Promise #91: When you leap into the darkness you shed light on your soul

---

---

It’s pretty difficult to physically leap if you don’t spring up from the ground. Try it. Try to leap while you’re standing tall and then try it when you’re squatting down. Chances are you get a better result when you force your body to spring up from down low.

Oddly enough, the same holds true when you just conceptualize leaping. Leaps of faith and leaps into darkness are story-worthy. You gain lessons and insights that are off-limits to non-leapers. And if you ever managed to leap from a point of despair well then your story is priceless.

Many people would rather stay at rock bottom then take a leap of faith. Others would rather chug along doing what they usually do, rather than leaping into the darkness of possibility even though possibility is filled with so much…um…possibility.

I get this. I was raised by a very loving mother and father who, given an ocean of opportunity, would never rock the boat of possibility. In fact, my dad would most likely call to mind the Titanic. Immediately.

In a childish effort to make them crazy, I started leaping as soon as I realized they preferred to remain stationary. And, if you’re prone to leaping then you know, the more you leap, the more likely you are to keep leaping. That is, until life’s responsibilities start to rear their ugly head. That’s when the ship starts sinking.

It took me many years to realize this. Which really isn’t saying much because it took me 40 years to realize that top-shelf liquor really is located on the top shelf in the liquor store. Ahem.

I started getting the itch to leap again when I realized I was anchored by to-dos and to-don’ts. It had nothing to do with a bottle of Stoli. I swear. I just started thinking…why not? What could happen? If you don’t leap into the darkness, will you ever really find the light?

I can safely answer: hell no.

Leap, 29 Empowering Promises Worth Making With Your Soul, is an e-book about finding your light and shining it on your soul. It’s packed with motivational thoughts and ideas to help you reintroduce the notion of risk, the power of growth, the strength of passion.

My dad is aghast. He said he can’t believe that every promise is exactly the opposite of anything he ever tried to teach me. This is true.

Yet, I sail on.

Grab your copy of Leap and the risk-friendly, launch-sale price. And tell me—are you a leaper? What was your greatest leap of all time?

 

Promise #88: Command Attention

---

---

Did you know the best way to command attention from a dog is to simply ignore the dog? No eye contact. No squatting down to say hello. No petting. No weird-baby-dog-talk. Nothing.

Apparently, this lack of interest alerts the dog that you large and in charge. Your body language communicates that you simply can’t be bothered by his neediness. And so, instead of jumping on you he’ll just wander around…sniffing, investigating, circling your b-e-i-n-g in an awestruck-kind-of-way. He’ll still try to get your attention, but he won’t knock you over in the process. He might knock over a garbage can, like my buddy in the picture, but it’s easier to clean up garbage than recover from a fall.

Really. No joke. It works.

The challenge lies in ignoring the dog. It’s difficult to shift your attention when he’s jumping up and down, barking, acting like a crazed puppy.

Sometimes you just can’t help yourself…

The dog jumps and you react. The more you react the more the dog jumps. The dog is in charge of that situation, not you, because the dog is creating an action that gains a response. In an insanely oversimplified way…this makes the dog the leader and you the knee-jerk reactor.

You are what you react to.

We all want to be noticed on some level, by someone. We’re pack creatures, too. In any circle you can find someone in charge and a tribe of followers. As people try to shift positions and get ahead they’re moving forward, or backward, based upon the reactions they receive.

Leadership is a state of mind.

Leaders know what to react to and what to ignore. They know where to focus their attention and how to gain attention for their focus. They move forward with focus and intention.

When they do this their pack responds with shared vision and support for their mission because that’s the only way that the leader will pay attention or pat them on the back or celebrate their brilliance.

This creates a healthy relationship in any zone—home, office, friends, school—because if they’re not reacting to every-single-itty-bitty-attention-grabbing ploy then they’re creating meaningful interactions.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss; other times, it’s just pure brilliance.

 

Promise #81: Occupy Your Own Peace on Earth

---

---

I walked past a wall of Christmas wreaths—at least six feet long and seven feet high—on my way into the grocery store. It’s not the first wall of wreaths I’ve seen, and it won’t be the last. Trouble is, it’s only November 22nd. We haven’t even celebrated Thanksgiving yet here in the states.

Why do we allow this madness to continue year after year after year? So a big box retailer can meet a year-end goal? So our house can be decorated before the first of December? What’s the rush? And why do we continue to care?

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re not marching to our own drum. Can you honestly tell me the people working at Walmart want to deal with crazed Black Friday shoppers at 10 o’clock in the evening ON THE NIGHT BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY? Shouldn’t all those people, workers and shoppers alike, be in a tryptophan coma? Isn’t that coma one of our inalienable human rights?

We spend so much time preparing for this season that we create a world where we can’t be present at all.

What if we refused to buy wreaths before December 1st? What if we didn’t show up for the pre-Black Friday deals? What if we stopped walking around like turkeys? What if we didn’t jump for the carrots? What if we knew, believed, embraced:

“We are unstoppable and another world is possible.”

Would it matter? Would you occupy your own peace on earth?