Take Back Your Life!

Dear great thinkers,

Am I crazy or are more and more of us experiencing distraction overload?

About five years ago, I was in a Whole Foods parking lot unloading my groceries. Then my mind started to drift. When I “came to” my cart with a few bags still in it had rolled down the slight grade into the hands of a twenty something young man who caught it before, presumably, it dented his car.

I have never forgotten what he said as he returned the cart to me, “You weren’t in the moment.”

Until he said that, I’d never given any thought to being in the moment. Now, I’m aware how easily we can be distracted and the consequences it has for our safety, for our emotional health, for the direction of our government and for the quality of our lives. (more…)

Hi fellow wishcasters and other adventurous folks!

I wish for you to see your life not as a chore or something to get through, but rather as an Alice In Wonderland type of adventure.

Will you wake up and feel like you fell down a rabbit hole? Yes. Will strange things happen to you? Yes. Will you meet strange people? Yes. Will you be strange? Yes. Will any of it make sense? Probably not.

Yet, that’s the real beauty of our precious lives. They are not meant to be controlled, to be figured out, to be made 100% safe. They are meant to be wild and crazy journeys where anything can happen because it’s all unscripted.

Forget following other people’s scripts. They have no right to tell you how to live your journey at the bottom of the rabbit hole because there is no right, there is only what is. Remember these folks don’t know any more than you do. It’s all posturing. You know more about you and your life than anyone. Please don’t forget that when they bust into your life screaming and madly waiving their script, accusing you of not following it!

I can almost guarantee that if you start to look at your life as an adventure that you own, you will wake up every morning feeling braver and more powerful!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey Awesome Folks,

About ten years ago, I tapped into my ability to see what’s awesome about a person. Something the person often can’t see in his or her self. It’s this inability to see our own awesomeness that holds us back from living an amazing life.

If we let it, life can beat us up and beat us down. When that happens you’re more likely to accept what you believe is fate – a life of mind and soul-numbing mediocrity. I’m sure you see it all the time. People at work, people on the subway, people at parties all exhibiting an overall lack of enthusiasm for life.

I’m here to tell you that you can get back your childhood enthusiasm and zest for life.

Yes, you are awesome!

Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Institutions and people treat you like you’re mediocre to keep you from breaking out of your cage because they erroneously believe that people are better off in cages.

Much of the emotional pain and suffering in the world happens because people do not understand that they have the power to leave their cages any time they want. No one can keep us in there. Way too many people only figure this out on their deathbed. I’m guessing you don’t want to wait until it’s too late or you wouldn’t be reading this.

We all have something magnificent about us, something that will make the world a better place and make our own lives worth living with gusto. Our life challenge is to figure out what it is and release it to the world.

Here’s a baby step you can take towards finding your life challenge. Make a list right now of 5 things you do well and that you love to do. How often do you do them?

I’d love to hear one awesome thing about you. Please tell the world by writing it below!

Muse thx,
Giulieta

Hey lovers of life!

A fun woman I follow on Twitter, picked a word for the day. On a whim, I decided to pick one too! Unpredictable. Today I’m going to mix up my routine as much as I can. Maybe start my daily walk going a different direction. Read a book backwards. Eat desert first. Wear two different socks. Go through the self-service at the supermarket two times. Write an essay beginning with the last sentence. Do three twirls on my way to the mailbox. Make a to do list with only things I WANT to do on it, ad infinitum.

Take a look at your own predictable behavior. Can you mix it up? The best thing about changing my life up is that I get to see things from a different vantage point. You know those “see if you can find the differences between the two photos” exercises at the back of magazines? I often turn the page upside down. It bring a new perspective and makes it easy to find some of the harder to see differences. Reach out and say, “hi” first. Sit in a different seat if you take a class.

Just now I turned to the last page of a book I’ve been reading “forever” called Agenda For A New Economy. Been stuck in the middle for about 4 months. Last two lines?

“We have the power to turn this world around for the sake of ourselves and our children. We are the ones we have been waiting for.” Good words to start the day with. I’m a huge advocate of rescuing yourself. Just get the ball rolling. If it isn’t rolling nothing will happen.

Go forth and be unpredictable!

Muse thx, G.

There’s a great book by  rachel carson, the environmentalist, called “A Sense of Wonder.” In it, she says, “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.”

I’ve known for about 15 years that the march toward adulthood slowly beats the sense of wonder out of us. Prior to that I walked obediently along the beaten path, not questioning where it would lead me. I believed that I’d be happy at the next bend up ahead and when that didn’t make me happy, then it would be the next one. But can I tell you something? No matter how many bends i went around, I wasn’t happy. I became happy only when I took the path less traveled by. When I started to create my own route through life.

