Archive for the ‘Coaching’ Category

We Grow Stronger Through Struggle

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The Story of the Butterfly

Out for a morning stroll, a man observed a butterfly struggling to free itself from the cocoon that seemed almost to be holding it prisoner. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole. Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.

The man, no longer able to watch the tiny creature struggle, decided to help it out of the cocoon. He broke away the remaining bits of the cocoon so the butterfly could emerge easily. As the butterfly emerged the man noticed it had a swollen body and shriveled wings. He continued to watch it, expecting that at any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the butterfly’s body but that didn’t happen. In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its short life crawling around on the ground. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through the opening was a way of forcing the fluid from the body into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once that was achieved.

If we didn’t have difficulties, we would not grow and become all we were meant to be. We would live relatively uneventful lives and when our allotted time on this earth was finished, we’d just wither and die, having accomplished nothing more than having taken up space on the planet.

Fly high, butterfly! Soar high above the fray!

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An Exploration of Inner Self

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The Tiny Acorn

“Just as the tiny acorn contains within it a mighty oak tree, you have within you greatness beyond your wildest imagination.”

J.Sewell Perkins


DISCOVER YOUR INNER SELF

An Exploration of Inner Self

By J.Sewell Perkins, SCI

An interesting thing, the human mind… men and women throughout the ages have gone to great lengths and devoted their lives to a variety of discoveries without ever exploring their inner selves. While we surely must pay homage to those who have discovered continents, life-saving vaccines, outer space, etc., isn’t it interesting that discoveries outside ourselves seem so much more interesting and important to us than the exploration of our inner selves?

Many famous people throughout history have contributed much to our world as we know it today and yet so many of them never took the time to get to know themselves. There were, of course, those who devoted their lives to discoveries outside themselves and still managed to explore their inner selves as well. Those were the magnificent ones and we should seek their written works and biographies and learn from them…and that brings to mind one of my favorite quotations, actually it’s an old Zen saying…

Do not follow in the footsteps of the masters. Seek what they sought.

That’s great advice but only if you’re sure that what they sought is what you seek. Hopefully the thing you seek first and foremost is to discover your inner self.

Once you really know your inner self everything else you do will be easier. Too many people live and die without ever really having engaged in that exploration. They lived off the cuff, so to speak. By that I mean that they were as straws in the wind. When the winds of fortune or failure blew one way that’s the way they went. When the winds shifted to another direction, so did they. Never really discovering your inner self relegates you to the life of someone to whom things just happen, things over which you have no control.

So, what does this discovering one’s inner self really mean? How does one even begin to do it? Well, it starts with understanding why you do what you do, why you react to certain things the way you do. It’s important to understand why you’ve never realized your dream…if you ever even had a dream. You need to know why things rarely seem to work out for you the way they seem to work out so well for others.

The answer lies in what you think about and the way you think about it. We need to delve into how success or failure; happiness or misery; loving or loveless lives are a direct results of the thoughts you have about them. Yes, your thoughts do actually determine your destiny.

Memorize the following words until they become so much a part of your life that you know them as well as you know your own name…then begin to live them daily.

Be aware of your thoughts; your thoughts become your words.

Be aware of your words; your words become your actions.

Be aware of your actions; your actions become your deeds.

Be aware of your deeds; your deeds become your habits.

Be aware of your habits; your habits become your character.

When we know ourselves, truly know ourselves, it is then that we will know success.

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WHAT YOU DON’T USE – YOU LOSE

Friday, October 9th, 2009

The Tiny Acorn

“Just as the tiny acorn contains within it a mighty oak tree, you have within you greatness beyond your wildest imagination.”

J.Sewell Perkins


WHAT YOU DON’T USE – YOU LOSE

This is one of those sayings that have been around for as long as I can remember. It doesn’t really matter where it came from. What’s important is that the point it makes rings true on many levels.

It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about our muscles, our minds or our skills, if we don’t use them, we lose them. By the same token, one who has no real muscles, who has not really developed his mind or lacks basic life skills can begin where he or she is right now and within months change the picture completely.

The problem is that we tend to look at where we are today and decide that that is our future. That’s true only if we don’t change what we’re doing and our thoughts about it.

There’s an old story, THE PAUPER, THE BULL AND THE PRINCESS. It’s about a young man of limited means, a pauper by all standards, who lived in a kingdom in which there ruled a king who had a very beautiful daughter. All the young men of the king’s court dreamed of marrying the princess. Our pauper had that dream as well but his job was cleaning out the king’s stables. He decided that is position in life ruled out the possibility of his even being able to even look upon the beautiful, young princess.

The king had decided what sort of husband he wanted for his daughter and to that end he created a competition for the princess’ hand in marriage. The competition was straight forward. He would observe all the young men of the kingdom and in one year he would choose the strongest, most fit young man to marry his daughter.

All the young men of the king’s court were fit and strong and each believed he would be chosen. Not too long after the beginning of the competition the king announced that he was upping the requirements. The young man who could lift a full grown bull upon his shoulders and walk around the town square ten times with the bull on his back would be declared the winner and would receive his daughter’s hand in marriage.

This announcement caused many of the young men of the court to give up. What the king asked was impossible, they thought. The young pauper who worked in the stables began to think differently about the situation. He went to a nearby farm and presented a proposal to the old farmer. He offered to clean the stables for the farmer free of charge for one year. If at the end of the year he had done a good job the farmer would reward him with a parcel of valuable land on which to build the beautiful home of his dreams. The farmer agreed.

Each day, in addition to his agreed upon chores, the young man would feed and care for the farmer’s newborn bull. He and the bull became great friends and each day the young man would lift the baby bull upon his shoulders and walk a mile or two. The baby bull was heavy at first but as the young man continued to lift and carry the bull, he strengthened his muscles and as the bull grew in size and weight, so grew the strength of the young pauper.

A year passed and the king ordered all the young men of the kingdom come to the square for the competition. One by one each young man attempted to lift the bull upon his shoulders but could not. The young stable hand walked into the square, petted the bull, spoke to it softly and lifted it upon his shoulders. All were astounded and could not believe what they were seeing. The young pauper then walked briskly around the town square ten times with the full-grown bull on his shoulders. While all onlookers found this amazing, none were amazed than the king. His majesty could not believe what he saw for he was sure what he had asked was impossible.

The princess was impressed and told the king that, that was the man she wanted to marry and being a man of his word, the king agreed. The land for which the young pauper had made the deal with the farmer became so much more valuable in the year since he had originally made the deal and many approached him with offers to purchase the land at unimaginable prices.

All on the same day, with just one year of cunning and effort behind him, our young pauper became wealthy beyond his wildest imagination, married the princess and was knighted by the king. Our young pauper, a stable worker and pauper no more, lived happily ever after with the eternal love of the princess and the admiration of the king and all the people of the village.

Whatever it is you want in life, make the decision right now to begin to build toward it. Sure, the going may become tough but not as tough as cleaning the stables and slinging a bull around on your shoulders. Maybe that’s the problem some of us have. We spend too much time slinging the bull and not enough time taking the steps necessary to build the life of our dreams.

When you change your thinking about what you’re capable of,  what you’re capable of with change to match your changed mindset. Make the decision in this moment to pursue your passion and change your life forever.

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