by Stacey Mayo, The Sentelligent Coach

You were not meant to be in a box and fit in.

You were meant to be uniquely you

And to make a splash in the big pond of life.

So splash away,

Be messy.

Allow it to cause ripples and waves –

We need more waves;

Different waves.

Waves from the heart,

Waves of  creativity,

Waves of love.

Allow it to pour forth from your soul.

And when you do

You will radiate your light into the world

And the world will be a better place as a result.

Life, a Celebration “Once you start rejoicing whatever you are, life takes such psychedelic colors, your each moment becomes so juicy, your whole life becomes a celebration.” ~ OshoOsho Says…, May 2009

Rejoice in who you are.  Look in the mirror and say “I see you”  “I celebrate you”  and “I love you”

When you go out in the world,  leave any masks or thoughts that you need to be someone else to succeed or be liked at home and just be you.

It was written by Doug Stevenson of www.storytelling-in-business.com who gave permission to re-print it here.  Enjoy.

Get Out of Your Own Way

by Doug Stevenson

Why are some people successful and others are not? Why do some people pursue their dreams with relentless determination while others give up before they ever get started?

From my observations, people who succeed get out of their own way and people who fail let self-limiting beliefs, challenges and setbacks get in their way. One of the most common ways that people get in their own way is when they interpret obstacles, limitations or difficulties personally, and therefore they believe that something is wrong with them or that they cannot reach their goal. People who get out of their own way don’t take anything personally! They just get creative and find alternative ways to continue towards their goals.

I’ve been researching successful people and what it took for them to get where they are today. One person who has always intrigued me is Steven Spielberg. His personal story is as fascinating as one of his favorite characters, Indiana Jones.

From my research, I discovered that when Steven was 8 years old, he borrowed his dad’s 8-millimeter movie camera and started shooting anything in front of him. On family vacations, he’d get his family to restage their activities to make the scenes more artistic.

When he was 12, when most guys his age spent their weekends watching Flash Gordon on TV (it was 1958) or playing baseball in the park, Steven was busy pursuing his goal to be the next Cecil B. DeMille. At that time, there were lots of World War II fighter pilot movies – probably all starring John Wayne – so Steven decided to make his first movie a fighter pilot story.

Take An Idea and Run with It.

Without concern that he was only 12 and didn’t have much money, Steven went to the manager of the Phoenix airport and somehow gained his permission to shoot fake dogfight scenes in the cockpits of Vintage airplanes. He got his friends to dress up in army surplus World War II uniforms, splattered them with ketchup for blood, and told them to act like enemy aircraft was shooting at them.

Steven created an editing room – probably in his bedroom or in the basement – and interspersed the badly acted scenes with real documentary footage of midair dogfights. He called his first film, Fighter Squad.

Talk about someone who’s a self-starter! Here is someone with a passion and a strong desire to achieve a goal.

No excuses.

There is more to Steven’s story. As I understand, Steven didn’t have it easy growing up. He was the oldest of four kids, with three younger sisters. His dad was an engineer and his mom was a concert pianist. His family moved three times. His dad worked long hours and was seldom home, and when he was home, it was reported that his parents fought all the time. You can imagine what it must have been like around the dinner table, when his dad was home: lots of arguments and tension.

Steven longed for a father figure in his life. When he tried to connect with his dad, the two of them argued about Steven’s poor grades in school. So Steven escaped into the fantasy world of his movies. In fact, he spent so much of his time making films that he didn’t pay much attention to his studies, which is why he ended up getting C’s instead of the A’s and B’s he was capable of.

His teachers described Steven as an intelligent but awkward and geeky kid who was bullied by the other kids. He was also the only Jew in a very “wasp” neighborhood. And to top it off, he had a strange preoccupation with cameras and movies.

By the time he was 17, he’d made four films. His parents were divorced by now. Steven applied to the two best film schools, UCLA and USC, but his poor grades kept him out. After a summer job as a clerical intern at Universal Studios, he enrolled in Cal State Long Beach. Bored by his classes and anxious to get on with his movie career, he dropped out and began to hang around on the Universal Studios lot where TV shows and movies were being shot.

Push the Limits.

Even though his clerical intern job was over and he no longer had any business being on the lot, Steven knew that the guards would still recognize him, so he dressed in his suit and tie, grabbed an old briefcase, and as if in a scene from Indiana Jones, he walked right up to the gate, waved to the guards and strolled through onto the studio lot.

Once on the lot, he hung around every department he could get into, asking questions. He introduced himself to actors, producers and directors. He watched movies being shot and soaked up everything he could. Years later, he said he probably got kicked off of a set every day. Obviously, rejection didn’t stop him.

View Obstacles as Detours to Success.

