#UnBlockYourself

Look over your blessings

Look over your blessings because it is really easy to overlook them and forget how far you’ve come. Because we are always looking forward (greedily or being hopeful) it gets hard to sit down and reflect on what got you into the present situation. Not only that, but taking time to appreciate what you have, and what you have done. 
 
Wabi Sabi sees the perfection in imperfections, but it also appreciates the beauty of what you’ve already acquired, and repurposes it if need be to keep it fresh and new, even when it has become old and worn out. 
 
So should be with the wonderful things God has done for us, we keep them, appreciate them, and see the beauty and usefulness in them to live a full life. 
 
Recall and reconsider some great victories you’ve made and reflect on them to see if you can still use the lessons learned from those experiences. 

Wisdom calls out to you!

Is there something you wish to do, but don’t know about how to do it? More than likely, someone has left the knowledge of how they’ve done it for you. In book form or as a YouTube video, someone somewhere made it just for you. The funny thing about wisdom, and understanding is that they call to you, but they rarely just come, you have to go get them. 
 
In proverbs, wisdom is telling the people:
“Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power. 
 
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. 
 
I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.”
Proverbs 8:14, 17-18, 20-21 NIV
 
Let’s get what we need today!

Good Luck vs Ganbare

To wish some one good luck before they set off to do something is a good way to show your support, encourage them, and extend a feeling you have for them to reach their success. 
 
Ganbare / Ganbatte / Ganbarimasu
Sometimes you may hear me say, “Ganbatte yo!”, which is kind of like good luck but has a deeper meaning. It’s used the same way: to show support, encourage, and extend the feeling you have for them to reach their success, but it translates to “Do your best!”, or “Give it your all!”. 
 
You can wish someone good luck, but in this sense, you are encouraging them to give it everything they have and that it will all work out. To me, when you do all that you can, success is inevitable, even if you hit your target or not.
 
I’d like to take this a step further, also place what you are setting out to do in the hands of the Lord. You can give it your all, but He can add that extra “umph” to get it to where it needs to go. This morning I read Psalms 37, and this jumped out at me:
 
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Psalms 37:5-6 NIV
 
Ganbatte!

Your Purpose not Limited

Most of my life I believed that we were called for a specific purpose. God placed us here to accomplish that one thing, and it takes most of our lives trying to figure out what that one thing is. But I no longer think like that. 
 
Who we are is made of many likes and dislikes, skills, gifts, and talents, and utilizing it for just one purpose would be hard to do. Your ikigai (your reason for being) is not limited to one thing in life and then locked into it till death, it is multi-faceted taking on many shapes and forms in your life because you are forever growing and coming in closer contact with the one who created you to live your best life. 
 
To limit your purpose to one thing that you aren’t sure that it is the one thing will cause you to turn down or turn away from other things that could greatly impact or improve your life. 
 
A Japanese Proverb:
“If you try, you may succeed.
If you don’t try, you will not succeed.
This is true of all things.
Not succeeding is the result of not trying.”
 
This is important because we look to fulfill a specific purpose in life, while all along we pass up living our one life full of purpose, which is our many things we have working for us to help us accomplish many purposes, not just one. Go do great things!

Kaizen Conversations

“We must let go of the good to grab hold of the better. To live a better life, it's better to have less of what doesn't matter and more of what does.” - from the Bible app’s “the better reading plan”
 
As I was sitting in my thinking chair, having better conversations to enhance Ichigo Ichies came up. In early childhood education there is a strategy to talk to kids called T.A.L.K., to have deeper meaningful conversations. (It works with anyone)
 
T - Tune In - Be present in the conversation. Talk about what you notice around you, what you are thinking as you talk, and what you are hearing for your understanding.
 
A - Ask Questions - To better understand, ask questions. To further conversations, ask open-ended questions based on what you are talking about.
 
L - Lift Language - Go deeper into conversations by expounding on what is being said. Apply the conversation to experiences you’ve had, and lessons that you have learned. 
 
K - Keep it Going -  Get the most out of the experience as you can!
 
Use TALK for this to be an Ichigo Ichie. INVOLVE yourself in the conversation by making connections and do not be afraid to tell how it is making you EVOLVE into a better person!

The Reason You Are So Powerful

Most people sit on their power, making them have potential power to do great things, but they are powerful nonetheless. The reason you are so powerful is so that you can create, build, and work towards your vision, making it become reality. 
 
This is one of the main reasons behind your ikigai. You are living to make that purpose given to you from the spiritual realm come true in this physical realm. 
 
The fuel for this power is your faith. We all have been given a measure of faith, but it is potential power, meaning it’s pretty powerless if you do not believe in what you are here for. 
 
Power without faith is like a dynamite. 
It could be very dangerous if ignited but if not used, or just left to sit, that’s all it does. 
Also, on the flip side if you have vision, but no faith, that’s like have that brand new Tesla, but never charge it. It won’t be working at all before too long. 
 
The way you stay charged and stay powered up is, yep, you guessed it, stay connected to the source. 
 
Today is a great day to do great things! Keep being great!

Building a better day

I hope you’ve  been able to write things down! As I sat in my thinking chair this morning, “First things first!” Kept ringing in my head. Ok. So I did my devotional and the past few days it has been dropping little nuggets about hearing and seeing God in everything. The key to it is pretty simple, stay in His presence. So let’s do first things first:
 
“Pre-Soak” - set aside some time before you get your day started to listen. If you aren’t in a place to sit and listen, you have to figure out how you get there. I have my thinking chair and tea set, where I get with God and if I’m not hearing Him, there may be some blockage and I have to seek Him (sometimes it’s not right away and I have to do some searching).
 
Look and listen - what is your goals for today? What ideas have you been given? What are you inspired to do?
 
Write what you hear and see - This is where yesterday’s “Write it all down” comes in. The more intently you listen and try to get a vision for what you hear, the more God inspired ideas will come to you for a great productive day. 
 
Ikigai is commonly known for the reason for being, but it stems from issues you are dealing with in your heart. Your mind, will, and emotions. The more in tuned you are with your spirit within you, more satisfying your life will be.

Write It All Down!

On Sundays @ seven, I do my Sunday Soak. This is like being in my thinking chair, but waaaaaay more relaxing. I get the water as hot as I can take, and stay in until I get out, no matter how long that takes. 
 
Anyway, this is my time to really get serious and seek God while I reflect on the wins and improvement opportunities (not losses) from the last week and plan to make this coming week even better.
 
So here’s how yesterday’s soak went:
I asked God, “how can I take things up a notch?  I’m doing what I can, what can I do to make things better?” Almost instantly, this was the reply, “You do good, you try to listen, BUT, you are not as effective because you do not write down the majority of what is given. You do what you remember, which is not a lot.” Ouch. I have so many notebooks and planners that I start, but never finish. I have so many ideas that have evaporated it’s not even funny. The key is that I don’t write it all down, OR, I write it and then lose it, because it’s not organized. 
 
So the goal for this week is to write things down, and have a place for it all to go until implemented. Just think about it, writing something down is you pulling thoughts from the spiritual realm, and transferring it into physical form, and then on to implementation. It’s quite fascinating, another thing is God’s word is strong and one reason it has lasted centuries like other great books, it has been written down and passed on for generations and generations.