Take Back Your Life

Hey friends!

It seems like we’re constantly being told to fix this or fix that about our relationships, our personalities, and our businesses. E-newsletters ask me if I’m procrastinating, if I’m afraid to sell, if I playing small, if I’m holding back, etc.

Maybe it makes more sense to concentrate on what’s really working in our lives and continue to do more of whatever that is. Expanding our greatest strengths forms the core of the burgeoning strengths movement. To keep this movement going, we’ll need to wean ourselves off of measuring everything in our lives to “see how we’re doing” or “how we compare to others.”

The problem with most metrics is that they keep you focused on the negative. Based on the results (often seemingly arbitrary), your boss, your teacher, your doctor or some other person of supposed authority in your life directs you to shore up your alleged weaknesses.

I say alleged because our society tends to fixate on weaknesses. I don’t believe in trying to fix weaknesses. Instead, I prefer to encourage and grow a person’s natural interests and inclinations. It’s pretty futile to force someone to get “good” at something they don’t care for.

Take math. I never liked math. It didn’t interest me. I wasn’t “good” at it. Yet, I spent a lot of time taking all kinds of math classes thinking I needed to be good in math. I even got a job that required me to do quite a bit of math. It started to eat me up alive because I didn’t want to do it.

Looking in life’s rear view mirror I can see now that the time I spent taking math classes kept me from taking more English classes and writing classes or just plain writing.

I loved writing and ended up doing math. Now that I’ve been back writing for about ten years, I feel like I’m where I want to be, where I was meant to be, where I got detoured from.

Our visits to Earth seem increasingly short to me, why not spend most of your precious time on this beautiful planet doing what you enjoy.

I’d love to hear what’s working in your life. What do you want more of in your life?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hello fellow rebels and wishcasters,

I wish for folks to stop using the story, “I can’t do anything about it” as an excuse for not getting involved. Of course, you can do something about “it” – whatever your “it” is. In fact, it’s a lot easier to do something about “it” than you think. And you can start in your own backyard.

If you’re having a problem with yourself, write yourself a letter. Much will be revealed.

If you’re having a problem with a person, talk to that person.

If you’re having a problem with an issue in your town, talk to your board of selectmen and your neighbors.

If you’re having a problem with a larger local issue, write a letter to the editor or a guest column.

If you want to change something on a bigger scale, start a social movement. You’ll find that a lot of people feel just like you do. They’re ready to start the dance of change if someone else starts beating the drum.

Unless you participate, you’ll be stuck with the vision of whoever does chose to participate.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

p.s. Not having enough time does not count. We make time for the important things in our lives. There’s always time!

Hey bad girls and boys & wednesday wishcasters,

In 2010, I wish for folks to disobey more. That’s right.

• Stand up and be counted, even if you’re the only one doing so.
• Make a scene.
• Say, “no” to anything that goes against your values.
• Catch all the shoulds flying at you and dump them in the trash can.
• Stop going along with programs you don’t believe in.
• Start being the change you want to see in the world.

People love to use, “I can’t make a difference” as an excuse for not standing up for what they really believe. That’s a big fat lie. You can make a difference – in your own life, in your neighborhood, in your country. The real question becomes, “Do you want to make a difference?”

If your life has no spark, if you feel like a dead-zone inside, if you complain about your situation, if you feel taken advantage of, if you keep asking yourself, “is this all there is to life?” chances are good you’re still that obedient little boy or girl who didn’t make your parents mad.

Perhaps, it’s time to …

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey daring ones,

Jamie Ridler’s wishcasting circle prompt asks readers, “What does your spirit wish for?” I wish for more folks to realize they are in charge of their own lives. Yes, it can seem like others call your shots, but only if you let them. Much of the malaise out there stems from false feelings of being out of control, of not having a say in your daily life.

What a magical, energetic world we’d have if people did more of what they wanted instead of what others wanted. Who started this silliness anyway? It’s clearly not working. Why not stop it?

Here’s an idea. Try listing all the things you believe you have to do, why you do them and what would happen if you didn’t do them. I know it can be scary to hold the power of your own life course in your hands. But wouldn’t that be better than the way you feel now?

Muse thx, Giulietta

Hey wishcasters and others,

I really enjoy Jamie Ridler’s Wednesday Wishcasting circles. The questions send me in new directions. Today’s question: What step do you wish to take? This is an easy one for me. I want to start a huge movement to save open space, to help people see that saving open space is long-term economic development. If land is finite, how can we keep turning it into asphalt fields and not ultimately harm ourselves? Again, the powers that be have us galloping so fast that we don’t even know why we are galloping and where we are galloping. But I can guarantee that is we don’t stop and figure that out, we’re going to be in trouble as a civilization.

There is a huge tract of land behind my home that is home to animals, birds, flowers, plants, sunlight, air, wildness, freedom, rocks, soil, water, history, life. It’s for sale because open space is not valued. If it were, there would be grants available or companies & governments rushing to save it from destruction. I believe that open space saves money in the long run, saves our health in the long run, saves our food supply in the long run, saves our wildness in the long run, saves our creativity in the long run, saves our humanity in the long run.