Steven was relentless and found creative ways to break the rules and write his own. Eventually, after being on the lot so much, he had people assuming that he worked for someone. With his ruse firmly established, it was time to make the next move. He had an 8-millimeter film that he wanted the studio executives to watch. He got it into their hands, but they told him they’d only look at it if it were shot on 16 millimeter.

Undeterred, he rented a camera and over the weekend made a new film in 16-millimeter. Then they told him not to come back until he shot it in 35-millimeter. Without hesitation, he went home and shot the film again.

Impressed by Steven’s relentless determination, the studio executives agreed to look at it. The 26-minute movie was called Amblin, and it won a prize at the Atlanta film festival. More importantly, though, Universal signed him on a 7-year contract to direct TV and movies. Steven was 22 years old.

Steven Spielberg is the most successful movie director of all time. His films include Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones, ET, Poltergeist, The Color Purple, Shindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

Pursue Your Goal with Relentless Determination – Get Out of Your Own Way!

When Steven didn’t get into the prestigious film schools, he didn’t take the rejection personally. He simply charted a different path to his goal. When he was kicked off of a movie set, he didn’t call the plan a failure. He just moved over to another set. When he was told to shoot his film in another format, he didn’t let the obstacle stop him. He accepted the challenge and shot the film again… and again.

Successful people don’t make excuses. They don’t take rejection personally. They don’t turn limitations into self-limiting beliefs. They pursue their goals with relentless determination. They take chances, break the rules and get out of their own way. They tear down walls and remove the obstacles that others put in their path.

Life is hard enough. Don’t make it harder by building your own walls from the inside and getting in your own way. There are plenty of walls to climb and knock down without you making more. Get out of your own way. If you have a dream, pursue it. If you have a goal, work a little every day to achieve it.

Steven started when he was 8 years old. His dream came true when he was 22. It took him 14 years. If it’s true that it might take awhile for your dream to come true, shouldn’t you get started today?

Get out of your own way.

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For more inspirational stories of remarkable people who reveal proven strategies for living out your dreams,  check out my award- winning book, “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!” by Stacey Mayo

About Stacey Mayo, The Dream Queen

This doesn?t mean to jump without a net, i.e., without any means of support or knowledge of what you are doing. It simply means to take small steps in the direction in which you want to go. It can be tremendously helpful to get support from experienced friends, mentors or coaches to support you in this.

Often people only take on what they know they can do; i.e. they stay within their comfort zone. It is a natural tendency for people to want to stay within their comfort zone even if they are unhappy, simply because it is familiar and they perceive it is safe.

I use the word perceive here because I have talked to many clients and perspective clients over the years who stayed in their job even though they were unhappy because they thought it was safe. The amount of layoffs in corporate America between the years 2000-2003 began to shake up that paradigm. I am proud to tell people that though the corporation I used to work for as VP, Human Resources is no longer in business, my small company is still prospering. Security is not found in a corporation or in anything external, it is found within ourselves.

I interviewed Stacy Allison, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest for my upcoming book, I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!: Remarkable People Reveal 26 Proven Strategies for Making Your Dreams a Reality.

Stacy stretches beyond her comfort zone regularly. This plays a large role in her success. The first time Stacy scaled a rock; it was? very, very hard? for her. Later she chose to climb a mountain that was ten years beyond her experience level. It is important to note that she went with people who had the experience and could guide her through the challenge.

Throughout her life, in climbing, speaking and writing, Stacy continued to take on challenges that were above and beyond what she knew she could do. In taking on these challenges, she increased her confidence in her abilities, pushed beyond what she knew herself capable of and indeed, became the first woman to successfully scale Mt. Everest. (You can read the whole incredible story in my book, I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!: Remarkable People Reveal 26 Proven Strategies for Making Your Dreams a Reality.)

Coaching Questions:

1) Where in your career or personal life are you hanging out in your comfort zone even though you know that stretching beyond it would bring you closer to your dream?

2) What thoughts or circumstances are keeping you there?

3) What are you resisting?

4) Who could you get to support you in moving forward? (Pick someone who will be unconditionally supportive)

Article by Stacey Mayo. Stacey Mayo founded the Center for Balanced Living in 1995 as a vehicle for carrying out her life’s work and has since supported thousands of people in making their dreams come true. She is author of “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!: Remarkable People Reveal 26 Proven Strategies for Making Your Dreams a Reality.”

To receive more articles like this, subscribe to my monthly ezine, Living Out Your Dreams and receive a free self-assessment for Healthy Success.

Often these thoughts are tied in with the need to do things right or perfectly or with the need to know what to expect. This is the nemesis of perfection. Simply put, if we wait for everything to line up perfectly before taking some kind of action, we will be waiting forever.

