8 STEPS THROUGH AN OPEN DOOR, Essential Stages to Your Life's Transformation
Step One: PICK JUST ONE THING:
“The time you put in aimlessly wishing and dreaming would accomplish marvels if it were concentrated on one definite object.” Robert Collier said these words almost one hundred years ago in his book The Secret of the Ages.
Whatever our aim, we live a creative life. It is dynamic, expressive, moving, flowing. We are also living in a time of inordinately large amounts of information coming our way. We can multi-task, build our business and talk on the phone while we jog and push the baby and exercise the dog. And we can plan and dream and imagine that we can be much more than we currently are. And we can be so many things. We have so many interests, so many passions.
HOW DO WE CHOOSE?
So many people, particularly women, are facing this question today. Why didn’t someone tell us thirty or forty years ago we could do so much more with our lives? Well, I guess they were, but we were busy dealing with baby formula and putting our husbands through college. And now it’s our time and what and how are we to move into old age with this new vitality, sense of freedom and a liberating thought system that says we can do it all, have it all?
You don’t even have to choose between all the things you love. Just pick one that you will make you an expert. Collier says, “…there is a critical need to do one thing well.”
START YOUR DAY QUIETLY.
Get to know yourself. Begin with a journal. Maybe you do, but we’ll take it to another level. If you haven’t started this, always knew it was a ‘good idea,’ but didn’t have the time, I’m going to give you a good argument for starting to journal. The French word for journal, and also for journey is “Jour” meaning day. Pause at the beginning of the day – its value to your new beginning is priceless. What do I mean by ‘get to know yourself?’ Journal writing stretches you, surprises you and offers you quiet tidbits of truths you were too quick to overlook. Perhaps fears, insecurities, important reasons why you avoided picking the one thing that could make you the happiest. The daily habit of writing in a journal offers it all up to you, as if to say, “here – this is what you’ve been searching for.”
DISTRACTIONS
We look for other ways to entertain ourselves, try to do more than one thing well, when our path to becoming an expert at one thing gets rocky – and it will. That’s what passion is for, it keeps us moving up when the mountain gets steep and our quadriceps are burning. There are no quick fixes, it’s the path to our own greatness and it’s designed for our growth. But each time we go deeper into our journey toward mastery there are daily payoffs of delight and empowerment and satisfaction. These feelings replace the boredom you felt when you were simply dabbling at life, sticking your toe in the water. . We all reach plateaus along the way, and at each plateau we make a choice: We either get out, or we get better.
Right now, I believe you are making the choice to get better at one thing. You have begun your own personal journey toward mastery, and in the process you are embarking on the hidden layers of fulfillment and personal satisfaction that come when you begin to realize your greatest dream – even your Secret Dream.
The Revelation is that when we pick just one thing, all the other things we enjoy and are good at somehow get included eventually, even become necessary, like pieces of the giant puzzle that seem unconnected, yet somehow complete each other.
“The time you put in aimlessly wishing and dreaming would accomplish marvels if it were concentrated on one definite object.” Robert Collier said these words almost one hundred years ago in his book The Secret of the Ages.
Whatever our aim, we live a creative life. It is dynamic, expressive, moving, flowing. We are also living in a time of inordinately large amounts of information coming our way. We can multi-task, build our business and talk on the phone while we jog and push the baby and exercise the dog. And we can plan and dream and imagine that we can be much more than we currently are. And we can be so many things. We have so many interests, so many passions.
HOW DO WE CHOOSE?
So many people, particularly women, are facing this question today. Why didn’t someone tell us thirty or forty years ago we could do so much more with our lives? Well, I guess they were, but we were busy dealing with baby formula and putting our husbands through college. And now it’s our time and what and how are we to move into old age with this new vitality, sense of freedom and a liberating thought system that says we can do it all, have it all?
You don’t even have to choose between all the things you love. Just pick one that you will make you an expert. Collier says, “…there is a critical need to do one thing well.”
START YOUR DAY QUIETLY.
Get to know yourself. Begin with a journal. Maybe you do, but we’ll take it to another level. If you haven’t started this, always knew it was a ‘good idea,’ but didn’t have the time, I’m going to give you a good argument for starting to journal. The French word for journal, and also for journey is “Jour” meaning day. Pause at the beginning of the day – its value to your new beginning is priceless. What do I mean by ‘get to know yourself?’ Journal writing stretches you, surprises you and offers you quiet tidbits of truths you were too quick to overlook. Perhaps fears, insecurities, important reasons why you avoided picking the one thing that could make you the happiest. The daily habit of writing in a journal offers it all up to you, as if to say, “here – this is what you’ve been searching for.”
DISTRACTIONS
We look for other ways to entertain ourselves, try to do more than one thing well, when our path to becoming an expert at one thing gets rocky – and it will. That’s what passion is for, it keeps us moving up when the mountain gets steep and our quadriceps are burning. There are no quick fixes, it’s the path to our own greatness and it’s designed for our growth. But each time we go deeper into our journey toward mastery there are daily payoffs of delight and empowerment and satisfaction. These feelings replace the boredom you felt when you were simply dabbling at life, sticking your toe in the water. . We all reach plateaus along the way, and at each plateau we make a choice: We either get out, or we get better.
Right now, I believe you are making the choice to get better at one thing. You have begun your own personal journey toward mastery, and in the process you are embarking on the hidden layers of fulfillment and personal satisfaction that come when you begin to realize your greatest dream – even your Secret Dream.
The Revelation is that when we pick just one thing, all the other things we enjoy and are good at somehow get included eventually, even become necessary, like pieces of the giant puzzle that seem unconnected, yet somehow complete each other.