What Would Your Life Be Like If You Did Only What Was Easy?

This is an exclusive sneak peak from THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS by Danielle LaPorte. Prepare for some soul sizzle…

What would your life be like if you did only what was easy? 
Let me repeat the question:
What would your life be like if you only did what was easy? 

It’s almost unsettling to go there, isn’t it? When I try to answer that question for myself I squirm a bit. Lazy dilettante. As IF. What would I do with all that extra time I’d have if I just did the easy stuff? Hmmm . . . maybe I’d have more time to enjoy what I’ve got and get more of what I want. Maybe things would be . . . easier.

Ease. The concept confounds most of us. Here’s why: 

Pay your dues. Put in your time. Prove yourself. Check the right box. Stay the course. Meet expectations. Soldier on. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. Good things come to those who wait. Blue collar,  white collar, hard work pays off. No pain, no gain. Thomas Edison put it this way: There is no substitute for hard work. 

We’ll call these, collectively, the Myth of Endurance: a concept that you can choose to believe in, in varying degrees, or not. “Easy” is also a concept that can be just as useful to you. The easy way is a direction that leads to spacious places.

Choosing easy is smart, efficient, elegant; a fantastic form of self-compassion; giving yourself a break and getting out of your own way. Choosing easy is letting inspiration be your compass. Choosing easy is allowing for the things that you’ve been asking for to enter your life. Now, let’s be clear, there are two types of easy. Quality easy and cheap easy. We’re aiming for Quality, with a capital Q.

THE QUALITY KIND OF EASY 
Quality easy has a sense of fluidity to it. There’s a gravitational pull forward. Quality easy relies on his inner strength. Quality easy has an abiding respect for herself. Quality easy has fewer things on the to-do list and is a brilliant delegator. Quality easy trusts the timing of things. He knows it’s better to hold out for what’s right than to deal with the mess of extracting himself from a bad compromise. The minute resentment and irritation set in to a task, Quality easy goes on red alert. She steers clear of aggravation, annoyance, and repetitive misery. Over time,

Quality easy gets comfortable saying no, thank you, to things that are just too complicated and too distant from what she really wants. She is willing to let it go, get over it, and walk  away— because she
has better things to do with her life energy. It’s that simple, most of the time. Quality easy brings a sense of expansion to things. Quality easy is
compelling—because when you say yes to grace, you’re saying yes to the natural flow of life. You lift your face toward the divine, like flowers lean into the light.

THE CHEAP KIND OF EASY 
Cheap is a sucker for a discount. Cheap easy can’t see that some losses are gains. Cheap easy stays in a stifling relationship because it seems easier than facing the heartbreak and dividing up the furniture. Cheap easy is frequently in a rush, a smidge desperate, and usually scrambling for options. Cheap easy tells little white lies to get things done. The path of least resistance isn’t about shortcuts, cutting corners, or being clever. And it’s certainly not about making mediocrity acceptable. It’s about optimizing the truth. It’s about casting your seeds on the most fertile soil for your best chances for success.

START WITH THE EASY STUFF 
Easy is sublimely logical. Consider all of the things you want to create, produce, accomplish, put out in the world, and  experience—so many roads that could lead to satisfaction. Start with the project or the aspect of the project that is the easiest. What do you already know the most about? Where are there already ambassadorship and alliances? What are people already asking you for?

The same goes for creating satisfying relationships. What’s already going well that you can lean in to? What do you adore about the other person that you can focus on? The easy stuff is right in front of you and totally doable: simple kindnesses freely given day to day. Start there and you can approach the big hairy issues with some lightness.

Instant gratification has gotten a bad rap. I’m all for it. Why would you want to delay gratification? Within the constraints of morality and maturity, you should do whatever you need to do to feel gratified in the moment. It may be as subtle as choosing a more positive thought or reminding yourself to smile. Maybe it’s taking two minutes in your car or at your desk to do nothing but just feel into the day. Maybe instant gratification is fifty sit-ups for an adrenaline rush, ordering dessert first, giving an unexpected hug, signing the lease, or telling your boss to shove it. You can be responsible to those around you while creating immediate pleasure for yourself.

Pleasure makes everything easier. Gratification builds the momentum, motivation, and muscle for you to choose the work ahead of you that will require more patience and stamina. It warms you up
to shine. Easy does it.

For more by this author, visit DanielleLaPorte.com

New Powers Await You – When You Do Something New

Inspiration is an invitation to uncharted abundance. It’s not just the invitation to create a song, a yoga studio, a screenplay and some good money. It’s the invitation to create yourself. The creator is changed by the created. Yet if you refuse to listen to your own beckoning ideas, you hold back exponential resources within. You may think you’re just being practical. But how practical is it to deny your greatest powers?

You wouldn’t tell a baby to never expect to walk. Why would you tell yourself that you could achieve only what you’ve already experienced? You are still developing, aren’t you? It’s never “realistic” to deny your miraculous creative impulses. It’s self-annihilating. The reality is, you are a miracle. You are a growing, conscious spark of unparalleled energy. Your heart is the compass between the landscapes of what you currently know and what you can yet know in your lifetime.

