“Around the Corner”
Sing along, “Around the corner, something’s coming, something good….. I don’t what it is but it is gonna be great.” West Side Story
A cyclist is taught several techniques for going around sharp curves and hairpin turns to maximize speed and safety. One of these techniques is where you look. If you look down, which is the natural tendency, your balance is compromised and therefore you may fall. The cyclist is taught to look about fifteen feet ahead. The body will follow what the eyes see and balance itself.
There is a lesson from this technique for all of us in our everyday lives . If you are always looking down, you will only see where you are and this could cause you to stay where you are. If you always look at least a little bit ahead, you can stay balanced and continue to move forward towards realizing your dreams and goals. If you are not looking forward now, you will be looking back later.
“A lesson from a bicycle: one can only maintain balance by moving forward.” – Albert Einstein
“Our thoughts create our reality — where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.” – Peter McWilliams
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road. . . . unless you fail to make the turn.” — Unknown
More, More, More
A lesson we can learn from the accomplishments of an Olympic medal winner is that the athlete then sets his/her sights higher. They do not rest on their laurels. They strive to continue to improve and do better.
As we accomplish some of our goals in line with our purpose and our climb, we still have much more to do and much more that we are capable of doing.
“From compromise and things half done, Keep me with stern and stubborn pride; And when at last the fight is won, G-d, keep me still unsatisfied.” – Louis Untermeyer
see the related posts in the Am I There Yet series
How You Can Be A Gold Medalist
As we watch the Olympics we are marveled by the level of performance of all the athletes. We think about all of the (s)training and commitment of these athletes as they explore their fullest potential. We are in awe of those that earn a gold medal. We wonder what it must feel like to be for at least “one moment in time” (a Whitney Houston song) the best in the world.
Most of us cannot be an Olympic Gold Medalist, although we can and should try if it is something we are passionate about, for how else would you know for sure.
Yet there is something that you can be the best in the world at that no one else can. That is being YOU. You can in each and everything that you do explore your fullest potential and discover the person you were destined and created to become.
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“May you use all of your possibilities for the benefit of many.” – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Read below the related Oldie But Goodie of 2/20/12
Competing With Yourself
The truest competition is not the out doing of another; rather it is the out doing of our present selves. To discover our purpose we must constantly mine and discover our potential (see Limits of Unlimited Potential). Our goal is to tap into all of our potential available at that moment, in all that we do. From athletics to relationships to….. Each time we do that, we find we are capable of more. A champion is not necessarily number one, but is one who gives their all at every moment in all they do.
When the great Rabbi Zusha was on his deathbed, He was surrounded by family, friends, and students. They saw him crying and asked if he was crying because he feared death. He explained that he wasn’t afraid of dying. He was afraid that when he died and met G-d, he wouldn’t be asked why he wasn’t more like Moses or Abraham; he would be asked why he wasn’t more like Zusha.
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.” – Mikhail Baryshnikov
You Don’t Always Get What You Want
Just like holding on to pain caused by another, we hold ourselves back due to pain caused by events of our past. Re-framing our thoughts to recognize that we may not have wanted to go through what we went through, but needed to, can be liberating. Sing along with me “You can’t always get what you want” The Rolling Stones
“In a desert, there is always sunshine, but for growth you need rain, and for creativity you need thunderstorms.” – unattributed
An Oldie but Goodie, originally sent 3/28/11
High Anxiety
It is said that the true cause of anxiety, anger, depression, etc. (chemical and hormonal imbalances aside) is that the life one leads is not in sync with their soul/sole purpose. These maladies are caused by our struggle between two opposing forces within us. One that wants its wants and the one that needs what it is needed for (read here). We can have our wants, not just because we want them, but so they enable us to better attend to our needed for’s. When we are true to our true purpose, then the life we lead is in harmony with why we are here and what we are needed for.
“Once you have found that which you are needed for you will have all that you need.”
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Unknown
“The difference between need and want is the difference between soul and ego.” – Rabbi Laibl Wolf
An Oldie But Goodie originally posted 11/28/11
“If Unique Is What You Seek”
In order to discover you and be you, you have to be willing to be unique.
A person in marketing looks to create a niche for their product or service. The marketing person looks to differentiate their product or service from the competition by adding some additional value to their product or service.
Be a niche person and add some additional value. If you don’t differentiate, then it’s like coming to a party empty handed. What if everyone brought the same dish to a pot-luck?
As long as you are confident that what you do is morally and ethically correct, then dare to be unique.
Think for yourself
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.” – Jose Marti
The mind of each man is as unique as his face. — Talmud
“We think so because other people all think so; or because — or because, after all, we do think so; or because we were told so, and think we must think so; or because we once thought so, and think we still think so; or because, having thought so, we think we will think so.” – Henry Sidgwick
The person living inside the flesh and blood body is who you really are
“There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.” – Herman Hesse
Happy Independence Day
On this day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. It said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This was a novel experiment in building a nation based on individual rights and freedom. Without these rights and freedom we could not pursue our dreams and our individual purpose. Something else to be grateful for! May we use our freedom to fulfill our greatest human potential.
G-d Bless America
The Spinning Rabbi - Heart & Soul 