I had to be pushed by my coach to lead my first workshop nearly 10 years ago. I kept saying, “I wasn’t ready.” What I meant was, “it wasn’t perfect, yet.” What I have since learned and keep re-learning is perfection and refinement come in the doing. That is where the real learning takes place. I led my first personal mission statement workshop for a group of acquaintances at no charge. The workshop wasn’t great — but it wasn’t terrible either. I got incredibly helpful feedback from the participants. From there I was able to refine it and teach it in the adult education programs of the local colleges. The feedback I got from the participants is not anything I could have learned on my own. The learning was in the doing. Now I teach and certify other people to facilitate that workshop and have turned it into the workbook in an ebook, “Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Wall?. None of that would have been possible had I not taken that first step nearly ten years ago.

When I was proofreading my book, “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!” for the 5th time, that same fear of missing a mistake was present. But this time it would be printed and there would be no taking it back. Eventually, I had to get over that and send the book to print. To my knowledge, there is at least one typo in the book (my mom caught it ). And when I go back for a second printing very soon, I will correct it. In the meantime, the book is in the hands of a lot of people who are moving forward with their dreams.

The fear of failure is tied in with the nemesis of perfection; i.e., if I don’t do it right or make the right choice, then I fail. Failure does not have to be devastating. Rather it can be viewed as an opportunity to learn. Everyone fails sometimes. The people who have the most successes in life also generally have had the most failures. That is because they keep coming back and try again and again.

Where are you willing to take a chance this week? Here are some possibilities to choose from or create your own.

* Create or write something and allow it to be okay if it’s not perfect.
* Do something you’ve never done before.
* Ask someone you’ve been admiring or would like to get to know out for coffee or a meal.
* Share your creative work with someone whose opinion you respect.
* Submit your idea, work, talent to someone who has the ability to hire you or purchase something from you.

What are you waiting for? Take the leap (or at least one small step) and let me know how it goes.

To receive more articles like this, subscribe to my monthly ezine, Living Out Your Dreams and receive a free self-assessment for Healthy Success.

Many times the obstacles to living out your dreams seem larger than the dream itself. When you focus on these obstacles; that is all you can see. They get larger and larger and take up a greater portion of your mental capacity. Let me give you a simple example. Jim and Mary are riding their bicycles to school and they spot a loose brick in the road. Jim sees the brick and wants to avoid it but he fails to see an on-going car, swerves and hits the brick and takes a tumble. Mary notices the brick, continues to focus on where she is going, bypasses the brick, and goes onward to her destination. And so it goes for living out your dreams. When you focus on obstacles such as fear of failure or lack of expertise, they will paralyze you. When you focus on your vision, you can brainstorm ways to go past the obstacle and move toward your vision.

Here are some of the more common Oblocks that stop people. Which ones resonate with you?

Marital status or age:
1. I am single and have to depend on myself
2. I am married and have to support my family
3. I’m too old; maybe if I were younger

Lack of expertise, credibility, belief in self:
4. I don’t know how
5. I’m not an expert in that
6. Who am I to do something like that?
7. I’m not smart enough
8. I am not talented enough
9. “It’s” not out there

Financial, time, scarcity:
10. I can’t do it now; I’ll wait until I retire
11. I’ll do it when I make big bucks
12. I can’t make money doing that
13. I’ll lose my insurance and other benefits
14. I don’t have enough money to do that
15. There’s not enough time
16. It will take too long
17. I am not vested in my retirement fund yet

Approval from others:
17. People will think I’m crazy
18. My family won’t understand
19. “They” won’t let me

Fear of success:
20. Others will be jealous of my success.
21. They’ll get mad at me.
22. I’ll lose my friends

Fear of failure or pain
23. I’ve tried before and failed
24. What if this isn’t it?
25. I might get hurt.
26. What if I fail?

Most of these statements are directly related to our fears. Many are scarcity-related conversations. When we live in these fears and disempowering beliefs, those are exactly what we get. When we believe our dreams are possible, then they are. The trick is to believe in your dream, take action and allow it to unfold.

* Visualize what it is you want to have happen.

* Imagine it as if it already has.

* Script it out and write the story as if it already happened and make it as exciting and fantastic as possible.

* Notice the kinds of questions you are asking yourself. Do they help you move forward or keep you stuck? Ask yourself, “What is one small thing can I do to move forward to making this dream a reality?”

* Notice what you are inspired to do and do it.

* Take one day at a time and continue to ask yourself, “what is one thing I can do to move forward today?”

Article by Stacey Mayo. Stacey Mayo founded the Center for Balanced Living in 1995 as a vehicle for carrying out her life’s work and has since supported thousands of people in making their dreams come true. She is author of “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This! “: Remarkable People Reveal 26 Proven Strategies for Making Your Dreams a Reality.

To receive more articles like this, subscribe to my monthly ezine, Living Out Your Dreams and receive a free self-assessment for Healthy Success.