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LIVING BY DESIGN NEWSLETTER
by Leslie Karen Sann, MA, LCPC
V4, #3
February 3, 2004
IN THIS ISSUE
Powerful
People Make Things Easy
Quotes
Practically Speaking
Wonder Questions
POWERFUL
PEOPLE MAKE THINGS EASY
(Part 1)
(This article is the first in a series
about our personal power to create the life we want)
Years ago I was participating in an adventure
training. One of the events entailed climbing way, way up into a very tall
tree on a rope ladder, and then jumping out of the tree aiming for a
trapeze. If successful, one would then let go of the trapeze and fall to
the earth. If not successful one would just leap, miss the trapeze, and
fall. That was the drill. In either case faith in the safety ropes was a
given.
I was part of a group of eight people. We each took
turns climbing the tree and jumping. Some of the people were a bit anxious
about the event. Others were downright terrified. I on the other hand was
fascinated by the fact that I was eager to go.
It was my turn. Up the rope ladder I climbed.
Halfway up the person holding the ladder steady decided to make my trip up
a bit more challenging, so he let go.
Suddenly the journey up wasn’t so easy. The rope
ladder began to wobble. The way I was orienting myself to steady my
journey was no longer working. I noticed myself getting angry. New
challenge: Could I rely totally on myself to make it to the top?
I used the anger energy to reorient myself. I had to
find a new center of gravity now that I wasn’t anchored to the ground. I
shifted my focus and pulled myself to the top, using the tree itself to
support me upward.
Once on the top I balanced myself on the small piece
of wood that was there to use as a jumping point. As I turned around so
that I could leap forward the facilitator of the event (the guy who had
let go of the ladder) challenged me to fall backward.
Was I willing to let go of going for the goal, the
trapeze, and instead fall into the unknown without being able to see where
I was going?
My initial thought was that it seemed too easy. What
was the point if I wasn’t going to go for the goal, jump for the ring,
make my mark through ambition and striving? How would I know I was
successful?
So I did it. I went for the challenge to let go of
the challenge.
I turned around, arms crossed over my chest, leaned
slowly back, let go, and I fell backwards through the air.
Then the ropes caught me and I bounced for a bit
until one of the assistants grabbed hold of me to steady me, embracing and
congratulating me, asking how I was doing.
I was shaking all over. Every cell of my body was
vibrating. I was whirling with energy.
I answered her inquiries with, “that was easy”,
my critical mind wanting to negate what had just occurred, telling me if
it were easy it didn't count.
She answered something that has stayed with me these
past eighteen years. She replied, “Powerful people make things easy.”
"Powerful? Me?" I wondered.
“What about me made that easy?”
“What was I doing, thinking, acting, differently
than those who were struggling?”
These are wonderings that have fueled much pondering
and discovery over the years.
In this next series of articles I will be sharing
with you some of what I have uncovered, so that you too can discover your
power to make things easy.
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QUOTES:
“Powerful people make things easy.”
~ Unknown ~
"Only those who will risk going too far can
possibly find out how far one can go."
~ T. S. Eliot
"It is yourself that must constantly be
transforming. You cannot bring the same stale self to the world and expect
the world to be new for you."
~ Deepak Chopra ~
"It's easier to act your way into a new way
of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting."
~ Millard Fuller ~
(founder of Habitat for Humanity)
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PRACTICALLY SPEAKING:
- Take time to notice where you find ease and flow
in your life. Observe what you are doing, how you are doing it as well
as what you are saying to yourself or to others that facilitate this
ease.
- Pay attention to where you find struggle. Again
observe your actions and your talk. See if you can discover how you
might be contributing to the un-ease.
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WONDER QUESTIONS:
- Where are you relying on others in order to find
your center?
- What if you were to let go and find your own
center?
- Are you willing to empower yourself to create
ease?
-
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COPYRIGHT/CONTACT INFO/REPRINT PERMISSION
c Copyright 2004 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com
Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears in full:
Copyright 2004 by Leslie Karen Sann,
Living by Design.All rights reserved.
Web site. http://www.living-bydesign.com
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