I imagine many of you are just getting back to work after the BIG freeze in the Midwest and east. I hope you will take time to read this Monday Motivator as I delve into this month’s theme, BIG thoughts. Remember in last week’s video, I told you I was going to challenge you like never before and dig deep. So if you are looking only for fluff, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no fluff this year. I want to present you with thought-provoking information that will push you to action. I want to inspire you like never before. I have a quote on a post-it note on my computer so I can read it every day. It says: “Without action . . . you aren’t going anywhere.”
On January 3, 2014 it had been 3 years since my husband, Dave, passed away. I thought to myself, “Wow. 3 years—that went really fast. What did I do during those three years? What did I accomplish? Where did I feel like I took a step or two backward? What do I like about myself and who I have become? Who do I need to become?” Three years from now, I want to be able to say “I have lived a magnificent three years of personally moving forward and impacting lives along the way. I have grown in all 5 Pillars of my life: Career, Family, Financial, Spiritual, and Wellness.” You see, time moves way too fast and if you don’t make some plans for who you want to become, you become who everyone else wants you to be. If you do not live with purpose and intention, you end up where you did not intend to go.
Every action starts with a thought, subconsciously or consciously. How many times throughout the day are you operating on auto pilot? Probably 100s—getting dressed in the morning, driving to work, getting your Starbuck’s, going through your day, checking your iPhone, swooshing through dinner and putting the kids to bed.
What if we lived our lives more consciously? What if we woke up and purposely set in our mind a BIG thought for a day? Just one. Our thinking is powerful. I recently experienced the power of thought when I went to Brian Head, Utah with my kids over the holiday and attempted skiing after 17 years. Watch the video to hear what happened.
What do I mean by BIG thoughts? As I myself this question, I struggled because I didn’t want it to mean thoughts involving acquiring lots of things—or acquiring one giant material thing. It is not about far-reaching goals and dreams, so what is a BIG thought?
- Involves imagination, creativity, and rising above the ordinary, dreary day-to-day thoughts.
- Scares us and presents itself as territory we should not step into. Yet, it is the very thing we need to do to become our very best—who we were born to be.
- When we verbalize our BIG thoughts to others, they will probably get criticized by the majority of people. And so we have to be selective with whom we share them with.
- Feels uncomfortable; make us a little uneasy.
- Seems impossible to accomplish, yet we have a burning inside us that tells us we must go forward.
- A little voice will tell us, “Who are you to think that or do that?” Yet, who are you not to think or do that? You are a magnificent human being.
- Causes us to reach out to new people, search new resources or challenge our thinking.
- Impacts others after we have taken action as result of the BIG thought. I believe a BIG thought is not selfish; quite the contrary. It is something that causes us to change ourselves or something in a BIG way thus improving the lives of people around us or our workplace or community.
I challenge you to embrace one BIG thought this week in any of the 5 Pillars: Career, Family, Financial, Spiritual or Wellness and run with it. Take one action each day (no matter how tired or distracted you might be) toward it. After 7 days, assess how you feel. I bet you will feel better and encouraged to continue moving forward. Good luck, my friend.
Joan
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein