. The Tester's model glue takes longer to cure than the Elmer's glue you'd use for art class and being 9ish, I didn't have the patience. Sheesh! Really? I had to wait for the plastic pieces of the deck of this masterpiece I was creating to set before I could go on to the next instructed step? No way...that was a mere suggestion and I just kept gluing everything together...bypassing some of the steps if need be, and if it was a little tacky I just kept building until it was done...record time...finished the carrier in an afternoon when the box clearly said that it could take days. There it was, my masterpiece...all the little pieces limply held together by soft modeling glue, barely holding on, but I was proud of my "creation." I guess in a lot of ways I was driven to complete the task, rather than crafting the art. Sure, it was a prefabricated design, but the dream and drive to create was there and has lived in me ever since.
Fast forward to today...I'm at a new point in my life where I like taking time to create, to write, to inspire, to take chances. I'm driven by something different then I when I was young. I'd like to think it comes from an inner peace and love for all things...for the world around me...for all my friends. Some part of me thinks that it was there when I was a kid, but now, I want the glue to set and take hold. I now know that the journey to create and share "me", my art, my thoughts took time to stick. The drive was always there, it just needed time to cure.
I saw this quote posted online recently and it made me think about what it takes to keep moving forward: "Even the bravest of creatures have some fear, but it is not enough to stop them from moving in the path they are destined to walk upon." With that, I realize that I have to be ALL IN. I can't dance around the uncomfortable things and only share the happy stuff. At some point, I have to expose the reality of my failures and celebrate the successes too. In a lot of ways, the canvas still has to be painted. Good thing I have a lot of paint!
I guess, no matter what your passion is, go for it! Go out there and pursue your dreams, whatever they may be. Drive hard toward your goals. No excuses. No bullshit. Just be and be inspired along the way. Peace. Love. Always.
Balance
How many times do we lay in bed at the end of the day, staring up at the ceiling and stress out over all the things we didn’t accomplish today. Tossing and turning, creating mental notes of what to do tomorrow for what we didn’t get done today only to discover that what we don’t get done the next day gets pushed out even further and so on, and so on…ugh. So how do we stop this cycle? How do we find balance to manage all of it? The daily grind, kids, taxiing people all over town, social lives, relationships? I believe it all starts with your heart. If we close our eyes and reflect on all the good things we’ve accomplished, not just today, but everyday… the lives we impact daily, we will find that our hearts guided us on the correct path towards balance. When you believe in your heart, you will always find a way to make the schedules, the relationships, careers, creative pursuits, whatever it is work out. The moment you let go and stop caring about what didn’t get done and start caring about what you did is the moment you are truly free and live with balance in your life. Dream Big. Love hard. Discover your world.