Day 272: A different kind of romance

 "I'm really enjoying our date - it's so romantic."

Date in a chicken wing graveyard.
. . . The feeling's not mutual . . .

You ever have an experience where one component managed to throw the whole thing off?

Perhaps you're having a nice time or you're excited thinking about whatever 'it' is, but then something unexpected happens and you can't seem to enjoy yourself?

I think that's what happened to the grumpy Gus on the right. But definitely not to the lovely lady on the left - she's smitten!

Maybe if we asked her, she'd share that her secret is having an intention for what she wants to experience. Not so much being wowed by her environment or external factors, but rather focusing internally. Focusing on how she wants to connect and engage with others and her overall experience, which leaves her open and curious towards whatever comes her way. Rather than quick to judge when things don't fit the image of her expectations.

Hmm, there's a chance she may be on to something! I mean, if that technique can make a graveyard romantic, just imagine how it could transform routine experiences!

Day 271: Nearing the end

As I think about the end of the year, I think about this blog - and my writing challenge.

I challenged myself to write a post a day, every day for a year - starting on January 25th, 2022. 

Mid-October, I thought to myself, "I know I've missed quite a few days, but I really hope I can make it to Day 300 by the end of the year. If I can only be two months off with writing, I'll be pretty happy about it."
And that would be with an end date of January 1st. But my challenge lasts through January 24th . . .

I debated whether to end that last thought with trailing punctuation or an exclamation point. 

I'm glad that I'll have time to come even closer towards my goal of writing 365 days in a row - or close to it. But at the same time, it'll be nice not to feel compelled to write. Or to hear the misguided whisper of Hazey,
"you have to write or else you'll miss your post today and fail your whole challenge!"

Dude, Hazey - I get that you're trying to help me reach my goal and protect me from failure (all the while trying to cover up your fear of failure with extreme force), but - cool it! 

Let's try a different approach.

Perhaps something along the lines of:
Reaching the goal we set for ourselves is really important to me! I want to better understand the coaching principles and techniques we've learned as we experience them in our own life. I want to practice sharing as we improve our writing skills.

Aw, gee, Hazey, why didn't you say it like that in the first place?!

We're on track to pass Day 300 by the end of the year. I think Hazey's going to be really excited when we reach 2023.

So if you missed it - this post is all about taking time to re-evaluate your goals and efforts. To check back in on:
- why you started them
- why they are important to you
- what you have already gained by the effort put in (regardless of the ultimate outcome)

It's all too easy to overlook the importance of goals.
Not in their achievement or completion, but in the lessons and growth gained along the way.

Day 270: Purgatory FastPass

Last Sunday, the priest's homily focused on purgatory, and it got me thinking...

 

What if purgatory is when you have to learn all of your life lessons? When you have to reach the self-knowledge that your lived experiences already gave you the information for?

What if purgatory is the holding place for internal personal reflections needed to better understand yourself, the spirit, and the universe? The things needed to move on?

What if purgatory was the last step of the 'check-out' process?

What if it wasn't viewed as a dreaded or painful thing?

What if purgatory wasn't viewed as 'atoning for sins', but rather learning from them? Granted the lessons will likely be the harder and more difficult. You know, the stuff we don't really like to face in our waking lives. But when we do, it will be perspective changing and freeing.

Obviously, I've never died, so I don't know if this is how it works or not. 

But I can't shake the feeling that this may be the correct idea . . . and the tingling sensation I experienced in my chest upon thinking it leads me to believe there has to be at least a sliver of truth there.

And what if we could do all of this learning BEFORE purgatory??

What if we did the learning now, in order to get a FastPass through the pearly gates, later?

I think we can - with awareness, perspective, and intention.

I think we can - with coaching.

Day 269: Religious Teachings

I was raised Roman Catholic and went to church every Sunday as a child. 

Now, as an adult, I find myself again attending church pretty regularly. 

But the experience is much different. 

The most obvious reason being, that it is now a choice. 

And with that choice comes something else - a desire for understanding. 

Understanding a way to reconcile the way of living and thinking I now follow - living with intention - with what is taught in the church, which seems to be quite passive.

 

Treat others as you want to be treated.

Pray to God, the father, and Jesus, the son, for everything.

Trust your prayers will be heard and answered.

Be patient.

Find joy in suffering.

Keep yourself humble and small in this life so you may enjoy the riches of the holy kingdom when you pass on to eternal life.

These are the messages I have heard over and over throughout my whole life.

They're all fine and well, but I can't help shake the ever growing feeling that something very fundamental is missing from all of them . . .

Personal responsibility and growth.

Self-knowledge.

Actionable steps for how to actually carry out these recommendations in a way that works for each individual.

In my 33 years of experience with the Catholic Church, there has never been much emphasis on getting to truly know oneself.

Which doesn't make ANY sense to me.

Because, if God made us in his own image, shouldn't we be encouraged to learn and understand what this image is??

 

Shouldn't we be encouraged to explore and practice the skills and talents we were inherently given to the fullest extent possible?

Isn't the way to ensure we are doing good in the world, not taking anything for granted and sharing love with others and ourselves?

It is to me. 

It's the very VERY obvious way.

And yet, I can probably count on ONE HAND the number of messages I've heard that even remotely alluded to this.

Here's my recommendation for a better, more holy, [insert your descriptor here] life:

Get to know yourself.

Like really know. 

The favorable parts, the hidden parts, the skills, joys, talents, the struggles and obstacles. 

Work to understand how you think and why you think that way. 

Uncover your limiting beliefs, the assumptions you fall into. 

Try out different perspectives and assess your interpretations for accuracy and objectivity. 

Take an active role in learning how you actually work. 

Create your own owner's manual.

