Be Bold

Bold definition: daring; courageous; not holding back.

Boldness – not hesitating in the face of active or possible danger or rebuff

Some people have too much “wishbone” & not enough “backbone”

Let us allow ourselves to take a quantum leap; let us surrender to a yearning;. Surrender is an unpopular word; I do not mean submit, resign to, loose or defeat. I mean surrender as in yielding and allowing, not giving up.

Examples in my life when I lived out of boldness:

*Although first in my family I got a divorce from my first husband. I later realized that had I stayed in the marriage I probably would have developed cancer.

* I then married a man that had 6 children; with my 3 that totaled 9. The blended family experience turned out to be one of my most difficult yet most rewarding experiences of my life.

* My late husband Norman & I started our own real estate company, Norman Realty Ltd.; not known for its size but for its people, just him and I. People said we would come crawling back to the firm we had both worked for. Not everyone will celebrate your victory; most criticism is based on jealousy.

* I accepted total recovery after my near death experience in 1977. More about that later

* I listened to my heart and left real estate and became a New Thought minister.

* I Founded the Edmonton Centre for Self Awareness

* We moved to Victoria where we only knew 2 people and I founded the Victoria Centre for Self Awareness.

Remember if people try to run you down or out of town, get in front and lead the parade.

Stewart Emery said “It’s remarkable how much mediocrity we live with, surrounding ourselves with daily reminders that the average is acceptable. Our world suffers from terminal normality. The first step to mastery is the removal of everything in your environment that represents mediocrity. Remove those things that are limiting. One way is to surround yourself with friends who ask more of you than you do”.

Walt Whitman boldly advised, “dismiss whatever insults your soul”. As you let go of what isn’t you some uncomfortable issues may surface. Others may say that you aren’t the person they thought you were. That is actually true.

One of my favourite authors is Alan Cohen who invited us to make waves around us; “Go ahead, an entire ocean awaits”.

Universal Intelligence didn’t make a mistake when extending itself in creativity and birthing you. Say yes to life and realize someday is not on the calendar. Face any obstacle with courage and boldness.

The Beatles were turned down by two recording companies before Capitol took them on. Richard Hookers who wrote the war novel “ Mash” was rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow published it. In 1959 Universal Pictures dismissed Clint Eastwood saying “your adam’s apple sticks out too far” and to Burt Reynolds “you have no talent”. In 1954 Jimmy Denny, the manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired Elvis Presley after one performance saying ”you ain’t going nowhere” Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but President Hays said “It’s an amazing invention, but who would want to use one of these things”.

Neale Donald Walsh said “kill passion and you attempt to kill God. Passion is God wanting to say Hi”.

There is an enormous redwood tree in the Sequoia National Park in California called General Sherman. It is 276 feet 8 inches tall (that is taller than a 25 story building); and is 35 feet 9 inches across with a circumference of 103 feet, it would take 17 large men locking hands to encircle this tree. One branch reaches 135 feet in the air and is 7 feet in diameter. There is enough lumber in it to build 300, 5 room bungalows; it would take 110 railway train cars to haul all the foliage and lumber from General Sherman. It is estimated to be 3,000 years old yet it grew from a seed 3/1000th of an ounce, a seed so small that it could become lost in a crease in the palm of your hand.

Question: Do you think the Infinite Intelligence of the universe would give a greater potential to a tree than to you and me? The saying goes that within us is a great potential. I maintain that we are immersed in this great potential which can be developed and expressed.

One of my favourite quotations is from Anais Nin: ” and the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”. Kerry Stevens said something similar: “There comes a time when the fear of remaining the same becomes greater than the fear of changing”.

Rev. Marin Luther King Jr. said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”.

Stop living on the “Someday Isle”; the isle of it won’t be long now; it’s just around the corner; pretty soon; let us see what happens. Let “some day” and “one of these days” loose their grip on your vocabulary.

More examples of “someday”:

I’ll release weight; stop drinking; stop smoking; write a book; compose a song; play an instrument; paint a picture; take that course; go on that trip; when my ship comes in; when the kids are grown; when the car is paid; when the mortgage is paid; when I retire.

Someday I’ll let others know that I’m lonely. Someday I’ll get help, see a therapist. Someday I’ll end the relationship that is abusive. Someday I will start telling the absolute truth.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday, avoiding today and fearing the future. What you won’t walk away from is where you stop growing.

An indispensable and indisputable first step of getting, doing what you want is to decide what you really desire; what is in your heart and to tell the truth to yourself.

Don’t wait to fall in love to be loving; walk out of your home in love. My favourite affirmation that I speak every morning is “ I love the life I live and I live the life I love”.

If you are in relationship do not wait until Saturday night or when you and your partner go on vacation to be loving. Author Barbara de Angelis maintains that to make every day count, make love all the time, then you can be sure you will stay in love with each other.

