Christmas is over for another year and as our our thoughts move to plans for 2016, I’m thinking over the idea of Recovering a Sense of Possibility.
For the next week I’m working through Chapter Five of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.
Too often we look at the past year and bemoan all the things we didn’t do or that we did badly or we just plain forgot to do. In the process we may feel fear or pressure or powerlessness in the face of New Year Resolutions and develop paralysis. Paralysis of possibility.
Intention, goal-setting and even planning are all essential, but unless we believe in possibility it will come to naught.
Over the last year I’ve studied Brené Brown’s books, developed a manifesto of the brave and brokenhearted, been inspired by the Big Magic of Elizabeth Gilbert and found The Artist’s Way with Julia Cameron and now I’m crafting my life into a work of art by developing my Artisan Soul with Erwin McManus.
Along the way, I’ve found that there are often roadblocks that I believed were shut doors. Doors no longer open to me. However, in studying this chapter I’ve realised that there is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take. Peter Drucker
Lesson One: What we discount as crazy or impossible might just be the thing we need to to do.
Recovering a sense of possibility is not what I thought it was going to be about. It’s a spiritual thing and requires more faith than I realised.
We unconsciously set a limit on how much God can give us or help us. We are stingy with ourselves. And if we receive a gift beyond our imagining, we often send it back. Julia Cameron
What does this look like in my life?
When I let my mind go beyond the boundaries of money, time, resources, opportunity and imagine what is possible there are some things that make my heart sing.
Then, life, real life, reality bites and those imaginings are relegated to the dark recesses of my mind into a place I call dreams.
Nitty Gritty: I’ve written previously about my nemesis and I’m still struggling with it. Fear of success, fear of rejection—fear has held me back. In my dream-filled moments I can see that book published and successful. I’m not being arrogant. A part of me clings to a sense of possibility.
Recovering a sense of possibility means recovering those dreams relegated to the dark recesses, taking off the labels of crazy or impossible and re-launching them into now.
