Arminda Lindsay

Being On Purpose

Behind Door #1

By

MissEllie

In honor of the Christmas season, my family recently visited an assisted-living facility, where we moved from floor to floor stopping in the residents’ public gathering places to sing a selection of holiday songs.

After our third performance we were approached by a nurse who asked if we would be so kind as to sing for a 100-year-old patient unable to leave her bed.

We immediately obliged and our very large assembly squeezed into a modestly-sized room, where Miss Ellie lay bed-ridden and speechless, but with eyes wide open.

I stood at the foot of Miss Ellie’s bed riveted to the floor as her gaze locked with mine and while I sang, my heart swelled with love, tears spilling from my eyes.

We shared three or four songs, all the while Miss Ellie’s eyes never leaving mine and before leaving her room I approached her bed, bent and gently kissed her, and thanked her for her gift to me.

How often do we stay in the public gathering places of our lives to share our services?

When was the last time you went through an unknown door to simply serve because someone on the other side couldn’t come to you?

Miss Ellie’s fierce devotion to living serves as a reminder to me that behind every door is an opportunity to keep growing when we serve with love.

But only every time.

Wanting

By

smart

We’re all guilty of getting in our own way. But only all the time.

The truth is we make up lies, then believe those lies, and play them on a repeating loop inside our heads. It’s no wonder we feel we lack or that someone else is better than us or others are accomplishing more or are capable of bigger things.

When was the last time you caught yourself believing:

  • I’m great at what I do; I just don’t know how to run the business side of things.
  • I’d love to be in that career but I don’t even know where to start.
  • Oh, I could never. . . .
  • I don’t know how to motivate my team.
  • I’ve got a great story, but I’m no writer.

Trust me when I say the “how” is the least of your worries. What you need is a “want.”

Identify a time in your life when you REALLY wanted something (anything) and (against all odds) you got it. You didn’t allow your lack of knowledge of the “how to” to stop you. YOU figured it out!

Admit 2 things:
1. You’re really smart!
2. You need to get out of your own way. Yesterday.

What do you REALLY want right now?

Now go figure out your how.

Ugly Duckling

By

uglyduckling

I love the story of the Ugly Duckling because he struggled with self-image, belonging, personal performance, bullying and general unhappiness.

Until he didn’t.

During his transformation everything around him remained the same:

  1. The family occupied the same nest.
  2. The bullies were still throwing barbs at anyone who would stop long enough to listen.
  3. They were all floating on the same pond.

What changed?

Only the way he saw himself.

Yes, there was a physical alteration on his outside, but it wasn’t until the Ugly Duckling saw himself differently from his inside that transformation took place.

True transformation requires of us the inside work — the place only you know — and can happen with one turn in the mirror.

Because once you’ve transformed you’ll never see yourself the same way again.

What’s Your Different?

By

different

I LOVE being noticed because I’m different.
Because what I offer my clients is different.
Because I have my own way of putting myself together.
Because I don’t subscribe to the conventional wisdom.
Because what I do works for me.
Because my different is exactly what I love most about me.

What’s your different?

Future Planning

By

butterfly

“If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be unhappy for the rest of your life.” — Abraham Maslow

Have you ever stopped long enough to consider your own “what ifs”?

At year’s end, does the caterpillar set goals on how to be a better caterpillar next year? Of course not! She creates an entirely new future and transforms her very DNA to grow her own wings.

Create your future from your future and don’t worry about being a better caterpillar.

Is there a pair of wings inside of you, waiting to emerge?

Loving you, always.

Linear Happiness?

By

line

The “achievement” of happiness is not a linear equation.

You will never be happy when ___________ happens, or arrives, or is completed, or you get the idea.

Happiness happens because you create it in spite of the line you’re walking.

Being happy is a conscious choice you get to make every single day from the inside out.

Choose you. Choose happy.

Let’s Do the Time Warp!

By

sundial

How often have you heard yourself saying you don’t have enough time in your day? Or a new project comes along and your stress level increases exponentially because of the perceived time commitment? Or your heart rate goes up just looking at your ever-expanding list of things to do?

Have you ever wondered why you feel like nothing is getting accomplished even though you are always busy?

And in those moments you dismiss it all by acknowledging, “I struggle with time management,” as if that wipes your slate and gives you permission to continue being busy with little outcome.

Steve Chandler says, “. . . with a clear mission driving [you], time management is never a problem.”

Would you agree that when you really want something (anything), you figure out how to get it?

What is your mission?

Here’s the promise: Get a mission, identify your wants, focus on your goal(s) and time slows down and moves to the side as you create your how.

Every single time.

True Colors

By

trees

If you are so fortunate to live in or have visited a part of the world that is home to deciduos trees, then each autumn when the leaves start changing color and the mountainous roads are busy with onlookers toting cameras and multiple stops just to stare at their splendor will be familiar to you.

Did you ever wonder aloud, “Why do the leaves change color?”

Ask instead, “Why do the leaves cover up in green?”

Photosynthesis 101: the trees use clorophyll (the green stuff) to absorb the sunshine, which sunshine (energy) + water produces oxygen for you and for me. (Thanks, Amazing Planet!)

Fall is simply the time of the year when the trees take off their makeup as they prepare to go to sleep for the winter.

But wait! That means the vibrant and gorgeous and uniquely amazing colors we see dotting our deciduous landscape are the trees’ TRUE colors! The green they parade around wearing during the spring and summer is simply a cover up of their true inner beauty: an attempt to be just like everyone else.

Oxygen-giving necessities aside, what green pigments are you hiding behind? Are you willing to step away from your mask and stop comparing yourself to everyone around you?

What are your true colors?

How can you show off the splendor that is you?

DISCLAIMER: I am not a scientist. That awesome interpretation of photosynthesis is my own.

The Sky is Falling!

By

acorn

An acorn fell on my head today.

The exact same thing happened once upon a time to Chicken Little (from the classic children’s book of the same name) and she immediately told herself that the sky was falling and then proceeded to run around telling the same (made up) story to anyone who would listen!

WARNING: spoiler alert if you keep reading past this point!

Long before they reached their destination, Chicken Little & her friends believed another made up story (which was missing a few subtle plot points) and ended up as Foxy Loxy’s permanent dinner guests.

Because Chicken Little dramatically overreacted to an upsetting incident that was out of her control she got herself and all of her friends killed.

The sky was never falling.

Upsetting and out-of-our control incidents happen all the time. How many of us make up stories when we get hit on the head with an acorn? Other than a temporary insult to your noggin, that acorn doesn’t impede your progress for long.

Unless you choose to stop everything and claim a falling sky.

Choose to tell a different story.

Your sky is never falling.

Ignite Your Adventure

By

adventure

“At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.“  – Salvador Dali

What do you want? Or perhaps the question is: What did you forget to remember that you want?

Do you control your own outcome? Or do you live holding back, never giving yourself permission to create, to pursue, to ignite?
Create an adventure, which by definition is an exciting or unexpected event or course of events.

Push your control button. Go. Get out of your own way.

allarminda.com | 2024