Because when you do, life starts to change and come into clearer focus.

Life purpose(s) become apparent.

Love and acceptance of self increases. 

 - Which, I have to highlight this one - because I also feel the church does us all a disservice by not encouraging an equal focus on loving oneself as much as others. 

To me, to know and love oneself is inextricable from knowing and loving God.

If we are made by God and God lives inside of us, then why the heck isn't it being noted as important to prioritize loving oneself?!

Maybe it is and I just missed that part . . . consistently.

But, regardless, I whole heartedly believe that self discovery and understanding is the foundation to knowing and loving God - and the world - more deeply, fully, and unconditionally.

So maybe it's time to adopt a new approach.

Rather than focusing on what you should be doing (or not doing), why not focus on figuring out why you're doing what you're doing (or not doing)?

Let's start there.

Day 268: Priority Rank

Have you ever felt like other people's wants and priorities are somehow more important than your own? That your priorities and wants are often outranked by others?

I've certainly felt like this - more than I'd care to admit - and I know a lot of other people have, too. Several possible reasons for this jump to mind, such as people pleasing, fear of being seen as 'selfish', or lacking awareness of one's own autonomy.

 

But the main reason we experience this feeling (at least in my mind), is communication - or rather, the lack thereof.

Communication is EVERYTHING.

No matter what the topic, who is involved, or what action is carried out, communication is necessary. And when there isn't adequate communication, things start to break down.

Systems start to breakdown.

People start to breakdown.

I think this idea of communication is central to carrying out one's own priorities and having them acknowledged and honored by others.

The first piece is communication with oneself.
Not only in the sense of understanding why the priority or want is important to the individual, but also in being honest about the assumptions and interpretations they are making about others.

For example, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that if someone keeps overpowering your wants with their own that they "don't care about what you want, are selfish, think their priorities are more important, etc."

This is where the second step of communication comes in. Because, while it's possible they really do think that, it's more often a matter of not knowing or understanding the needs/wants of the other person. And in these situations, the fastest way to get everyone on the same page is using your words to share your thoughts and feelings (rather than making assumptions and then interpreting everything based on that).

The third piece of communication is being ok with differences.
Maybe you share your priorities and the other person still doesn't seem to support them. That's ok. They actually don't need to. Because they are your priorities. The only person needing to put them first is you.

But you have to make that choice.

You have to choose yourself.

There is always a choice to be made.

And with every choice comes a trade-off.

Only you can decide if the tradeoff is worth it.

We can't make everyone happy all of the time. And to try to do so will always be a losing battle - because each individual is responsible for their own happiness.

So take control of your own happiness, starting with supporting your own priorities. The more you practice this, the more clearly you will feel and see a shift in how you experience life. Rather than feeling stress or frustration from postponing or ignoring the things that are important to you, you will likely feel increased energy, patience, and openness towards supporting others.

But you can't drink from an empty cup.

And you can't share from an empty cup.

So fill yours first - prioritize yourself so you can prioritize others.

Then you can have your cake and eat it too.

Day 267: The Social Mind

Today I went to a series of discussions organized by the Chicago Humanities Festival about social media and it's impact on humans and society - The Social Mind. 

As one who doesn't use social media a whole lot, the realities of how things really work are quite disheartening. Despite this fact, it's been super interesting to learn more about this topic.

The first thing I learned was that the fuel of social media is: outrage. Specifically, when it touches on morals. Maybe this should have been apparent to me already, but it wasn't.

The second fascinating thing I learned is that our brains have not evolved to handle the mass interaction that social media creates. As it is now, our brains can only handle interactions with a max of roughly 100-150 people. But social media throws us into pools of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands)!

The third thing I learned is that during the very early years of social media, companies in Silicon Valley knew exactly how it affected and targeted frailties of human behavior and they continued full steam ahead anyway.

Wow. That fact gave me chills - and not in a good way.

The biggest takeaway from the first discussion was that social media should be looked at like a cigarette company. Because that's basically what it is. A money making monster that is bad for human health.

I was curious to see what these panels would reveal and how, if at all, they would impact my current view of social media.

Not surprisingly, it doesn't make me want to use social media anymore than the little I already do.

More surprisingly, it kind of highlighted (in a VERY roundabout way) the need for what I do.

The need to help people strengthen their skills of discernment in order to pursue what will sustainably fuel, energize, and contribute to their well-being.

The need for coaching.

No matter what we are facing - be it natural or man-made - coaching provides the tools needed to navigate any situation in a way that is true and beneficial to each of us (individually).

 

So, come at us social media! We've got a secret weapon.

(And if you're reading this thinking, 'huh?', we need to talk!)

Day 266: Hooded Water Magician

I'm sure you can guess by now, the location where the story I'm about to share took place.

On the count of three...

- One

- Two

- Three

North Pond!

Right on schedule for my routine nature outing.

Today, however, it was something in the water that caught my eye.

A unique duck.

I've seen it for the past few weeks, but never up close. 

I still didn't get close, but I did watch it dive for a while. And during that time I became very, very confused.

This grayish-brown crested duck submerged and returned a time or two. And when it came up the third time, it looked completely different!

It's brown head was now black and white!

What the heck?!

It dove again.

It emerged, back to brown - huh?!

It dove again.

Black and white.

How is this possible?!?!

Dives.

Brown.

What is going on???!!!!?!?!?

It disappears once more - and then,

https://www.metroparks.net/blog/birds-birds-everywhere-in-your-metro-parks/

Two ducks emerge. 

One brown.

One black and white.

They sure did trick me!

But, what a delightful confusion!
I couldn't help but chuckle as a big smile spread across my face - and stayed there for the entirety of my walk.

Thanks, ducks!