Start With A Vision

     Sometimes I’m not a nice person.  When I’m on auto pilot, I call people ugly.  I really get a rush out of swearing, particularly when my husband is around because it really irritates him.  I’m a hothead and I like to yell and slam doors.  I’ve lied to friends, cheated at games and when I was younger I even stole money from my friend’s purse.  When I got caught, I denied it.  On auto pilot, I’m not really PC; I occasionally laugh at things I shouldn’t and don’t call the “offender” to account.  I lock my car door when I feel like I’m getting into a rougher area of town.  I’m white and I can be prejudiced.  When I see groups of young men who are black or hispanic I sometimes get nervous.   

     None of these are things I’m proud of, but they are all true.  I am bigger than I want to be, louder than some people care for and arrogant far more frequently than I ought to be.  Not really the makings of a great coach, huh?

     But I am so much more than all of that… I am also deeply rooted in family.  I am loyal and loving.  I thrive on community and volunteerism.  I love animals and the beach and music that cuts right through my life and touches my soul.  I will fight to the death for your right to speak, regardless of whether I agree with what you’ll say.  I fall madly in love with people and their passions.  I am deeply moved by people’s talent, my client’s dreams –  full of promise and possibility…  potential is my drug and I turn it out for people.

     Yet, if all of these things are the true about me… which of them do I want to honor?  What parts will I validate and give energy too?  Many of them conflict.

     As a human being, we all have thousands of different qualities and aspects that make us who we are.  We can be evil or good.  Happy or sad.  Validating or destructive.  We can choose lies or truth, generosity or greed.  It is all about choice and energy.

     I choose to give energy to my vision.   I believe that all of us are heroes… that we have innate gifts that will change the world, once fully tapped and expressed.  I am a dreamer and a doer and I love to help people acheive the “impossible.”  When you create a vision, the undesirable parts of who you are fall by the wayside.  There becomes no room for them to be expressed.  If I want to make a difference, I can’t give energy to prejudice and arrogance and auto pilot.  I have to be awake. 

     What is your vision?  What can you create that is big enough to pull you out of auto pilot and set your “undesirables” aside?  Today is the day for you to take charge of your life and choose to give energy to your gifts, not your gaffs.