Random thoughts for Friday

I have some random thoughts for you today.  This week I set a goal to “Dream in Words” and “Dream in Music” every day.  The cool thing?  It means whatever I want it to mean since I’m the one that wrote the goal- ha!  But for today, you can join me as I “Dream in Words”….

1- Life is about process.  I have been taught this my whole life, but I’m just discovering it.  If you clutch the destination in a death grip, you’re going to miss a whole lot of joy in the process.  What if it’s not about “getting there” anyway?  What if you take out the concept of time entirely, and every day is about savoring what is?  That doesn’t mean you get complacent and become a couch potato; acceptance can actually lead to greater growth than stressed-out-running-toward-the-goal-at-break-neck-speed efforts can.  We talk about this a lot in our home currently.  There’s a certain amount of accelerating your pace that can make you go faster (run up and grab your backpack that you left at the top of the stairs).  After that, it slows you down (faster, faster, hurry, hurry, we’re going to be late!).  That’s because it’s not really accelerating at the point- it just adding tension that you THINK is increasing speed.  It doesn’t help.

2- The world awaits!  Remember when you were little and you believed you could be an astronaut?  How long has it been since you dreamed like that?  Can you still be one?  Sure!  Maybe you don’t want to do everything required to be an astronaut right now.  It would require a lot more than you thought it did at age 6, but the point is that you COULD run toward that dream if you really wanted to and if it was valuable enough to you.  Today at my voice lesson my teacher proved that.  When I first started taking lessons I figured that if I could confidently sing a C or D (the octave above middle C) I would be content.  An E would be icing on the cake.  Within a few lessons my teacher told me that she thought I was not only a soprano but a high soprano.  What?  Me?  I didn’t believe her at first, but today I was confidently (at least for that hour!) singing an F (above the C that I told you would be the icing!) and attempting a G above that.  I walked out of my voice lesson (on the clouds!) thinking, “Wow do I set my sights low sometimes!”

At this phase of my life, I’m not sure if (1) getting consistent, full nights of sleep that allow my brain to process the options or (2) having space during my day while my kids are in school is more responsible for creating a wonderful, expansive feeling that the world awaits.  But I am left considering this thought: there are so many possibilities and opportunities at my fingertips – so dream big!  The truth is that I can learn to do just about anything I decide I want to- and that feels SO good!

3- I just finished the audiobook “Finish.”  I didn’t realize till I had started it that I never had finished an audiobook- and I was determined to get all the way through (it seemed almost sinful to not finish a book with that title…).  It has a lot of interesting concepts, but my favorite one is this:  identify your “hiding places”- places where you go to hide from finishing your big goal that sometimes intimidates you.  Often it’s something like social media that you swipe into without even thinking.  It may be Netflix; whatever it is that is an easy escape.  Goals take effort and you never will accidentally find yourself doing it.  For example, no one ever has said, “Hey I was watching my favorite show on Netflix and the next thing I knew I was doing burpees.”  Never.  It just doesn’t happen.  It takes concerted effort to get off the couch and work out, so it will never happen without you knowing you did it!  I thought this example was hilarious- and so true.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Dream Big!

Love,

Laura