Masterful Mindsets

“Grow through what you go through.”

Well, spring is here! My family is home for spring break, and we are busy planting, playing, loving and working. In other words, we are enjoying life.

Although the reality is, life can be chaotic and full of hardships, disappointments, and trials. I was thinking about this recently as my youngest daughter is nearing the end of her senior year. Time has flown by, and we are about to embark on a new chapter of our lives. That’s a challenge for me because I know she will be leaving soon. But instead of choosing to stay stuck; rejecting change, and resisting the future, I went through a process that I want to share with you today. I set into motion a series of steps that have pushed me past the bittersweet pain that change often brings and on to making the most of the life I have while I work towards embracing the future that is before me.

In general, it can be easy to get stuck in the trap of...

“Sometimes life takes you in a direction you never saw yourself going but it turns out to be the best and most beautiful journey you’ve ever taken.”

I read a short story once by Longtime Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley. It was something she had written to help people understand her experience of raising a child with disabilities, as her son was born with Downs Syndrome. She explains it as someone who’s planned and planned to take a vacation to Italy, only to board the plane and land in Holland.

Imagine the surprise and disappointment you might feel when you realized you’d reached the wrong destination. All your preparation, studying the Italian language, mapping out your trip, creating your itinerary, researching your destination, were all lost. Time wasted. Now you’re somewhere you didn’t want to be. At first you might not be able to look past the disappointment of not being in Italy to see what a beautiful place Holland...

“Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.”  ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Have you ever made an assumption about someone or about a situation, only to realize later that your assumption caused a lot of unnecessary pain or drama? Assumptions can really be hurtful. Which is why I love the third agreement from Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements – Don’t Make Assumptions. Because when you make assumptions, more often than not, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

So, what happens when you make assumptions? It’s plain and simple really, you believe something without proof that it is true. And most commonly it happens in one of two ways:

1. You assume you know something – which can cause you to have to face your own foolishness.
2. You assume someone else...