Thursday, March 12, 2015

When You Make a Change....Give yourself Time to Acclimate

I hope you're havin' a good day. If you're one of the folks who stumbled upon my blog looking for some empowerment and motivation ....then I just might have a wee thought for ya today.

Perhaps you've been reading lots of blogs and books and have started putting some plans of action into place to make a change in your life. It takes a lot of gumption to wake up one day and decide that you don't like where your life is heading and have the courage to steer that boat into a new direction.

So maybe it has been a few months and you now know that it's not easy, but you know that it was the right choice to set your hands to a new plan of action. You've crafted your written list of life goals and now you've actually started to take action on at least one of those written goals.

But now, like many of us mere mortals, you're starting to feel uneasy. You hope that  you are making progress and feel like you're on the right track, but it all feels just soooooo new and strange. The newness and strangeness of it all, is enough to make you run back to your old comforting haunts and back to the ruts you once lived in. I want to encourage you to not give up now. The discomfort you might be feeling is simply your heart and body's way of telling you that it needs time to ACCLIMATE to the new and better direction of your life.

When any human being make s new life choice and starts heading into a more positive direction, it can literally takes years of feeling out of sorts before you start to feel comfortably like yourself again. New things ALWAYS bring a sense of strangeness and discomfort. We aren't used to the new pathways yet and our inner "curmudgeon" might just be griping about all the extreme changes.

But I just want to encourage you today.....just because you're feeling out of sorts doesn't mean that you have made a wrong choice. Take some time to get accustomed to your new way of setting and accomplishing your written goals. It is a very different lifestyle compared to just living from the hip.

Give your mind, will and emotions the rest that they require in order to start to begin to feel at home with your new goal centered life. It may not feel like the real "you" just yet. Give yourself time to get used to the massive changes you have undertaken. Don't doubt yourself and PLEASE don't give up.

If you are writing down goals and taking steps to accomplish them, you are on the right path. May God bless you with wisdom as you adapt to this new lifestyle filled with promise and adventure.

Peaceful productivity,
Carla


Monday, March 9, 2015

What is Frightening about Prayer

I've come to a conclusion today....that what is actually frightening about prayer is not that it is hard or unfruitful or arduous, but rather quite the opposite.
Lately my experience with prayer has been that not only is it easy, but it is soooo fruitful, so very fast and excessively kind, loving and generous that the simple abundance and kindness of God is just so hard to wrap my brain around.

I love God. But sometimes it is just hard to comprehend how very generous and patient and kind He really is. When I spend time in prayer, however briefly or lengthy period of time I spend, it has begun to astonish me how quickly God answers my prayers. His door is sooo open. He is so very welcoming and listens so attentively.

I write these things, not to cause confusion or to invalidate any other kind of experience that you may be having or have had in the past regarding prayer to God. I have had, and probably might have in the future seasons of time when God seems oddly quiet....as if He is waiting me out to get me to do some of my own thinking and make some of my own decisions. God doesn't babysit us forever. There are times He lets us stand alone, for our own good and for the health of our relationship with Him. Mature folks learn how to stand, and kneel and sit and run and play and work and think and write and gallop......shall I go on? ")

There is room for all of your experiences, past and present, with God. He can handle all your fears, frustrations and confusion. He can heal your mind. He can heal your body. He does well for you.

Let it be that this day, you see the hand of your God at work in life today.

Peaceful productivity,
Carla





Authors and Thinkers ....Authors and Thinkers

Yes, we are one and the same. You really can't be an author if you are not a thinker.....and if you are a thinker....then I highly encourage you to become an author.

I have seen around me that there are many many thinkers, but there is a lack of confidence in the common folk, in the leap perceived in jumping from "just thinking and speaking" to thinking and putting onto black and white the written words that you are thinking about.

Perhaps, of course, there is the fear that somehow or in some way one might make a mistake and have written something that is inaccurate at best or even false....at worst.But don't let the fear of making of making a mistake hinder your progress in sharing something of value with the world. We just might need what you have to say. Your thoughts may bring breakthrough to someone half way around the world.

But I want to encourage you, my friends and colleagues around this mighty globe....that you not consider your life as smaller than it needs to be. It came to my attention some years ago, that someone somewhere across the world might actually need my thoughts and inspiration to make their own dreams come true. I  came to see myself as someone that could potentially inspire and motivate others. I sensed that who God had created me to be was not necessarily for the gains of those who know me locally, but perhaps and maybe even more importantly, for those who might never meet me in person, but who will someday and in some format read my words or hear my speeches or songs remotely via recordings on line or otherwise.

It was from either of two documentary films either "Blue Gold" or "Flow" that a mild mannered gentleman from Asia declared softly and quite prophetically that this age is the season "For the common man". This
confirmed what I had begun to sense in my own heart.....that the access granted to us via the internet was and could be maximized as a POWERFUL SUCCESS vehicle where access to capital or people of influence was not necessarily required to gain entry or momentum.

Wisdom always does spread to wherever it is welcomed. Empowerment flows to where it is treasured. Encouragement trickles to starving hearts....no matter where they reside or what their yearly income is....or what their nation's GDP happens to be. May God bless the internet, and keep it open and free.

And so, to sum up my blurts from this early morning chat, I just want to encourage you to take a small step of faith, if indeed you are a thinker, but have not yet made the leap over to calling yourself an author. If you  know that you have good things to share with humanity, then please hear me, my brother, my sister......
YOU MUST WRITE.

Peaceful productivity.
Carla