Arminda Lindsay

Being On Purpose

Short List

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ShortList
On Sept 4 2014, Maia had a kidney transplant, receiving a donated kidney from her father. Three weeks later, she experienced an acute rejection episode. In order to stop the organ rejection and save the kidney, Maia underwent a series of aggressive treatments. She continues to face complications as a result of these very immunosuppressive treatments. Although she’s been fighting a virus in her kidney for the past 4 months and has not yet returned to school, she is in great spirits.

When asked if she had any advice for others, she replied:

1. Read a lot.
2. Exercise once every day.
3. Eat healthy.
4. Study hard.
5. Be with people who make you happy.

Thank you, Maia, for this profoundly simple list. Thank you for reminding me that being human, while not always pixies and fairy dust, is what we make of it, despite what gets chosen for us.

1. I’m currently reading two books: Mastery by George Leonard & Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins.
2. I’ll be taking my dogs out for a good dose of sunshine this afternoon.
3. I love drinking my kale; my favorite combo is 1/2 lemon, 2 apples, 1 inch of ginger, & a bunch of kale all served through the juicer. Yum 🙂
4.  Life is my text book and I’m so grateful for all my lessons.
5. My people make me so very happy.

Take a moment for a personal inventory.

Now is your perfect opportunity.

Truth or Untruth?

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TruthOrUntruth

Full Disclosure

During college, whenever I got a test grade back from a professor, the first thing I wanted to know was which of my classmates did worse than me on the exam. As soon as I found someone who received lower marks than mine, I always felt better about myself. Conversely, I felt awful if I thought I’d come in the lowest.

Truth

Whenever I compare the results of my choices to the results of someone else’s choices and give that comparison meaning, I have just created an untruth. And then believed it.

Too often we get caught up in someone else’s business and neglect our own. My choices have nothing to do with anyone else’s choices. Whatever someone else thinks of me is none of my business, just like whatever I think of someone else is none of their business.

Tell yourself a truth: the quality of my life is a direct result of the power of my thinking. Be in your own business.

Believe that.

Brought to You By the Letter “A”

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TheLetterA

Oh, that pesky letter A.

I can relate to Grover.

Do you have a letter A?

What’s standing right in front of you, but you can’t see it because it seems so big and looming?

Sometimes the letter A can be shaped like:

  • Sharpening communication skills
  • Strengthening leadership traits
  • Writing that book
  • Learning to sail
  • Pursuing a language
  • Building a treehouse
  • Dancing in the kitchen
  • Walking away from the “known”
  • Giving more of you to those in need
  • Creating a dream
  • Taking the leap of faith
  • Trying out for the team
  • Singing out loud
  • Slowing down
  • Saying “I love you”
  • Being on purpose

How often are we so close to our letter A that it lights up, buzzes, or sends us a signal, but we ignore all the signs and think we have more time?

If you knew the clock was running, what would you do differently today?

The clock is running, by the way.

The War of Art Book Review

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TheWarofArt

“If you were the last person on earth, would you still show up at the studio, the rehearsal hall, the laboratory?” asks Steven Pressfield in his masterful work The War of Art.

Perhaps before you can answer this question, you must read this book to know where you are in relation to your creativity, what resistance looks like in your world, whether or not your commitment is equal to that of the muse and whether or not you believe in the muse at all.

Because once you see that your creation isn’t yours and you are only the vessel that carries and brings it to life, all the possibility of you and what you alone can bring about will explode on the scene in the biggest happy dance ever.

And then you’ll immediately get to work.

5 out of 5 stars

Live It Up!

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liveitup

Thank you Bonita Leigh Fergus for reminding me that I am here — alive — to act, not to be acted upon.

“But most of us will live trapped inside our personalities for our entire lives, never knowing that we can leave. We are victims of our own invented limits. . . . I am the way I am.” — Steve Chandler

Given the choice, I would rather be a rushing river than a stagnate pond, always changing and evolving and in constant motion. I’ll get there when I get there, and I’m making life happen along the way.

She wasn’t afraid of dying, she just wasn’t finished with living.

Pedal Faster

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pedalfasterThe day my brothers took me and the bike to the top of the “hill” for my first solo ride I was terrified. Even though we’d practiced on level ground I sat at the top of that hill looking down and doubting myself.

All my fears were screaming at me:

What if I can’t do it?
What if I fall?
What if it doesn’t work?
What if I’m not able to balance the bike?

