The Personal Musings of The Writer on The Ranch

I want you to take a quick look at these flowers coming up out of the rocks.
Imagine the flowers as the successful people you know and the rocks as the obstacles that stood in their way.
Now ask yourself "Am I going to stay buried under my rocks of fear and despair, or am I going to keep pushing towards my goal until I am bathing in the light of its accomplishment?
Think about these words from Thementorproject.org founder Donald Miller: “it's ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ not ‘through Christ who makes it easy.’”

Come Monday Morning

I am a Dave Ramsey fan. The other day I was listening to his show and he said something that I found rather insightful, and judging from the lamentations I see coming from my friends' updates on facebook I think some of you all need to hear it.

I'm paraphrasing just a bit when I say this, but if you're living your life by the mantra of "Thank God it's Friday" and "Oh God it's Monday" then you need to stop and reevaluate where your life is heading.  Am I telling you to jump for joy on Monday morning? Not exactly, but if you go to sleep on Sunday night with a heart full of despair then maybe you need to think about a career change.

Easy for you to say, Kelley, but I've got bills, I'm too old, I can't go back to school, blah, blah, blah... those are all just excuses and I've heard them all and frankly have told most of them to myself. Is change scary? Of course it is! Sometimes it's downright terrifying, but you cannot let that fear paralyze you. Sometimes you can simply shake it off, and other times that fear is going to cling to you. It's going to grab you around the ankle and you're going to have to drag it along with you.

What you are going to find though is that the longer you drag it the weaker it's going to become. As long as you are constantly moving forward you are going to get stronger and it is going to get weaker and then it'll slip loose and everything that was holding you back will be released and you'll become this unstoppable force that will crush every obstacle that get placed in front of you.

Inspiring words are good, but words without action are meaningless, so what do we do from here? I'm going to give you the names of 3 books that I feel are must reads. I've read them and even though I'm still scared about what the future holds I'm moving forward. Learning and changing as I go.

For those of you who are miserable in your jobs I'm going to insist you read is 48 Days To The Work You Love by Dan Miller. This is a wonderful book about how to enhance the search for your true calling so you can be excited about going to work instead of hating going to work more than an eight year old hates the dentist.

Once you've put yourself on a path to discovering your passion then you need to Crush It! Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk will give some great tips on how to take something that you're passionate about and turn it into something that you can profit from as well.

The third book I'm going to recommend is for those of you who are already working jobs you love, and want to make sure those jobs are always going to be there. If that's the case then you have to read Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. This book will give you practical insights on how to become the one person in your organization that can't be lived without.

Things can change for you. Things will change for you in fact. The question is are you going to make the change happen or are circumstances beyond your control going to make those decisions for you?

Order these books today and start being excited seven days a week instead of just two.

 

Persevering Through.

I took this photo a few days ago while walking down the driveway to get the mail.  The sun had managed to come out from behind the clouds and had the winds not been blowing so hard that day one would be tempted to use the word warm, if only in the most judicious sense of the word.

As I stopped to take the picture I began to wonder about what the future holds.  Look at the tree.  It looks cold, dead, almost as if its best days are years behind it. And so do many of our lives look. Maybe we've lost a job, or a child, or a parent, maybe we've had a spouse leave us, or any one of innumerable tragedies has befallen us.

But, much like this tree, the bleakness of the outside cannot match the tremendous power of what lies within.  As Spring comes again so will life and greenery to the tree.  Slowly at first and then quickly as leaves and fruit burst forth in a beautiful display of life and hope.

And so too will we emerge. Some hurts will never fully heal. The loss of a child, or of a parent are scars which we will bear with us the rest of our days, like the knot holes will forever be a part of this tree. But the knot holes do not kill the tree and so our loses do not kill us. Instead they shape us and give us the experiences that make up the story of our lives.

Like the tree we will persevere through our lives growing until we reach our full potential.  Spring will return to our lives and growth and learning and achievement will come, and so will Winter return, but just as a Winter doesn't destroy a tree it doesn't destroy us either for our greatness lies not within our bodies or even our minds, but within our souls.  Souls given to us by God almighty. We are great because he is great. We have unlimited potential because he is potential unlimited.

In times of unending cold and bitter darkness there is always the presence of joy and love and the unstoppable power of LIFE. 

Unbridled Enthusiasm.

    As the year draws to a close I find myself struggling with looking forward instead of focusing on the past. I think that self-reflection can be a good and powerful tool with regards for self-improvement, but to focus so heavily on the past is unhealthy. Especially when the focus is on oneself and isn't particulary positive.

    Clearly, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of your humble author. I'm a prideful person.  I would say I'm prideful to a fault, and as many of you know, pride is a bitter pill to swallow.  I'm also a part of a generation for whom cynisim and sarcasm are the coins of the realm. As I grow older I slowly realize what wasteful sentiments these things are, especially the former.

    Which brings us around to the crux of this post. I'm going to take a radical approach to how I live my life in 2010. Unbridled Enthusiasm. For the next twelve months, and the few weeks left of this year, I'm going to purposefully going to make myself excited about life and all it has to offer.

    Louis C.K. once remarked "Everything is amazing and nobody's happy."

    He hits the nail on the head. We live in an amazing age and far too many of us take the advantages we are afforded for granted. I don't want to live that way any more. I want to be excited about this amazing age we live in. The progress we're making in terms of technology, social issues, and medicine are almost unbelievable.

    It's time for me to become proactive. To make life happen for me instead of just happening to me. A proactive approach will yield much richer fruits than a reactive one. 

    This won't be without its share of difficulties, and I have no doubts that I will stumble and fall along the way, but I have faith that with persistence and a strong support group the next year will be an amazing one that I'll be able to fully appreciate.

    And, if any of you would care to join me in this experience that would be most welcome.

--Kelley