Jan 27 REAL FAILURES ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN FAKE SUCCESSES.

Affirmation: Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

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Wholehearted Guidepost from Brené Brown 

Cultivate Creativity. Let go of Comparison.

PERMISSION SLIPS

As we learned in Part 1, permission slips are an important tool on your journey to wholeheartedness.

When you're doing something scary that you don't normally do, what do you have to give yourself permission to do?

RECOMMENDED MATERIALS

Your journal, some sticky notes, and permanent markers or a pencil.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Open your journal to any page. Think about everything that is intimidating or scary to you right now about embarking on this course. What do you need to give yourself permission to do?

2. Complete the sentence "I give myself permission to ___________." Then, write it down on a sticky note. Use as many notes as you need and stick them in your journal.

3. Sometimes, giving ourselves permission to do something new, scary or different—or permission to take care of ourselves and make time when we don't believe time exists—constitutes our boldest acts of courage. As you go through the class, revisit this page and write more permission slips as needed.

"I AM A CREATIVE BEING" SIGN & SELF PORTRAIT

Turn this lesson's intention €”"I am a creative being" €”into practice.

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Mastering the 7 Decisions from Andy Andrews 

The Joyful Decision 

5. TODAY I WILL CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY.

Happiness is a choice. I am enthusiastic about each day. I am alert to its possibilities.

I will become the master of my emotions.

I will greet each day with laughter. I know that enthusiasm is the fuel that moves the world.

The world belongs to the enthusiastic, for people will follow them anywhere! My smile has become my calling card. It is, after all, the most important weapon I possess. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit. 

Joyful Decision

Today, I choose to be happy.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love by Bob Goff

Jan. 27

REAL FAILURES ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN FAKE SUCCESSES. DON'T BE AFRAID TO PUT A FEW THINGS ON THE LINE. 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-9 

 

They say that for every one good idea a person has, they had to produce at least forty bad ones to get there. I'm pretty sure the numbers are skewed because my ratio's at least one hundred bad for every good one, but who's counting? Usually when I feel like I've failed, it's because my definition of failure is a little off

 

Sure, we might have to shut the doors on an organization we poured into for years. A vacation we planned for the kids might devolve into a week of petty arguments and ketchup smears all over the car. We might have given our all to college only to find we weren't cut out for the classroom. It doesn't always mean we failed. Sometimes it just means it's time for a change.

 

We often use other people's metrics to define what was a success and what was a failure. Even when our plans fail, we usually realize a lot of people were loved in the process, which was our goal in starting. We ended up crossing paths with people we might never have met if we hadn't put ourselves out there. Sometimes these people even nestle their way into our inner circle.

 

Beyond my faith, the goal I have in life is to find people to share it with. Our ideas are a success if we have more friends when they end. Our failures make us more real too. They give us more in common with everyone else who has experi­enced frustration and loss. You never know: whether it's a small, private failure or a big, public one, the impact our lives will have is sometimes much greater in our failures than in our successes. Try something big. Dust off that big idea you've had. Stop waiting. Don't worry about if it won't work. Be concerned if you won't give it a whirl. I'd rather have a couple of ideas fail than a faith that won't try.

 

What failure in your life do you need to redefine?