Do you wake up feeling inspired?

Do you feel your day is filled with a sense of meaning and purpose?

Do you go to bed feeling fulfilled?

Do you want to?

In Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game, he describes his ‘just cause’ (his why for his what) to be that he wants to contribute to a world where people wake up feeling inspired, spend the day with a sense of meaning and purpose, and go to bed at night feeling fulfilled.

Do you scoff at this ideal?

I don’t know if I scoffed, but it definitely got my attention. What’s interesting, is this blog is essentially contributing to a general belief in that ideal. If the writer of the blog is not intentionally expanding her self to achieve this experience of day, that would be a split and the blog would lose its meaning and purpose as far as having an authentic voice goes.

I think it was my reaction to Simon’s just cause that got my attention. My immediate response was a version of ‘yeah, right’. It seemed like a lofty ideal.

My blog content is a result of my own experience. I flipped the energy in my body and have a far greater understanding of my nervous system and how my thoughts and feelings were contributing to cyclical depression, negative talk, and self hate. I learned to flip it all, and integrate an understanding of the what (I didn’t want to be depressed, if I couldn’t heal then how could I help others) and the why (life’s meaning seemed to be connected to sustainable growth outcomes rather than being stuck and spinning in the same familiar, yet undesirable, outcome).

Life is an infinite game. Learning how to manage my inside world of thoughts, feelings, impulses, and urges was remarkable as far as my general experience of day, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s a continuous curiosity and practice of new ways to consider how I want to show up and express myself, and expanding my beliefs as to what is possible.

What’s interesting, is because Simon’s just cause got my attention, I began to consider it as a desired outcome. I began to recite it like a mantra: I wake up inspired, I feel a sense of meaning and purpose throughout the day, I go to bed feeling fulfilled. And I intentionally consider what it means, and more importantly – what it feels like, to live this way. Because Simon said it, I was exposed to it, and I choose to believe it.

Belief is powerful. Exposure to what is possible is powerful as well.

Here is the beginning of a writing for my next endeavor, Quiet Time. 8 steps to more creativity, inspiration, and possibility:

Once upon a time there was a loud, naive teenager who was on the high school tennis team for all four years…(me).

The coach would end practice with a designated number of laps around the track. It was usually one or two. One day, one of the players who was a year older than me continued to run. It was later discovered that she ran eight laps. This was news. It was difficult for me to capture the reality in my mind. My thinking: 1. Why would anyone choose to run additional laps? 2. Eight???????? It got my attention. My perception of reality was expanded. I witnessed new information. I’m not sure if it happened that school year or the next, but I started running in the spring during study hall. Eight laps. I extended this new habit of running on the track in the evenings during summer. Those eight laps eventually led to twelve, and maybe even sixteen. I know eventually there was a walkman involved. As the laps grew, I began running in the neighborhood. I would do this in the summer, always in the morning. I was a late adopter to pull over sport bras, running shorts, and the iPod. I was a late adopter to most things. Being naive is no joke. A person doesn’t know what a person doesn’t know. 

The running thing expanded to warm weather months in college. I would trend with it. I moved to southern California in 1995. It was the spring of 1996 when I recall a choice I made that I would stop the trend, and run daily rather than seasonally. I don’t think I ran everyday, I don’t think that was the promise. However, I’m not totally sure it wasn’t. I was obsessed. 

Running began as a thing I did because I saw someone else do it. It wasn’t a competitive choice to prove something. I saw it, it existed, I did it. 

The reason I tell this story is because looking back, running was my original Quiet Time.

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And here is excerpt #29 from abetterway. Using inner resources to create your own algorithm…