50% effort, 50% surrender

In yoga last tonight, during a pose that was pushing my hamstrings to their edge, the instructor said "Remember, it's 50% effort and 50% surrender."  My first thought was "phew, I can back off from 100% effort!!"  And then it struck me, 50% surrender?!?  How does that fit??

In the past, it was very easy for me to slip into an "all-or-nothing" outlook on life.  If I can't do it perfectly, I might as well not do it all.  For a long time, I ignored this trait in myself.  I would glibly say... "but that's what makes me great at my job".  I couldn't visualize a different way of being, so I would swing between 0% or 100% in everything.  Friendships, work, recovery, etc.

But my desire to make a life change has made me find a new way to operate.  For months, I obsessed about finding a new job.  I spent hundreds of dollars on a life coach.  I tried to manage the fear.  I tried to control the outcome.  But in the end, it was my surrender that opened the path forward.

But even after the surrender, even after the next step on my path has come into focus... there is still a little inner voice that keeps saying, you need to be DOING something.  You can't just sit there.

Well, that voice is using the old "all-or-nothing" way of viewing things.  Since I'm not spenidng 100% of my effort on finding my new, aboslutely perfect path, I must be doing absolutely nothing.  But that is WRONG. 

50% effort...  It isn't about obsessively planning.  But it also isn't about waiting for the perfect opportunity to just fall into my lap.  It's about doing the work that needs to be done.  I am learning to listen to and trust my inner guidance.  I am putting myself in new situations.  I moving towards consciousness and away from my ego-driven, never-ending, obsessive thoughts.  I'm surrounding myself with fellow lovers of life.

50% surrender...  This is new territory for me.  So I work daily to surrender the thoughts of fear and criticism.  I'm diving deep, keeping myself open for more possibilities... and I'm expecting the world!!

And last night in the class, I surrendered into the deep stretch.  I let go of the tension that had built up in my neck and shoulders... and found that I could go a little deeper.  Amazing!  When I backed off, I found that I had a little more stretch to give!  A good lesson...

It Is I Who Must Begin

A poem for today...

It Is I Who Must Begin

It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try --
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
-- to live in harmony
with the "voice of Being," as I
understand it within myself
-- as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.

Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.

~ Vaclav Havel ~

A quote

I just read this quote and it made me smile.  I thought it was appropriate...

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.” ~Tim Ferriss, from The 4-Hour Workweek

Welcoming chaos

"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."  - Friedrich Nietzsche

I friend sent me a card with that quote recently.  And while I understood it, I didn't really GET it at first.  However, the universe is slowly teaching me.  :-)

It's coming on 4 weeks since I "quit" and I still have no clue how things are going to shake out.

:-)  A little bit of chaos here.
I am ready to get started in a new part-time role with my company.  But now that I decided to stay, I dropped lower on their priority list and everything is in a strange limbo.  I know I'm going to work part-time, but I don't know how many hours that means.  I know it's going to be a different role, but no one is clear on what it will entail.  And I don't feel any real urgency to get answers to any of those questions.

:-)  A little bit of chaos there.
I am ready to get started on the volunteer project outside of work, but it isn't as definite as I thought.  The person who sold me on it isn't the person in charge, so when I said "I'm ready", her reaction wasn't "let's get started!!!"  It was more, "oh, um, I'll have to talk to so-and-so first and see if there is anyone else working on it".

:-)  A little bit of chaos everywhere.
You'll get a laugh out of my emotions.  You know how last week I was scared of losing my security if the part-time job didn't pan out.  Well, after it became evident that the part-time job was going to come through, I got upset about losing the potential freedom.  My emotions can't seem to make up their mind! 

But there is one thing that has been constant.  The inner knowledge that I'm doing the right thing.  I heard the voice say "make a change".  And after much worry and planning and more worry and a lot of fear, I trusted the voice and made the first step.  Now comes the chaos.  :-)

So why the smiles?  Chaos isn't fun, is it??  Here is a quote from Mastin Kipp and his blog, "The Daily Love":

See the opportunity instead of the fear; decide that you have the power to not only make the best of this situation, but to actually make a better life for yourself BECAUSE of this situation.  For your dreams to come true it's vital that you learn to be flexible enough to adapt to and make the best of change. In fact, don't just make the best of change and the unexpected, get EXCITED by it!

And when I look in my heart, that is how I feel, EXCITED!  Of course, my brain wants to react to the chaos.  That's normal.  But I want to keep my focus in my heart.  Because my heart knows what's best, it's where my dreams live.  And I have no doubt I'm heading to fertile soil... to make my dreams grow and come to life!