Heart pounding and palms clammy as they white-knuckled the handlebar, I got a gentle push from behind and before I knew it I had lifted my second foot and clumsily found the pedal.

And then (what seemed like) a miracle happened: I didn’t fall! I was flying and it was the most exhilarating feeling as I sped down the hill gaining momentum, and that very momentum sustained and supported my learning of how to better balance the bike as I kept going.

How often do we drag one foot thinking life is going to happen to us when we are what has to happen to create the life around us that we want?

Go ahead. Lift your foot. Rest it on the waiting pedal and let go. Lean into your fears and test their validity rather than stopping your own flight before you’ve even left the ground.

Fail.
Fall over.
Learn what works.
Find your balance.
Be unstoppable.

From My Heart To Yours

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FromMyHeartToYours

In all of my relationships (whether personal, professional or casual) when I come from love it empowers, ignites, and shows me I need never fear the outcome because love reminds me my only purpose is to serve.

When I serve I no longer fear rejection, disapproval, failure, miscommunication, unmotivated employees, missed deadlines, lack of resources, lost sales, unhappy customers, and the list goes on and on.

How might your world be different if you always ask:

  1. How can I serve the person in front of me right now?
  2. What problem can I solve for them?
  3. What difference can I make?

Constantly seeking to please creates a culture of mistrust and disingenuous friendliness. But only every time.

Stop trying to please everyone. Whether or not someone likes you for your decisions, your ethics, your products or the way you tie your shoes is not your story.

Your success and organizational growth won’t come because you’ve won someone over or networked your way into a contract. Your employees, customers, vendors, peers, family members, and friends love and respect you because you serve them.

That’s it.

What is different because you showed up today?

Love It or Want It?

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loveitorwantit

“If I were giving a motivational speech, I’d say that, if you want to be successful and make a real contribution to the world, you have to be intrinsically motivated by the work you do, and you have to feel good about spending your days on it. Love might grow–and it’s a wonderful thing if it does–but you don’t need it up front. You can succeed just by wanting something to exist that doesn’t already.” — Jason Fried*

Let’s look at this again: “You can succeed just by wanting something to exist that doesn’t already.”

That’s it. Just want it enough and the path of how-to opens with each and every single step you take closer toward that something.

One step. And then another.

You’ve got this.

*Jason Fried is co-founder of 37signals, a Chicago-based software firm, and co-author of the book Rework, which was published in 2010. He also writes Inc.’s Get Real column.

Excerpt taken from his Inc. article The Fallacy of ‘Love What You Do’

System Fail

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systemfail

Systems, organization, programs and checklists have always been my thing. My entire corporate career (who am I kidding? my entire LIFE) was built in and around systems and checklists. I loved the orderliness of it all; the sense of grand accomplishment at checking off my boxes as I tracked my way to another completed report, sale, achievement, or goal.

Until I hit my wall.

That wall of frustration and overwhelm and exhaustion that felt like all I was doing was living for my lists, yet never quite satisfied with me. There in the middle of it all.

Systems can be wonderful inasmuch as they are implemented and used to support us: the person using the system or part of the bigger program. The tricky part comes when we get lost in the system.

Because the minute I’m serving a system instead of a system serving me, then that is the very minute to shut it down.

At the very least, it’s a red flag to reevaluate the role of the program or guiding principle. Is there a reset button you can employ? What if you look at things from a different angle? Is there another function for that program?

I’ve shut down more than one system in my life and I’ve revamped others based on a current need. There will be more reworks in my future, as my world evolves.

Remember, there will never be a system, program or process more important than you.

Is there a system waving its red flag at you?

Solutions

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oneway

Have you ever been lost in the woods? (Or in the Disney World parking lot?) I certainly have. And it was a scary feeling not knowing which way to go. In fact, the not knowing had a paralyzing effect on me and I didn’t go anywhere; I just stood rooted to the spot where I was standing, waiting for a sign (or Tinker Bell) to show me the way.

Not surprisingly that sign never appeared.

And there really never is just one way to get anywhere.

Hover above and zoom out from where you’re standing and you’ll quickly see multiple routes leading you in any number of directions.

How many options do you have?

43 in any given circumstance.

Is that a scientifically-proven fact, Arminda?

Absolutely not. But it’s been working for me for years.

Whenever I’m lost, literally or metaphorically, I tell myself there are 43 solutions to every problem, so don’t stop after you’ve only looked at the first three.

Zoom out. Get creative. Explore a different possibility. Test a new way of being, seeing, operating and believing.

There is never just one way

allarminda.com | 2024