Mari's Blog: I DIDN'T DIE

Thursday, October 3, 2013

I DIDN'T DIE

This may become a trend, I'm not sure, but this is what I love right now. What the heck am I talking about you ask?? I'm talking about Oprah's Supersoul Sunday guests--love them.

Coincidentally, her featured guest had shown up on my radar about two weeks ago and I was determined to buy his book. But then, I got sidetracked and I didn't get it. But leave it to the world to nudge me again, and so he showed up on Supersoul Sunday. I'm referring to Steven Pressfield.

He spoke about lots of amazing things, however, I will touch upon one topic that slapped me in the face.

He spoke about Resistance. Resistance is what happens when you try to move from a lower level to a higher level. In other words when you've decided enough is enough, I want a change, and in that moment you decide on all the great things you're going to do. You write out a detailed plan of exactly how you're going to better yourself, THEN SOMETHING HAPPENS that interferes with every single thing you've just written out. That my friends is Resistance, and it is THEN when you MUST KEEP GOING, because it is THEN when you will OBTAIN the very change you're seeking for.

I'll give you a quick example. One of my biggest blocks in my life is the fear of public speaking.

Yeah.. ironic since I am a writer and I have this little blog here and I hope to someday be able to bring my message to the masses in person, on stage, around the world. So you see how a fear of public speaking could really be an obstacle in my life.

Anyway, I recently decided to go back to school, and get a degree in creative writing, but because of some unforeseen problems, I had to register late and the classes that were open were very scarce. But, I was determined to start this semester. In addition, I'm under some really strict rules by the school that I cannot fail any classes or I will lose my funding. So in search of classes I found that the only classes available were three classes that required me to TO SPEAK IN FRONT OF THE CLASS. Can you believe it!!! Not one class, but all three. Now what to do?? Here were my options.

1. Die
2. Don't start school
3. Just do it

I decided dying was not really going to work for me, so I decided to just DO IT... and yesterday was my first day back in school after 10 years...

Thank you, thank you.

But what was even better, was that for the first time in my life I had a completely different approach to this public speaking business. I eliminated any negative talk AND I didn't envision a terrible outcome at the end of my speaking. Instead, I VOLUNTEERED to SPEAK FIRST IN BOTH CLASSES. (I have the third class today) That's right! I pushed through the Resistance because I have a big goal and I won't stop til I reach it. The more I push through and get through every uncomfortable speaking situation is a step closer to my goal.

So once again, here I go encouraging you to go outside your comfort zone because what you call "your comfort zone" is what's keeping you from fulfilling your souls true calling in life. Steven Pressfield says something like this, if you could live your life according to the dictates of your soul then your life would be completely different than what it is today. Ponder that for while.