Try Stuff

For those of you who don't know I am fairly young.  I turned 31 earlier this month.  I have however been privileged to live on 3 continents, an island, 3 countries, have witnessed snow, tropical storms, lava, amazing wildlife, bodyboarded in different oceans, snowboarded on a mountain, worked in vineyards, built a house, waitered, catered, consulted, coached, facilitated, studied, got married, and had a kid.
Maybe I am just restless and perhaps I could have been way more financially successful by now if I denied my heart and curiosity, stuck with tradition and tried one thing.  In reality I see myself as experienced (experience is what successful people call their failures) and would not want to change a thing about my past.  Point is that I love trying stuff.  I know my personality is prone to this but I have really gotten in to it over the years.
I am always very sad to see people hide behind what is safe and never take a risk to try new stuff.  How else can you truly discover your passion and purpose?  I do believe it should come together in work that answers your need for love, money, and meaning but opening up the opportunities is essential.

Even now as I stand on the edge of something new and amazing (moving back to Stellenbosch in a few days) I look forward to transforming my memories into hope and in this way use my past to help create my future.  Ultimately this is at the heart of our spiritual experience - looking back and making sense of what has happened so that we can be more in the future.  It is at the heart of purpose and destiny; purpose and destiny that we choose.  Choose to learn.  Choose to live.  Choose to be transformed and shed the shackles of self-centered ambition generated by our fear and ego.  Who am I, where have I come from and where am I going?  What do I live for?

Making the Change Connection

In my previous post I spoke about looking inside myself for real change.  I would like to take it a step further and link it to the actions we take, the work we do, the decisions we make.  Have a look at this clip and take a few moments to think about the link between your internal world and the external world that you encounter.  How does your behaviour (thoughts, actions and emotions) interact with the world out there?  When we have a great idea and can apply it in our own lives  it does not necessarily mean that it will flow to the world out there.

I don't want to contradict myself  in terms of where your focus lies when it comes to change - change begins inside.  Many times we are unhappy about our circumstances and we love to blame the rest of the world for our pain.  In reality we create our own pain.  Once I have however seen the error of my ways and can start to change my behaviour I want to start thinking about how it touches the lives of others.  As you will see in the clip there are three ingredients to change:  First you have to have an idea, then connect with other people and finally take some action.

What I have come to realise is that when changing something outside of myself has beome bigger than changing myself I have lost perspective.  The most important guideline here is not to take myself too seriously.  Being motivated by some misdirected sense of duty and therefor doing things because "I have to" is really not what I am aiming at here.  In line with the values (freedom, creativity and simplicity) that I identified I frequently check that I am not striving to be accepted but rather let action flow from a full and whole heart.  At the heart of the change process there is the reality that if I am not focusing on being changed I cannot expect others to change.

So I challenge you: Have you been changing inside lately?  Have you considered how you interact with the world around you?  How are your actions (or lack thereof) having an impact on the world around you?
I think this is very difficult and the answer probably changes every now and again.  I think there are some core things (values, principles and beliefs) that remain and define who you are but the how changes.  The more you are aware of your core the easier it is to tackle the how.

I want to connect with more people that have a calm determination regarding their place in this world.  I can't change this world but I would like to be with people who are changing themselves, improving their worlds and simply spreading that vibe. How about you?