Petites Pensées Lundi

A new addition to TSLL's regular postings, available to all readers, non and Basic and TOP Tier members. Enjoy the Petites Pensées Lundi post each and every Monday as you begin the week, a shorter post replacing the Monday Motivational post, as I dive into completing TSLL's 4th book. This post, sharing thoughts to ponder, or as I am choosing to title them, Petites Pensées, 'small thoughts', while not small in depth of content, but rather small in length - no more than 1-3 paragraphs, with an introduction sharing from where the post was written or conceptualized wherever in the world I might find myself to offer a glimpse into one of the numerous and unique ways to live a life of contentment. 

“Curiosity is the ideal alternative to panicking in the face of uncertainty. Staying curious will help you move from worrying about the what ifs in life to focusing on what is and wondering what’s possible. Because if you can stop fearing the future and instead turn moments of uncertainty into possibility for growth and expansion, for learning new skills that can only benefit your success, then you can lessen that unpleasant and debilitating worry. When you do that, you’ll be able to face the ambiguities of life without draining your battery.” —Mary E. Anderson, PhD, author of The Happy High Achiever

The Setting: 

• Lieu: (place of idea inception) gazing into my primary closet after having finished the demo, painted the ceiling and nearly completed wallpapering before running out; (whilst writing) Nelle snuggling alongside as we ready for a night’s sleep, soft lamp lighting, books at arms’ reach ready to be poured through before my eyelids can’t hold themselves up any longer
• Thé: no tea this late, just cold water
• Des sons: Norman gently snoring and sleeping, a peaceful sight resting next to me; a silent, restful neighborhood; and KDFC playing Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for two Mandolins in G major

Even once you’ve committed earnestly to a new-to-you life choice. A choice that repeatedly returned to mind as a genuine passion to fulfill a need despite seeking approval with others’ definition of a need. Years may have even passed pondering whether or not to take that leap, to give it a try, to say yes, to invest, to reach higher and farther than you have ever done before, and now, finally, you’re taking action. And the night before you are to begin your ‘first day’ or take that flight, or make the move that essentially makes it real and thus permanent change has actually taken effect and going backward is not an option that would be beneficial, sleep evades you. Your mind is riddled with worry, doubt; however, there still resides within you a hope that all will go as you had dreamed and why for so long this dream kept returning to grab your attention so that you would pay it attention.

Here’s the thing about doing anything we’ve never done before, we cannot know how it will unfold. We just can’t. By the simple fact that this future moment has never happened before.

Any time something new presents itself, and especially if we have chosen it, we preserve and even foster more energy by choosing curiosity to see what is than we do if we worry about what if. The outcome is going to be the same beyond our own actions, but how we meet it will determine if we grow and experience this gift that wants to be given to us or miss out on the opportunity that wants to be ours. In other words, if we hold back in worry (what if?), choosing not to fully engage, then excellence doesn’t show up and so the highest quality that the outcome could have been cannot occur.

But if we engage fully to see what is, in other words, choose curiosity – sit in the front seat, raise our hand and ask questions, do our best, find and utilize the best tools we can find, then all the flavors of what could have been will be experienced. And that is when we grow. We grow because we see and experience first-hand what it feels like when we move into this new-to-us space, and that gives us information that we didn’t have before about not only how it all will unfold but also, and most powerfully, about ourselves. We are then forever more knowledge and changed.

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