Sometimes, one small idea can change everything.
Don’t get me wrong.
I love big, bold, audacious thinking, energy, and dreams.
In coaching the last 7 years, though, and in my own personal journey, I’ve found that the key to those really big dreams is often begins with a very small step and very small, but profound, shift in thinking.
When I decided I wanted to teach myself to become an artist, I was tempted to tell myself I didn’t know what in the world to do or where to begin. Instead I decided to believe something on purpose: that I would always be guided, that I would always know the very next step. So I took small steps that seemed so insignificant in comparison to my big dream.
I cleaned out the basement garage of our grad school condo. I set up my grandmother’s art supplies. I taped a sheet of paper to the wall and a painting I liked clipped out of an interior decorating catalog and tried to copy it.
What I really want to point out though, is not only did I take small steps, but I retrained myself to talk to myself in new, kinder, more compassionate and loving ways. For example, no longer letting myself to believe “I didn’t know the very next step,” I decided to believe, on purpose, “I always know the next step. I am guided every step.” A small idea but it truly changed the trajectory of my life. It’s a simple thought but it guides me in all aspects of my life now, from coaching, to running a business, motherhood, as well as to my art.
One phrase that I love to introduce clients to is one they are often quick to dismiss. It seems tiny, maybe even trite, to be able to be much use to them in the face of the mammoth, overwhelming challenges they are experiencing or the long, daunting climb to their dream. But I swear by it and with enough of my insisting, and their openness and willingness to trust, it is always a game changer.
This week a client wrote to me who had been very skeptical of this small idea being able to make a big impact in her already very successful life. But she came to me because something had been feeling off and she didn’t like the way she dreaded her life, which looked wonderful and successful, and she just wished she could feel grateful for things and be willing to dream again of what is next. So, she agreed to practice thinking this new thought on purpose.
The email she sent me this week (shared with permission) said,
“You will love this, Leah. This morning I woke up and I was a little surprised how wonderful I felt. I heard your voice in my head saying, ‘Well, what must you be thinking to be feeling this way?” And then I knew.
Without even practicing it on purpose anymore like you told me to do, I was just believing it, and so naturally, too. I am astonished. I was thinking,
I like being me.
I can’t tell you how incredible this is! I was in tears! What if I went my whole life and never felt this way?! What a loss that would have been. But I don’t want to focus on that. I’m just blown away by how wonderful it is to know me now – and to know me I now know is to like me, even LOVE me!”
This week I went to a talk given by Pulitzer Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson. At one point she said that what we need more of in our society is an emphasis on and the kind of space that allow for deep thinking, contemplation and the creation of art because these things help sensitize individuals to the metaphysical privilege that being a human being in this universe truly is.
Spend some real, quality time getting to know your being.
I know you’ll like who you meet.
And that, my friends, is a life-changing leap for mankind.
Have a beautiful weekend!
Love,
Leah
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