After my Mother died when I was 16 I was sent to live with an uncle and aunt. They taught me a very important lesson. Whenever they would go out separately, whether to the corner store, across the city or province (or I might add anywhere in the world), they would always embrace and kiss. My husband Jon and I do that all the time. We also hug and kiss when we get up in the morning, even though I usually get up before him; when he comes into the room that I am in, we greet each other with a hug and kiss.

Dr. Bernie Siegle in his book Peace, Love and Healing said “men, women and children who have looked death in the face are often those who know the most about living. Their message is “I learned I was going to die and so I decided to live until I died”. They interpreted their diagnosis not as a sentence, but as a message to fully live.

Say Yes to life. When we are saying yes to life, we are saying no to something else. It is easy to say no when there is a burning yes hidden. Are you saying yes to living a vibrant, healthy, long life? Are you saying yes to more intimate relationships? Are you saying yes to a prosperous life? Are you saying yes to living free from barriers and restrictions? Are you saying yes to truly knowing yourself? These are all important questions to ask ourselves.

Have you let, allowed a disappointment or a seeming failure stop you in life? Let the doors of disappointment or seeming failure totally and completely close. Allow yourself to give birth to more in the future than you supposedly lost in the past; don’t look at those things as an ending; realize it means a new beginning. It is not about beginning again; it is about beginning anew. Even if all doors are closed; a window will open.

We all have areas where we can come up higher. Everything we need to live a victorious life of empowered relationships, healthy habits and the impetus to live abundantly are already innate within us and can take us to places in consciousness, in relationship and living fully Self expressed. We couldn’t have a dream in our hearts if we didn’t already have everything, already equipped to accomplish them. Tightrope walkers know how important it is to keep focused, their eyes are on where they are going, they never look down. The fastest and easiest way to bring anything you desire in your life is to feel and be happy. It is not selfish to be happy; it is your highest purpose.

I remember Dr. Bernie Siegle saying that if illness or disease comes, if someone else has been healed from it you can be healed too; if no one has been healed from it, you can be the first.

If a relationship has failed, if someone has left you (or even died), out of that rejection can come your greatest direction; it can stretch you to your next level, it can be a key for you to be all you can be. Your destiny isn’t contingent upon people that walk away or those that try to keep you small. When something is finished, no amount of glue can hold it together so let go and get ready for newness; realize that a superior alternative is being prepared.

Don’t let the size, the vastness of your dream that is calling you intimidate you. The dream in your heart may be bigger than the environment which you are in, (the relationship, place of work, even the friends you hang out with). You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a loving, positive, healthy, prosperous life. It is imperative that you place yourself into an environment that is conducive to your dream.

Remember that the only one who can limit your expression and experience is you, the small you that you think you are when you have forgotten who you really are. Live in direct alignment with the Infinite Principle of life – that it responds to you according to your beliefs, intention, and choices. Say yes to life; live in yesness. This important time on earth is calling us for new levels of mastery, of being Self aware. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary lives. Acknowledge the priceless seed of greatness within you; and realize it is never too late.

Walter Starke in his book It’s all God said that because of evolution, we are now able to digest greater bits of science, psychology and spiritual truths than ever before; it is possible now to mature spiritually in what would have taken lifetimes of effort before. Look at children now; they are way ahead of where we were when we were their age. They are becoming computer literate at the age when we were learning the ABCs.

It’s never too late; remember someday isn’t on the calendar. Grandma Moses painted masterpieces when she was 100; Bertrand Russell was 94 when he was active in international peace drives; Rubinstein was 92 when he gave his greatest recital at Carnegie Hall; Albert Schweitzer was 89 when he was head of a hospital in Africa; Sir Winston Churchill was 82 when he wrote the History of English Speaking People and The New World and Beethoven became totally deaf at 46 but wrote his greatest music in his later years.

We can’t have mastery if we think and feel that we don’t deserve it. Some people have had 20, 40 or 60 years of feeling unworthy. I remember years ago when attending the first seminar I had ever taken; it was in Edmonton, Xocess Seminars, led by Leland Val Van DeWall. He said “decide what you want and I’m going to show you exactly how to get it”. When I went home that night I cried because I realized I had never asked myself that question: ”What do I want”.

Become clear what is important in your life. What are your values, your priorities.? What do you savour and I don’t mean food.? Don’t just think these things – ink them, write them down. It’s a process, it takes time, energy and focused concentration.

Remain unperturbed in face of challenges. I think we have all heard to rename a problem a challenge; however imbedded within each challenge is a project.

Victor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning described his experience in a concentration camp. He stated that everything can be taken away except one thing: the freedom to choose our attitude, our response.

A little boy (with a mirror) on his dad’s lap; the dad had a serious look on his face. “Daddy, did God make you?” Dad answered yes. Daddy did God make me?” ;the dad answered yes. The boy looked in the mirror and said” Hum, God seems to be doing a better job these days.”

In closing I want to share with you what Alan Cohen in his wonderful book I had It All the Time shared about “The First Class Flying Ticket”. We could rename it First Class Living. Here it is: