Posts Tagged: rocks

The Journey Beyond — No Comments
13
May 10

The Positive Negative

Hello… Pumpkin Head here.  If you did not read the last blog the Pumpkin Head thing will make no sense what so ever.

The time box that I have been exploring the past couple of blogs has been pretty interesting, sentimental, fun and… not so fun.  Looking through the box I found some vivid reminders of my academic accomplishments, or more accurately non-accomplishments. 

I was in the quarter of the graduating class that made the upper three quarters possible.  The interesting thing is that I know now that I’m not dumb.   

Side Note:  Not being dumb doesn’t mean that I haven’t done some stupid stuff and goofy things.  I have learned that intellect doesn’t negate stupidity.

Have you ever done anything stupid?  Humm… my guess is… YES!    

 

Although I don’t think I am dumb you would never known it by my grades, they were horrible.  I even had to repeat a grade in High School because I failed too many classes.  (Too bad the pass theory now in place in schools wasn’t in there when I was in school.)

Not only did I make crappy grades I didn’t fit in.  I was the classic misfit.  I wasn’t cool enough to be with the popular kids; athletic enough to be a jock; obviously academically challenged as to not make it to the National Honor Society crowd;  or bad enough to hang out with the “Bad Boys”.

I was just there… pretty much a non-entity.

Side Note:  While writing all this about myself I could just hear some of the various responses.

  • “Poor thing”
  • “Ahhh”
  • If you are from the South you said, “Oh bless his heart.”

Now don’t go feeling bad for me.  My psyche wasn’t damaged too much and I did all right for myself.  I ended up marrying a hot girl from Georgia who was Miss High School everything plus Homecoming Queen… so take that Linda from Miss Rogers 5th period History class.  Sorry, I just got carried away.

I’m sure the big question on your mind is, “So what?”  You may be wondering what in the world does this guy sharing his High School experiences have to do with me. 

Maybe nothing.  Maybe more than you might think. 

This blog is about a journey, a journey away from things that restrict growth, freedom, and experiencing life at it’s fullest.  It is also a journey to, to taking risks, putting things in their place and really enjoying this marvelous life ride we are all on.  What an adventure.  What a blessing.  I used to view negative things in my life so… so… negatively. 

This may sound strange but not all negative things are negative.  

I don’t know the negative things in your life that somehow ended up in your bag of rocks.  (See the 3/9/30 blog Sack of Rocks.)

All I know is that some of you are reading this blog and something is stirring.  Something that compels you to let go of some of those rocks you perceive as negative that have been making your journey a bit more difficult.

I have never openly shared that I failed a grade in High School… it was embarrassing.  But strangely enough I don’t see it nearly the deal it was at one time.  Growth and openness has a way of changing the way we see things.

See you Monday.

The Journey Beyond — No Comments
4
Mar 10

A Sack of Rocks

Nice to see you again.  Hopefully my last few blog entries have encouraged you to take the step you have been reluctant to do take.  If you didn’t, maybe today will be that day… no pressure.

But if you for some reason decided not to step out into the risky unknown (or you took a small step and didn’t continue) I offer you a caution from personal experience.

Usually when we seriously contemplate a step in a new direction it is because something has stirred us and we feel compelled to move.  But then something happens, we decide not to step out or we quickly stop.

We then tend to feel pretty crappy and caulk it up as another missed opportunity.  Now this is where it gets dicey, if not careful we end up tossing another rock in the sack we carry on our backs as a souvenir of our perceived failure.

Sack of Rocks: This is a bag that we all carry.  It is loaded with rocks that we have accumulated from life experiences, failures, tragedy or anything else that tends to weigh us down.

Everyone has a sack but the load carried depends on whether or not the person decides to put the rock in their bag.  It’s tough trying to march up a mountain with a load of rocks on our backs.

You probably notice that I use the term perceived failure.  I will drill down on this in a moment but first we need to be honest with ourselves.  Sometimes we do fail.  It’s not a perceived failure, it is a legitimate failure.  I mean… we have all really done some stupid stuff.

We make big mistakes in our lives and the consequences are pretty clear.  We cannot (must not) make excuses for some decisions or actions we have made.  The reality is, some things are just wrong and we need to stop and change our behavior.

“You can’t talk yourself out of something you acted yourself into.”

– Stephen Covey

aaa

Back to the “perceived failure” topic.

As mentioned there are things we do that are wrong and they are pretty clear.  But there are a lot of things that occur where we feel we have failed and… yep you guessed it… we throw another rock in the sack because we feel like we deserve it.  And on our journey we have accumulated a sack of rocks so heavy that it makes it difficult to try anything new or anything again.

I have come to believe that what we perceive as failure many times is in reality a part of the process of our growth.

Allow me a metaphor about a butterfly.

I know what you’re thinking… oh brother… that’s all I need, a cheesy little story about a sweet little butterfly.  Stick with me it’s actually a pretty good illustration.

The transformation of becoming a butterfly is in the hidden confines of the cocoon.  There is a divine transformation occurring and no one sees it.  After the butterfly has developed to such a point internally, the transformation work then transitions into the open.

The butterfly struggles and pushes to be released from the confines.  The butterfly could beat up on itself for having such a difficult time… for trying and stopping for a bit.

But here’s the miracle.  The struggle is part of the process.  The pressing and pushing is the very thing that is forcing life into the wings.

For too long I beat myself up for my perceived failures.  I carried a lot of unnecessary rocks.  Life’s tough enough the way it is without carrying extra weight.  I don’t know about you but I am unloading rocks.  I’ve got a more to unload but I can tell already that the climb this mountain is much easier.

Don’t believe the lie that you need to carry the rocks.  Go ahead… take one out and toss it.  Just don’t throw it in my direction.

You can keep throwing rocks in your sack or you can STOP IT!

I love this video.  It’s fun but more importantly there is a lot of truth to it.  It is a simple truth that we need to take to heart.

gg

YouTube Preview Image

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By the way, you’ll need to lighten your load because we’re getting ready to climb a pretty steep portion of the mountain.