Monday Morning Motivator: ONE CHIP AT A TIME...

ONE CHIP AT A TIME...

Well, this is definitely where the rubber meets the road. This is the moment: the dawn of a brand new, fresh, clean, never-before-touched, wide open year.  No die has been cast; no promises have been made - or broken. Absolutely anything is possible. And it’s all yours for the taking, for the creating. So if it were really, really good...what would that look like? I’m not talking about a year that’s “not all that bad,” or one that’s “at least better than last year,” I mean one that goes down in your personal/professional history book as one of the all-time greats. So how do we make that happen?

You may have heard this story about Michelangelo: Soon after he’d finished sculpting the statue of David, word went out throughout Europe and beyond that this was his greatest, greatest work. As the story goes, a rich patron of the arts who lived perhaps a hundred miles away, heard these raves and thought to himself, “I’m sure it’s spectacular but good heavens, can it actually be that good??” So he sent a note to Michelangelo saying, “Might I come to your studio and see this David of yours?” Michelangelo wrote back and said, “By all means come. I’d be delighted to present David to you."

When the man arrived at the studio, Michelangelo said, pointing to the statue, “There’s David...there.” His visitor was so overcome by the beauty and perfection of David that he was speechless. When he finally recovered himself, he said to Michelangelo, “I don’t understand, how...how did you know to sculpt David?” And Michelangelo said these famous words: “Oh, David was always there...in the marble. I just took away everything that was not David.”

This is the moment to chisel our way out of the marble - or “life plaque” as I call it - that we’ve packed around ourselves during the last year; to take away anything and everything that does not reflect who we are now, what we’re capable of now, what we’re passionate about now, to actually reveal ourselves - to ourselves...and to others. And that means we need to let go of all the stuff - physical or emotional - that would drag us down, hold us back, curb our enthusiasm or sap our energy. Not surprisingly, this is the moment when I invite everyone I know to, you guessed it,  “throw out fifty things.” Believe me, you’ll feel like a million bucks when you do. (Oh, and magazines and catalogs only count as one thing, okay?)

So here are just a few suggestions to help you make it to the magic “fifty." In addition to the junk in the kitchen drawer, the old meds in your medicine cabinet for old diseases (bad karma) and the mismatched socks and single glove (okay it’s leather, throw it out anyway!),  how about deleting the fear that you’re not good enough (you are), smart enough (you’re plenty smart, okay?), rich enough (oh,c’mon...) or good looking enough (believe me, you are...) How about letting go of thinking everyone has to buy your act? (Remember if enough people love ya the ones who don’t, don’t matter.) How about letting go of being right about how wrong everything is? Hey, you can have chiseled on your tombstone, “I was right!” but then what? How about dumping the belief that your best days are behind you...because the fact is, your greatest work is ahead of you. Oh, and how about letting go of "waiting for the sign”... to tell you when  to “lay it out there?” Because here’s another fact: If you’ve been waiting for the sign, this it. 

Got your chisel? All it takes is one chip at a time...to create a masterpiece.

Gail Blanke’s Lifedesigns©2014 All Rights Reserved

To Listen to this Motivator, Click Here: http://recordings.freeconferencecalling.com/mp3/217243/217243/MN348...