The Death of Someday

Posted on December 28, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 37 Conversations

Day 28 – Vocabulary

If you could eliminate one word from your brain forever—what would it be?

If you’ve read anything I’ve written the past year or even just my online bio, you’ll know that the word I’d eliminate is someday.

some·day

– at some unspecified time in the (distant) future

How I detest that word.

It lets you off the hook, not responsible for your life and makes me cringe with distaste. It calls to mind a funeral I attended a few years ago.

I saw people cry, full of regrets for what might have been with the deceased. I heard people make promises of how it would be different, maybe not right then and there, but someday.

Those promises? Soon forgotten.

I’m not immune to someday.

Everyone falls prey to it sometimes and I’ve had my periods of inaction and stuckness. I’ve also kicked my someday thinking to the curb on many occasions:

Someday I’ll be more athletic. ==> I ran a half marathon at 34, one year after knee surgery.
Someday I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up. ==>I found my calling as a coach at 37, and a new calling as a writer at 47.
Someday I’ll write a book, even though I’m still not sure of the topic. ==> 2012 is the year this will happen.

Someday is a dream killer.

It will kill your dreams in a heartbeat if you let it. These 3 tips can help you avoid that regretful outcome!

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Threads of Creativity

Posted on December 24, 2011April 16, 2014 by Sandi Amorim 7 Conversations

Day 24 – Creativity

If you think of your life as a tapestry, what are the threads that have been with you as long as you can remember?

My primary thread has been creativity. The colour of the thread nay have changed over the years as I moved from painting and printmaking to photography and now writing, but the thread has been consistent.

It’s how I express myself, and what feels most natural to me.

elderly Hispanic woman creating ceramics at Jackalope, New Mexico

Like this woman I came upon at a market in Santa Fe last year, I’m positive I will still be expressing my creativity as I get older. It’s part of who I am.

But how about you?

Do you own and acknowledge your creative gifts?

Or do you believe you are not creative?

Maybe you were told as a child that you were no good at drawing, writing, painting. . .fill in the blank.

It’s sad when that happens, when an adult says something that damages a child’s belief in themselves.

What if that adult was wrong?

cre·a·tiv·i·ty

– characterized by originality of thought; having or showing imagination: a creative mind

We are all creative in some way and just because you can’t draw a stick figure to save your life doesn’t make you less so.

Picasso said, “The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.”

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Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Posted on December 17, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 20 Conversations

Day 17 – Saying No

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” – Dr. Lissa Rankin

You’re so good at. . .

You should be a. . .

No one else can do it like you. . .

We need you to do it. . .

Nothing new here, you’ve heard it all before.

You have things you can do, things you’re good at, maybe even things you’re better at than anyone else. But unless you feel good about doing them it’s time to start saying NO.

True story:

Before I became a coach, I did many different jobs and I was good at pretty much anything I tried.

There was the year I worked for a publishing representative. I love reading and writing and I had a lifelong love affair with books. What more could I ask for? Nope, not for me.

Then there was the year I did research and development for a post-secondary institution. Loved the challenge of finding the right material, enjoyed supporting the instructors in creating their courses and was pretty brilliant at it, if I do say so myself. But did it light me up and make my soul sing? Nope, not a peep.

Two years of freelance photography and being my own boss. . .this was it, right? Nope, not even this, although it came closer than anything else I’d tried.

Each time I was lured by the challenge, seduced by the feedback that I was doing a great job and lulled by security.

But here’s the thing I knew in my gut and ignored. . .

None of that work came close to touching my soul or using my own particular genius.

I was just good at it.

Being good at something truly doesn’t mean you should be doing it.

“Lean in. Listen up. Closely.
It’s your soul speaking and she says,
Get UP! I need you. I want you. I am you. Choose me.
Lean in. Listen up. Closely.” – Danielle LaPorte

Are you willing to listen that closely?

Right here, right now, listen up.

L I S T E N.

Your soul’s been speaking for a very long time. It might sound like a whisper, butterflies stirring, or a long slow breath.

Take a good, long look in the mirror.

Is that the expression of someone who is lit up and inspired by life?

If your answer is yes, celebrate! It takes courage to shine that brightly.

If your answer is no, consider it’s time to start saying no so that you can say YES to the genius burning inside you.

You are ready.

Over to you:

In 2012. . .

What’s on your “stop doing just because you’re good at it” list?
What’s on your “hell yeah, that sets my soul on fire” list?

You owe it to your genius to find out.

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

A Lesson In Breathing

Posted on December 14, 2011October 15, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 17 Conversations

A Lesson In Breathing

breathe in, breathe out,

just one moment

hand on heart,

and breathe.

notice,

shallow, deep,

taken for granted.

lengthen, deepen,

breathe.

inhale, exhale,

thinking unneeded.

this moment,

not another,

here, now,

just breathe.

Day 14 – Breathe

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

The Darkness of Fear

Posted on December 13, 2011October 16, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 15 Conversations

Fear.

It bubbles up uninvited in the middle of the night like slow-moving lava, so hot it burns through everything in its path.

Burning, it makes room for a host of dark allies: doubt, cynicism, resignation.

You can’t breathe, your heart beats faster and your mind? It’s way ahead, having conjured up some grisly outcome worthy of Masterpiece Theatre.

Oh wait. . .

That was me in the middle of the night imagining various worst case scenarios of a health challenge that arose this year!

And I am (like you) so very good at worst case scenarios, thanks to my old friend the lizard brain.

Back to fear. . .

Fear has a tendency to stop you.

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A Recipe for Soul Food

Posted on December 10, 2011January 26, 2013 by Sandi Amorim 9 Conversations

My soul is nourished by a generous helping of the following ingredients:

a period of silence and solitude

+

space to breathe

+

time with my Self

+

beauty to stir my spirit

=

soul food of the most nourishing kind

“Dreams nourish the soul just as food nourishes the body.” – Paulo Coelho

Repeat as needed.

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

This post was prompted by Day 10 – Soul Food: How do you nourish your soul?

Lessons & Reverberations

Posted on December 3, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 13 Conversations

The biggest lesson of 2011 was this. . .

You have to live in the now.

I know you’ve heard it before, but we all need reminding now and then. You simply can’t wait for a health crisis or any other kind of emergency before pursuing what you want in life.

When my father-in-law died suddenly last January, it was a wake-up call like no other. It lit a fire that caused a ripple effect throughout my life and business. And even though I’d thought this before, in an instant it became more real. . .

There is no someday.

It went from an intellectual concept to a burning desire to wake people up.

That is a lesson I can never forget. Its learning can never be undone. Ever.

Some days I don’t know if I’m up to this calling.

I think, who am I to wake people up?

And then I hear, who am I not to?

Because the alternative – people continuing to live and die with regrets – has become unbearable. Continue reading →