A Panda's Journey
“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu
What dream do you have?
Are you taking actions towards your dream?
What is one thing you can do today to begin turning dreams into reality?
It won’t happen overnight, but it won’t happen until you first have the dream.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
—Ernest Hemingway
Personally, I’m just thinking about whether to break from writing every day to writing once a week – or something like that.
But in relation to the Hemingway quote, yes, the world breaks us all.
“Life is suffering” said Buddha.
& it’s true. Life hurts. We all go through it. Your pain is valid.
The question is, where will you go from here?
What did you learn from your pain?
What are you still learning from it?
We are never too old to learn something new.
An old dog can learn new tricks.
It’s a matter of patience, persistence, and humility, to name a few, but the list goes on.
Culture wants you to conform.
It wants you to blindly obey.
But you were born to be free.
You were born with a mind to think for yourself.
This is extremely difficult in societies that aggressively attack non-conformists.
“For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
This choice is yours.
And yes, if you choose to think for yourself you will lose friends. Some family members may disown you. But what you will find in this process is the truth.
You will find genuine support from the few who are living their truths as well.
It is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking, and a risk that might possibly save the world.
“Rest and be kind, you don’t have to prove anything.”
—Jack Kerouac
Those words – rest & be kind, are some of the most important words in the human language.
Rest & be kind.
I’ll leave it there.
“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.”
—William Shakespeare
You lost the election.
You bet on the wrong stock.
You missed the game winning field goal.
You fell down face first into a pile of mud.
And it hurt.
It still does sometimes.
But you weren’t meant to remain in pain.
The pain – the adversity, is an opportunity to grow, to learn, to prosper, but in the moments it happens it’s almost impossible to appreciate.
Adversity doesn’t feel good, but it carries within it a gift.
The gift of experience.
“Experience is the teacher of all things.”
—Julius Caesar
The gift may be hidden, but it’s there, waiting for you to find it, open it, & move forward – stronger, wiser, and ready for the next opportunity.
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer the negative elements in your life, don’t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy!”
— Dale Carnegie
Overthinking is one of the root causes of inaction.
The best way to overcome this is to just take action.
If your thoughts & feelings are holding you back from taking right action, it’s time to break on through to the other side.
You do this, like Nike says, by just doing it.
Everyone feels fear.
Everyone worries.
But in this moment, it’s time for right action.
“You have to assemble your life yourself—action by action.”
– Marcus Aurelius
Your life is in your control, & it’s the only one you have complete control of.
So what are you doing today to assemble a life you love?
Imagine what an ideal life would be like for you.
Pray about it.
Dream about it.
& then with your actions, action by action, assemble it.
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
-Alice in Wonderland
You’ve heard the phrase “think outside the box”, but what does it really mean to think outside the box?
Part of what this phrase means is to ask impossible questions.
& just as history shows, sometimes, often accidentally, that impossibilities are possible.
The 4 minute mile.
The Earth isn’t the center of the Universe.
A black president.
And the list goes on…
The ceiling is waiting to be broken, & it’s waiting to be broken by you.
Sometimes I scroll through social media and find myself comparing myself to famous people who seem to have “made it.”
Yes they have made it to where they are, and that’s perfect, but that’s not where our focus should be.
My focus, your focus, our focus, should remain upon our own lives, our own goals, our own dreams.
When you stop comparing and start focusing and working on improving your own life, life improves.
It takes time, but it’s worth it.
“Stay in your lane. Comparison kills creativity and joy.”
-Brene Brown
With Ken Thompson 