Take Back Your Life!

Hey life renegades,

Life can seem like an endless slog or a magical love affair. It depends on your ability to answer the question, “What makes you get up in the morning?”

During my childhood, I couldn’t get enough of life. I raced out of bed to explore the natural landscape near my home. I scaled the face of Bald Rock (o.k. a small hill a few roads over), I climbed pine trees, I waded in brooks, I watched butterflies, I taught riding lessons in my back yards without the aid of actual horses.

That love disappeared when society shoved me onto the tracks headed toward conventional adulthood. By my late twenties, I kept asking, “Is this all there is?” I’d broken up with life. We’d gone our separate ways. I had no real reason to get up in the morning. I guess I had stumbled onto some kind of career track. Yet, the notion of a generic career never appealed to me. I always felt like a caged animal in a work zoo. If we lived in this free society I wondered, how come we can’t leave until 5:00? I began saying to colleagues, “Let’s bust out of here and sit at an outdoor cafe and drink salty margaritas.”

They’d say, “Oh, that sounds fun. Too much work today. Maybe next week?”

Those weeks turned into years and finally into a decade and still no disobedient margarita hookey.

I realized I had to help myself if I wanted to fall in love with life again. I volunteered at a theater in the next town as the curtain puller. This simple act of opening and closing an unbelievably heavy curtain led to me opening a new act on my own life.

One of the actors introduced me to karaoke and returned me to hiking and bike riding. With life once again coursing through my veins, I also reconnected with my rebellious roots.

I fell in love with life again. We’ve been going strong ever since.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

p.s. A few years ago I celebrated my birthday drinking salty margaritas at an outdoor cafe. As wonderful as I’d imagined. How about you? Have you had your margarita moment?

Hey rebellious ones,

Most of us spent our youths waiting to get permission from parents or teachers to do the things we wanted to do. Then we went to work and got permission from our bosses to do the things we wanted to do. It eased us gently or not-so-gently into a permission-based life, where we ask others of all ages if it’s o.k. to do the things we want to do.

By the time we reach mid-life, many folks have instituted a self-imposed restraining order to the point they don’t even ask permission anymore. Even that’s been beaten out of them.

I semi went along with getting permission until I went on a bike trip to Europe in the early 90’s. A few of us went down to the beach and started walking along the shore. About 15 minutes later, I noticed a no trespassing sign, stopped and obediently said, “Hey, we should turn around.” One woman with a fiery spirit kept walking. She said, “If someone doesn’t want us to be here, they’ll let us know.”

Her words started me in my tracks! They got me going forward. They empowered me to stop living a permission-based life. If I get a great idea and someone wants to be a barrier, I simply go around them. My philosophy? They’ll see how great what I’m doing is and want to join in. If not, oh well! It’s a great way to take back your power …

How about you, have you ever lived a permission-based life? If liberated, how does that feel?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey Wonderful Readers,

I helped a bumblebee get out of my laundry room and return to freedom yesterday. In the process, I noticed how tiny its wings were in comparison to its large body and watched in amazement as the little flapping wings lifted the bee up off the windowsill and through the open window into my yard.

My up-close-and-personal moment with the bee piqued my curiosity, so I googled bumblebees. One of the entries I clicked was a quote by Mary Kay Ash, “Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway.”

Her quote on the courageous little bumblebee got me thinking how imprisoned most of us have become by our own little wings (aka limited belief systems.) Unlike the bumblebee, most of us humans use our our little wings as excuses for not even trying. At least once a week, someone tells me why what sounds like a great idea will not work. “It can’t be done,” she or he says. I respond with, “What makes you think that?” Because she or he says, “It’s not practical” or “it’s never been done before.”

That’s just a cop out, a fear of trying something unknown. Much easier and safer to say, “It can’t be done.” Why not believe everything’s possible? From my own experiences in life, if you think something can be done it can be.

I wanted to stop some rezoning from taking place in my town. Lots of people said, “It’s a done deal, don’t even bother to try.” In my mind, there are no such things as done deals. I hooked up with some other folks who believed we could stop it and we proceeded as if we could. It worked.

When you believe in your mind and your heart that something can happen, then you start acting in ways that make that possibility a reality.

Is there something you’d like to attempt but those close to you or even you yourself keep saying, “don’t bother, it can’t be done?”

Muse Thx,

Giulietta

p.s. I’d love to have 499 subscribers to my blog by August 1st. If you like what I write about,  perhaps you will help me by subscribing to Take Back Your Life updates via RSS or Email? Thank you.

Hey people who dare!

My purpose for Giulietta the Muse has always been to encourage my readers and clients to summon up the courage to get out of lock-step. Looked up the definition of lock-step on Merriam-Webster.com. They define it as: a standard method or procedure that is mindlessly adhered to or that minimizes individuality. Lock-step marches you in a direction not of your conscious choosing. After awhile it becomes second nature. So much so, that you may not even realize you are marching until some event in your life forces you to notice it.

Such an event might be a job loss or an illness or even something as simple as a comment a friend or stranger makes. Once you look down and notice your legs marching in a direction you don’t recall pointing them in, the real life awakening begins.

For those of you want to turn around and “skip” in a new direction, please consider checking out my newest life shop: How to stop being so busy and start living a meaningful life.

If you live in the Greater Boston area and are free on Saturday, April 24th in the am, I’d love for you to join us!

Muse thanks,

Giulietta