Monday, February 27, 2012

TOW: Lenten Values

This Lent I'm not working on giving things up.  This Lent I'm working on readjusting a few things. 


Lent is a time for giving up, it's true, but it's also a time of spiritual strengthening.  We do our training during the desert time of Lent.  And the beauty of that is that with time, we become, much, more fulfilled people by what we gave up or resisted.  It's like a very specific self-help program, once a year.

But the focus of Lent has always been, and will always be for me, about values.  What things, people, ideas, and causes do you value?  What kind of people do you want in your life and what values do they have? 

Lent is a celebration of becoming better, so that when the worst things happen, we can become better people overall.

VOW: Girl Problems

Monday, February 20, 2012

Giving up versus giving in

Probably one of my favourite Dragon's Den episodes of all time was one where a woman came on and tried to get investors involved in her spice-making business.  The woman had lost nearly $100,000 in it, had spent several years trying to make the business work, and she was looking for investment in something she thought could be a big hit with the right leadership.  The idea was so bad, and it was so poorly managed, that one of the dragons told her, "You're being stupid.  Stop investing money in this business.  It's ruining your life."  

The woman wouldn't give in.  She said she believed in her business, and that it was a great idea, and that

There are times in our life when really, the smartest thing we can do is give up. And sometimes, giving up something doesn't mean we're losers.  Sometimes it means we're giving up the things that we making us losers.  That woman was interviewed a year later...and she said the show gave her the best advice of her life.  She was throwing away her life, and she realized she didn't need to try and make something that didn't work.  She gave it up.  And she was happier.

Giving in is slightly different.  When we give in, we're letting go of our willpower to believe that something is possible, or to give in to what other people want.  Giving in is often a negative choice, and we should never give in, if we can help it.

As we start Lent, I will be giving up a lot of things.  These are conscious decisions I'm going to make to positively impact my future, and to show spiritual fidelity.  It's not easy to make these choices...people will often ask me to give in because it suits them.  But Lent is a time of spiritual renewal.  It is not an easy time nor often a happy time for Catholics.  It's a time to reflect, to be in our 'spiritual desert' so to speak, and to contemplate the greater mysteries. 

So, here's to giving up.

VOW: It's a SNAP!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

TOW: Valentine's Day

The funny thing about Valentine's Day is that everyone wants to be in love, but no one wants to be in a commitment or have responsibilities. 

VOW: Valentine

Sunday, February 05, 2012

TOW: Being Talented

There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure.
Alfred Adler

You know, I watch a lot of reality tv these days, but probably my favourite reality tv shows are competitions like Project Runway or Hell's Kitchen.  

It's hard to say what's so alluring about pitting several different kinds of people together for some kind of reward and watch as many struggle and fail, while others struggle and shine.  Seeing people under a certain kind of boiling point pressure tells you a lot about that person and how they achieve their own kind of success, whatever that means.
 
I think what these shows tell us about human nature is that the best performance, in our minds, are the ones that happen under pressure.  When beautiful and amazing things can come out of difficult circumstances with dire consequences,  we often feel the result is better than if it took an average amount of time, or longer.  Mastery and expertise seem to be about being talented, but what is talent?  Talent is the ability to consistently perform, regardless of circumstances.
 
Our circumstances are always changing, we can't do anything about that.  We're bound by time constraints, deadlines and surprise events that make our lives easier or harder.  But life is not about the circumstantial issues that come and go, rarely staying for but a moment.  We show our ability to be truly talented by demonstrating how we perform under the pressure.  That, seems to be to me, the measure of a person.
 


VOW: Crazy Cows