What Would You Give Up To Achieve Success????

That question was posed to a small group of us gathered to focus on being better leaders of our lives. Would that the query was as simple as it appears in this blog’s title. At the heart of the idea was what achievement would you let go of so that you could accomplish more?

That had me stumped. I was to pick out one thing that had been of great value to me and had helped me get to where I am now and willingly place it on the altar and take its life. My mind went running for the hills, my ego put its fingers to its ears and started mumbling, “la-la-la-la-la.”

But the seed had been planted and my higher self embraced the challenge. If I want to become a really good writer (who gets published, I might add), then which of my babies would I cast from shore?

The ego set out to sabotage my mission by assaulting me with a steady stream of maligning chatter. What achievements? What good qualities? But like a gladiator determined to stay alive, I battled valiantly to defeat my ego and cross the river from denial to revelation.

If I am to be a better writer I must release myself from being “The Can-do Girl.” For as long as I can remember, I have been the dependable one, the problem solver, the nurse-maid, the grand juggler of multi-tasking. These are qualities that have served me well since I was a child, in the middle between a down-syndrome brother and a baby sister with chronic asthma. I carried these traits with me as I rose through the ranks in Hollywood, eventually becoming an animation producer/director.

But I had to admit that being so competent at keeping things in order, paying the bills, producing Thanksgiving dinner for 17 and, and, and… ate up a lot of time and had fortified my left brain into the dominant driver of my existence.

Then came the AHA moment, that I need my right brain to take charge if I want to increase my intuitive processes. I need to dream more and “do” less (of the mundane and practical).

OMG!!! I was onto something. So I told my left brain it either had to step back or shove off. I turned over bill paying to my husband and began to let the order around me slip away. I even started forgetting where I needed to be and when. HALLELUJAH!! I laughed out loud as I realized how quickly my mind was shifting.

I have to confess that I did use my left brain to delegate which days I can do menial tasks and which days I can’t. But if I start thinking about logistics in too much detail, I quickly shut off the valve and return to playing. It’s a revelation. I take a long walk everyday and allow myself to dream and imagine and think about anything except what are we going to have for dinner tonight.

I’d love to hear what you’ve decided to give up to become a more creative writer, painter, potter, or being.

Happy dreaming…  Lynne