:::CHANGING DIRECTIONS:::SAVVY ARE WE:::

What if someone came up to you mid journey and said 'Wrong map'.

Just how long would it take before you decided to put that map down...

How many jobs were lost in Victoria alone due to the cessation of our bread and butter industries? The last count I heard was 27,000 in the last 12 months and there has been many more job cuts announced since then. Everything has been affected fruit canneries, smelters, the idiotic handling of our cattle industry - what were they thinking driving that death nail in? There are now huge cutbacks in education and this comes after the economic stimuli project extended almost every school in the state. Manufacturing has gone off shore, most of the older industrial areas in Melbourne are unrecognizable and have now morphed into apartments while our skilled labor force is left longing. Its progress a sign of the times we get but!

I knew a guy who worked as a cutter for Jag clothing company for years and years till they went off shore, he then worked at Kodak processing plant till that shut down virtually overnight due to the invent and popularity of the digital camera. He is in his mid 40's and his skills and training have become obsolete twice. Last I heard he was a handy man.

So in many sectors the amount of work available has and is continuing to contract. What are the growth areas? Mental Health and Aged Care.
Travel and Leisure. Legal and IT. I don't have the answers I am a Fashion Designer in the outmoded land of the $5.00 T shirt ragtrade.

I get it, its tough out there. Fortunately I myself have enjoyed a great career in the industry and am happily making new ground into areas I now chose to work in.

Competition is heightened to a new lofty degree and the consumer is more aware than ever - its a global sweep when we cast our eye now on what ever it is we require. Savvy are we!
We can afford more, have more but the map just keeps on changing. Food and entertainment has finally become expensive while we find clothing, furniture and house prices continue to fall and jobs become frighteningly more and more scarce.

Ahhh reality take a deep sniff let it burn your sinuses. Like an unpleasant smell in the cinema we all sit trying to ignore it. So in the lucky land we are at last feeling the pinch.

Bloody map - quick get me the app' or the really cheap GPS!

When in high school I had no plans I was simply going to forge my own path and show the world how brilliant I was. There was never going to be a map just sunshine and happiness!

Both my high school and college teachers convinced me I was going to need an education and it turned out they filled in my applications and I got into an Arts tailored College for year 12 and then onto University due to their push. Thank you Barry and Colleen.

Getting into RMIT Fashion Design was no mean feat. In true naive style I filled out my application forms in the hallway while I waited to be called for my interview - some doors just open. I recall rows and rows of hopefuls, some had only a manilla folder in hand and looked like meek little beige receptionists I didn't get it.


I had a suitcase and garment bag bursting at the seams with my designs, all forms of avant-garde wearable art and quite a get up on. I suppose they thought it would be better if I was removed from the street. Sometimes the world opens up for us when we push in the right direction. You cant force it, meld it or predict it, you just have to live it.

Australia affords us a very comfortable 'pinch'. If you are fortunate to be healthy in mind body and spirit there is much to be grateful for.
Life is an opportunity.
Everyday a gift.
Just ask someone that is ill or homeless I am sure they will tell you the same thing.

Motivational speakers from Tony Robbins to Oprah, financial gurus and mental health experts all espouse the benefits and true rewards of recognising what we do and can have.

Life's Banquet - pull up a chair and chow down folks!

If your only problem is that you and your partner cannot agree on what car to buy or that you cannot afford a fourth vacation this year then you had better take a long hard look at yourself or the life of another. Life has a manner of getting peoples with attention - it can take years. You can take life for granted, but somehow in someway life will deliver you with a slap directly to the temple...WHAP!

Your ego may take the blow.

Perhaps you are forced to really see yourself? 

Reassess your values? 

These are gifts they make you grow. 

Some individuals prefer to sit in their haughty denial - good luck with that! 

It will just result in a much more painful fall.

Be grateful, be creative, do what you love and the world might just open up!

Who knows you might actually enjoy changing directions and throw away the map once and for all.

::: SMALL OR TALL & THE ANGRY MAMMOTHS :::

Tall or small...

how are you going to play it.

Who are you playing it for?
People often project their own ideas of who you are to them using their own set of references of how you ideally relate to them, and it can stifle.

Sometimes people expect more of you, less of you...but its how you see yourself that matters.

I have touched on the truth jealously contains in a previous post and I believe it shows you what you might really want.

Anger on the other hand I believe shows you what you DO NOT WANT.

Anger is not a good energy and not one I want to cultivate but it has risen within me to boiling point recently. Its horrible its on me, around me, festering and I want to shake it off.

Now I must say that I am glad I am not a compulsive or self destructive person or I might be devouring entire chocolate cakes, cleaning compulsively, smoking, drinking or gambling - perhaps all of them at one time. It is possible if you think about it.

So what can one do with this pernicious force that sucks the energy from you as it courses through your entire being. Ugh! I usually try to acknowledge what it is what the root cause is. I try not to inflict it on others although my happy go lucky positive persona suffers and its me suffering deep down in here. So what do you do with it? Mammoth Anger.

Anger is a rejection of the current status, its not how you want to see things or have things go. Small and large things and factors play into this, life changing and trivial. Sickness, poor health, expectations not being met, rejection, disappointment, hurt...stuff we...no one wants. The picture clashes with our perception, its not turning out right, its all wrong, the result, anger! Sometimes sadness or withdrawal can be a result but if its aggravating you or short changing you enough it manifests as anger!

So we are now wresting and in the grip of an uncomfortable partner. If only we could disconnect and walk away from it. Sometimes with grace and acceptance we can but if it makes you really angry it requires change.

ANGER can be extinguished by CHANGE.

