What Else Is Possible?
My place of renewal is a walk in nature.
That is never more enjoyable than in the autumn of the year.
Every moment in nature is new. As soon as one cycle ends, another starts, and this startling reality always pushes my creative thinking.
How is it that a tree can dare to shed all its leaves and survive a harsh winter, and then reveal itself with fresh buds and green leaves come the springtime? But humans, with all our massive capacity for cognitive thinking, often fear each phase of our life and believe that when something ends, it is gone forever and won’t be replaced by something better?
Nature reminds us that life is not secure. It is forever changing. The stalwart tree that offers shade and shelter one day is uprooted in a hurricane the next and finds a new life as a host for lichen and creatures of the forest.
The walk in the woods is full of surprises and it reminds us in business and in life that there is really only one important question to be asked and answered:
What else is possible?
How will we reinvent ourselves if life uproots us? When we have to shed one identity, will we have the courage to flamboyantly grow the next? If our purpose is taken from us, can we find our new purpose in the next season?
What else can we do with our lives? What else can we do with our businesses? How can we add more value to this world? How can we enrich our lives and those around us?
On walks it is okay to let your mind ramble as your feet make their way through an uneven terrain and ever-changing scenery. You are meandering, floundering even, and your mind goes into corners, darting here and there with a myriad of questions for which you have no answers.
It is good to take these times of renewal, of restoration, and ask those many questions, especially about what else is possible. It is all part of the creative process and too often we ignore its importance in our life.
As Denise Shekerjian explained this process: “Cut short of the floundering and you’ve cut short the possible creative outcomes. Cheat on the chaotic stumbling-about, and you’ve robbed yourself of the raw stuff that feeds the imagination.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in the same vein that the difference between talents and character is “adroitness to keep the old and trodden round, and power and courage to make a new road to new and better goals.”
We need time to imagine the other trails we can take, the other roads we can explore. Our world is changing rapidly and we are changing in it. You think different today than you did five years ago, and in five years from now, you will entertain other entirely different concepts.
In all of these stages of life, it is important to ask ourselves: what else is possible? Where can we go from here?
If you are too busy to consider that, you are too busy to grow.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion. 24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Check out Paula’s best selling books: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and due to be released December 6th “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth” go to Amazon http://ow.ly/i8yW307ix67
Speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.