Did you ever run through fields as a child? Or lay down on your back in a  meadow for a summer nap? Or run through cornfields? The more we lose open space, the more we lose our connection to the Earth and ultimately our connection to each other.

Psst. We need to save open space. Pass it on …

Muse thx, Giulietta

p.s. Here is a local non-profit trying to do the above too! LCA Trust. Stop by …

Hey fellow wishcasters & other interested parties,

Today’s question by Jamie Ridler: What would you like to embrace? Me, I’d like to take my innate ability to produce idea after idea and create more programs around it. People have always said to me, “You are a great brainstormer.” Despite knowing this in my own heart, I embarked on an occupational journey after college that did not connect with brainstorming. I listened to folks who said, “You can’t make money doing that.” I believed their small-time thinking.

It is only in the last 3 or 4 years that I’ve changed my own thinking enough to realize that, yes, I can make money doing things that come naturally to me, like writing inspirational essays, musing and finding greatness in others. Hey, maybe it’s the small-time thinking that’s all wrong.

The economic downturn presents a good example. So many problems to solve, so many innate gifts, yet we all walk around helplessly looking for others to create jobs that tend to be rigid and often soul-deadening. I wonder where we all learned to be helpless, to not follow our innate talents, to believe that the job categories out there represent what people really need to live fulfilling lives.

Any ideas how we became so helpless?

Muse thx, Giulietta

p.s., I know many of you live out of state. If you want to see where I’m going with combatting helplessness, check out Think Milky Way Big

Hi friends,

As a child, I had no problem speaking up. It came naturally. If something didn’t make sense to my little 6-year-old mind, I asked questions until it did. Now as I got older, I started to get in trouble for asking questions, for questioning the status quo. Sent to my room or sent to a classroom corner or sent to the unemployment line.

I got the message loud and clear: the best way to get along was to go along. I bit my tongue for ten long years. But this left me feeling crazy and out of sorts with myself. I decided the best way for me to get along was to not go along. In a society that values obedience, the easiest way to do this is to forget the outcome. If I dwelled on the possible outcomes – none of which might even happen – I became paralyzed with fear.

Let go of the outcome and you’ll get go of the fear. Is there something you need to say?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Already Wishcasting Wednesday again! This week Jamie asks us what we’d like to complete. My mind went in a million different directions! Honestly, I wake up every morning musing with ideas and while some people might say, “Giulietta, focus, focus” I see my cauldron of rich ideas as my greatness. It’s hard for me to be around people and not share the ideas that come to me in their presence.

Kinda like a greatness clairvoyant!

Whatever it is that you do that releases you from the “autopilot” so many of us find ourselves locked into day after day — that is your greatness.

I would like to complete my first info product on finding greatness. It’s been in the making for a medium time! I will offer the product and personal muse time with me. When I download products, I end up skimming through them once or twice, not getting too much out of the experience. My approach will be different. It will take into consideration that humans buy products but need human encouragement to move forward with the product’s content, especially something as personal and emotional as finding your greatness.

I’ve worked with lots of people in small groups or one and one, and it’s always a relief for them to find their greatness. Otherwise, we spend our lives searching, searching, searching … asking, “what am I here for?”

Do you know what your greatness is?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Howdy,

I’ve noticed a lot of folks run around crying for change. Way fewer folks actually stand up and do something about it. That’s probably the number 1 reason life/governments/economies tend to stay the same – complete lack of action. I know it’s fear. Just wondering why we continue to reign each other in when that method clearly doesn’t work?

Maybe we should replace some of the holidays we have — the ones that seem to be shopping-oriented — with action days. People have the day off from work to take a chance and be the first person in line to do something. I used to need to know that someone was going to be in line behind me. 9 out of 10 times the person who said they’d support me lost his or her own nerve and I ended up at the front, alone, facing a not so happy authority figure. I got used to it. Now I have no problem being the first one to speak up, to write up, to walk up. Makes me feel powerful and alive.

If you’re serious about changing the world, you need to get comfortable being first in line … What’s something you’d be willing to be first in line for? (Besides gelati and new high tech products.)

Despite living in a consumeristic society that urges us to buy, buy, buy, I contend that most people don’t really want more things. They’ve got more than enough things. I believe most people want to feel appreciated, to feel like they matter.  Once I figured out I needed this for myself, I started going out of my way to give the gift of appreciation to others.

Do I sometimes miss opportunities to do it? Of course. But I try to be more aware of it.

The gift of appreciation goes beyond a quick “thank you.” I may start with a thank you, but keep going. I say why I appreciate them. Sometimes a friend, family member or colleague may not realize how great they are unless someone tells them. It helps to build up another person. Yes, we are all quite good at tearing each other down. Much of the time when I pass people walking together, I hear them complaining about some absent person. I understand the urge to do this because I’ve been guilty of it myself.

Instead of looking for what the other person did wrong, why not try and look for what the other person did right? Then it’s easy to appreciate them! And the double secret bonus? By appreciating others, you’ll learn to appreciate yourself more.

Thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate that you are interested in what I have to say! Enjoy your day.

Muse thx,

Giulietta