Change what it is you are angry about, change the dynamic, change the image, keep at it till its closer to what you WANT. Hack at it, tweek it, work at it, refine it, give it consistent attention till you can turn it around or at least live without the negative effect of anger.

Perhaps things change against our will... then your only option is to keep making more change - till you are happy with the outcome. Sometimes the change is mammoth - what is a mammoth but a collection of minuscule molecules? Break it down!

I have been chipping away at my own mammoth trying to break it all down, shift what I don't want to get it to resemble what I do want. For many many many years some of us choose to play small, or meek, the eunuch, the guileless, the giving, the sacrificial, the scaffold for others lives. We invest and expect returns be they emotional, financial or the most valuable the time we can never reclaim.

Anger is your enemy but like many negatives it can be turned around and can become also be a most powerful motivator. Like many things we don't want, it just depends on what you do with it. 

Anger requires change to shift it. Change often presents FEAR.

What do we do with fear? Do we play small, that's one way to deal with it and I dare say its the most popular choice made in reaction to fear by far. Or we can stand tall and push the fear away. WE can overcome the boundaries and barriers placed by ourselves to suit others and break free. Those who love you will continue to love you and with authenticity and action you may find a greater you. A you that's much easier to love, that is more loving and open.

'All of Me' by Lisadee

So go ahead stand tall! Be who and what you are be the best you. Go for what you want and desire in life, there will be challenges that's guaranteed, but keep chunking, keep breaking the Mammoth down. Surely we can move a Mammoth bit by bit, bone by bone, we might have to develop skills and be inventive, perhaps separate the hair, the bone, the tusks. Face all that nasty stuff. We can always wash our hands afterward anyway.

I have dealt with a few Mammoths they come in all sorts of guises they tend to get in your way - annoying buggers they are. You can walk around them in hallways have them in your car as you drive but there is only way to get it out of the way...break it down and move it!

Untitled by Lisadee

Once you know whats really annoying you - the cause of your anger you can stop being small and decide to dismantle the beast, its not easy but I will tell you from experience its easier to live with yourself once you decide to start rather than the prospect of squirming indefinitely. They are your options - you choose.

Break the process down, just start.

Then dust yourself off, wash your hands, you will have a lot more space and new cleared energy...
and then and only then can you stand TALL.

Our Deepest Fear

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

 

The inspiring Tony Robbins

>>> The Pain Growth Resistance Game <<<

I have recently spent some time reacquainting myself with some self help guru's...

stick with me.

It is interesting how life can knock you off course. For myself I had a firm instinctual vision of what I was going to achieve and the arrogance of youth (which is to be cherished) I had an unshakable belief in what I was going to achieve. It was so certain so determined in my life path that there was no question - it just had not occurred yet.

25 years later...

I am closer than I have ever been to achieving that than ever but the path I took was unforeseen and was incredibly difficult terrain. My limits were tested on every level in regards to resourcefulness. Every level. The path was convoluted and enjoyable but lead me far off course and very far from my initial goals, strangely enough however after a very turbulent period I have washed up on a shore in the place I have always wanted to be.

Now my wee brain has to catch up.

Sometimes we are 'fitter while in the fight' another term I have coined. We are on guard, at the ready, defences up, alert, hyper vigilant and not missing a thing. All our senses are engaged.

Whether the battle be a personal, professional, financial, physical, emotional, psychological one - it usually is never a solo one usually they are at least paired the battle itself for the most part exists inside.

Sometimes the battle goes on so long that once we have left that place our emotions or state want to wrestle us back inside the not so great trenches. The battle ceases to be one created from external forces and it becomes one we must firmly decide. Through habit the mind wants to be back in the trenches - what a waste of time.

Some people seek the same issue out so they never have to put the 'rock of pain' down, they just change rocks...the same experience in a different guise. Self sabotage and repetitious self flagellation - a comfortable or at least familiar 'head fellow'.

Speaking of 'head fellow' - yes another of mine, it is the same as bed fellow, who you chose to lay down with at night and wake up with is always the mind. Your head fellow can be your best friend love and nurture you or berate and second guess you. So I ask you what head fellow would you willingly befriend if you met them? Who would you make your friend? The one that wants to drag you into a mental trench or the one that reminds you to watch your step keep away from the muddy rut?

Honestly if I could book into a clinic or hospital for a day procedure to rid me of any negative thought or habit I would - I imagine it as small as a pea. Tell the doctor to whip it out!

Like I said I am so close to my dream there is no point in engaging the negative but occasionally it comes back. So why would an intelligent person find it so difficult to put the Pain rock down, cut out the black misery pea? Mind you some people have misery rocks and they make love to them they carress and entertain them, they cant live without them and as silly as it may sound some people just cant expel that 10mm misery pea - WHY?

Simple they need to make friends with their head fellow and the person you cant avoid yourself.

I never saw myself as a loser or a person who does ill towards other nor do I consider myself selfish, I am altruistic and kind. I am a giver, a lover, a nurturer, creative. I am expressive, resourceful and at times after my long convoluted journey recall in my mind that arrogance of youth and am just as certain that I am making it happen.

Sometimes the pain before the break through - before we give up on treating ourselves badly can be excruitiating before we can 'put it down' and move on, we are afraid there is a reluctance and fear - what will you hold on to if you place the pain down and walk away, what if you give up wrestling with yourself, what then?

You HAVE to face yourself - but you just might like what you see.

Tony Robbins on Google +
This is quite a long clip and examines why it was hard for these individuals to cut out the peas, put down the rocks and some were phenomenally substantial and deal with the pain associated with growth.