Being on my own path also restored my sense of wonder. I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and learn something new. Something I want to learn; I need to learn. That’s the problem with today’s generic life blueprint, it doesn’t take into account individual interests. How can we all want the same things in life? The real secret? We don’t. Making us into “want” clones deadens desire, deadens wonder.

How about you? Do you have your sense of wonder intact? If you do, how did you keep it or get it back?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

I get a lot of e-newsletters. 97% of them want to help me make more money. While I understand we all need money, I’m starting to wonder if this obsessive focus on making money actually drives money away from us? It feels increasingly desperate to me and I’m wondering if it feels desperate to money too?

Read an article a few months ago that said we are actually less happy than we were 40 years ago, even though most of us have more things and gadgets.

One of the books that got my life moving in a new direction sometime back, Do what you love and the money will follow, downplayed the money part. It will come if you really do what you love. Are most of you doing what you really love? Do you even know what that is?

It took me awhile to figure it out, but I love challenging the status quo. And there are lots of ways to do that — in my community, in my writing, in my life shops, in my conversations. When I’m in that zone I feel unstoppable, on top of the world. And the money has started to follow. Yet when I started doing what I love, making money was not my objective.

Let me ask you this. To capture your attention does it really have to be about the money? I’d love to hear why or why not. Also, if we didn’t need money to live and learn, what would you like to learn? What classes would you sign up for? What adventures would you take?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Do any of you have ideas for something new, something daring, something outrageous? Could be for a biz. Could be for a life adventure. Could be for a better world. If you’re following my posts with any regularity, then you know that I’m all for making more life. It may or may not have anything to do with making more money. That would be your choice.

Chances are good that right now, you’re probably sitting on a great idea. We like to think that only some people come up with great ideas. It’s not true. We all do. But just a few of us act on those great ideas.

Before I learned to think milky-way bit, I’d get a great idea and lightly toss it around. I’d mention it to a few friends, get a little pumped, then talk myself out of it and climb back down into my dark rut. Poof! A few months or a few years later, I’d read in the paper that someone else came up with a similar idea and went with it. It became a hit!

Has this happened to you with some of your ideas?

Frankly, I don’t feel we are encouraged to just “go for it” with ideas. All you have to do is look at the fear mongering going on in the news day after day to see that what we are encouraged to be is frightened — of everything.

Wouldn’t it be a more energized, upbeat world if we pursued our ideas full throttle instead of holding ourselves back?

What idea do you have that you’d like to run with? What’s stopping you? Keep digging down to find your real fear …

For anyone stopping by my site, please check out my life shop, “Think Milky-Way Big …” It’s an idea I had, that I’ve decided to go full-throttle with … This life shop is just the start!

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

Hey daring folks!

Here’s a provocative thought: Life’s all make believe. Seriously, do you know why you are here? Why any of us are here? Why we have to keeping doing the things everyone keeps telling us we have to do? I don’t. I have no idea what the writers of LOST have in mind, but for me the show seems like a metaphor for life. We spend our lives trying to figure out how to get off the island of life rather than just enjoying the island. The harder we try to get off, the crazier it becomes.

Say for a moment you agree that life is make believe, wouldn’t that give you permission to change your life, to do things differently, to create your own life blueprint? As a small child I often questioned my parents, my elementary school teachers, my Sunday school teachers etc., “Why do we do things like this?” I was exiled to my room. I stood in the corner. I got sent home with a note. The result?  I got the message loud and clear: Go along with the program.

The problem becomes, who writes the program? With all the stress and depression out there, I wonder if it’s time to change the collective make believe to a program that makes us feel alive and vibrant.

Got any ideas about how to change your make believe into your own believe? Perhaps start by pinpointing the areas of your life that cause you the most enjoyment. Find ways to expand those areas. Love to hear from you!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

I really look forward to Jamie Ridler’s wishcraft Wednesdays. Her prompts are great ways to take my writing in new directions, give me new essay, newspaper column or blog post ideas. Today’s, “What Luxury Do You Wish For?” feeds into the books I’ve been reading lately, “Shadow Cities,” “Planet of Slums,” and “A Nation of Farmer’s.”

I’ve been blessed with a most fortunate life, for which I am truly grateful. When I read about the suffering & starvation that takes place on this beautiful planet, the number of people who live in slums (1 out of 6, soon to be 1 out of 4), I would like the luxury of being able to alleviate their suffering by giving them their land “back” so they can grow their own food and rebuild their own homes. There’s no reason for anyone to starve.

Once the starvation stops we can weave our collective magic together and recreate a healthy, livable world abuzz with creativity. So, I wish for people to realize that we’re all in this dream, this fantasy, this Earth-body together, that the left Earth-hand has to know what the right Earth-hand is doing for the whole to work in unison.

Muse thx,

Giulietta