I had a therapist who always talked about doing new things. She loved to challenge herself. The woman was a black belt in kung fu “just for fun.” I guess listening to everyone’s problems all day made her need to attack something at night. But she was frisky and creative, and urged me to try new things. At the time, I couldn’t imagine voluntarily adding some challenge to my life. I was doing everything in my fizzling power to avoid them. That zealous healer babbled on about the joy of expansion, and I looked at her with bleary pleading eyes and said, “English please.” But all these many years later, she remains with me. It’s not what she said. I remember the sparkle in her eyes. I remember the ease of her skin. She wasn’t just getting through her life like everyone else on the bus. This woman was alive.

Doing something new allows you to discover more of your natural largesse. I recently put on a new seminar. I was a bit nervous. I’ve taught thousands of workshops, but this one was all fresh content. I didn’t know what questions participants might ask. I didn’t know the catchy way to answer things. I wasn’t a well-oiled machine. I felt this gnawing in my stomach — not butterflies, closer to buzzards. I’m a bit of a control freak, though very shiny and spontaneous about it all. See, I like doing well. I’ve built up “buzz” and reputation. Truth is, I love having my workshops leave participants gazing at each other, dazed, happy, and as though they might just light up a cigarette afterward.

But I had to allow myself to grow. I had to flex new muscles. I had to take the chance that I could fizzle, which for me, would feel like having the worst hair day of your life, having your photo taken, and then maybe, if you’re very lucky, being burned at the stake. I had to walk my talk, which, by the way, never feels powerful until later, when you’re safe, fat and happy, and can entertain your friends. At the time, it means just walking forward and trying not to cry in public. But here’s the part I forgot: I’m not in control, but I am in the proximity of grace. I am not alone. I am not limited to the crude strengths I’ve experienced thus far. I am co-creating with a Universe that does not ever have self-esteem issues or a lack of horsepower or compassion. I am becoming more of myself — by using more of myself —discovering unknown power as I walk into the unknown.

Here’s what happened. The participants had breakthroughs, insights and stories I never could have predicted or manufactured. Something else was going on. This same essence often takes me by surprise in retreats. It’s a presence in the room, a love that’s in the water, where laughter erupts and tears glisten, or maybe our crown chakras open up like guppies swallowing the light. I don’t know. I do know that the attendees share unbelievable things. I say incredible things. This unrepeatable waltz begins to happen as though it had been reenacted a thousand times. It couldn’t go any better, though some insane part of me will dissect it later, anyway. It’s humbling. It’s moving. And it’s so far beyond anything that I alone could ever make happen. And I would have missed this if I hadn’t dared it. The experience reminds me of this line from “A Course in Miracles” — “The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of His Presence… What He enables you to do is clearly not of this world.”

Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul with record labels, fashion labels, and multiple HBO reality shows, says he co-created his success by following an inner voice and taking risks. He says, “Time and time again I watch as the people who listen to their higher selves move on to bigger and better things, while the people who listen to the low notes end up stuck in one place or fade away altogether. They never realized that in ignoring their higher selves, they’re blocking their ability to be blessed.”

Where might you be blocking your ability to be blessed? Fear keeps you small and smallness keeps you fearful. It’s a pitiful system and it ages you like trauma, cigarette smoke, and too much gossip. Keep listening to your sweetest truth. Your truth is never an instinct that diminishes you. Remember, you have a presence within you that can do anything. You are not limited to what you’ve experienced in the past. You are not limited to what someone else has experienced in the past. There is something alive and inspired that wants to come through you. It’s an evolutionary impulse in your cells to grow and expand. You’re hungry for the new because you hunger for yourself. You know there are still unexpressed reserves within you.

Go beyond what you have done before. Expose yourself to grace.

If You Feel Lost, You’re on Your Way to the Miraculous

by Tama J. Kieves

If you choose to live a life that launches you into the highest stratospheres of your potential, yet fits you like silk, you might first have to stumble into some brick walls. Poet Galway Kinnell says, “And the first step, shall be to lose the way.” When I read this at my “Unleash Your Calling” workshops, participants gaze at their shoes. Some look at me as though they want their money back – plus interest. They don’t want to lose the way. They want to find their way. They want me to find their way. And they want to find their way – and faster than Google, thank you very much. But this is the hitch and transformation of living an inspired life. You have to hit exasperation and drop all your marbles. You have to let your ideas and plans disappear like startled pigeons. Because only the open-minded can look in completely new directions. And only the lost will ask for help.

You are called to walk off the beaten track and light upon secret turnpikes. That means there often won’t be road signs or easy entry ramps. There won’t be mass transportation or park rangers. Your truth will not be on the evening news. The creative life is not driven by external cues. That’s the point. You don’t need those inferior tools. You have guidance.

If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to open to an extraordinary presence within you. Some of us might call that experience God or the Universe. Others may call it their creative mind, True Self, Goddess instinct or primal intuition. Whatever you call it, please call on it – often. Learn your captain’s language and you will not feel lost. Why rely on clumsy, conventional wisdom to navigate an unparalleled life? The spiritual study of “A Course in Miracles” asks, “Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him?”

I think those of us who dare to live a larger life often feel smaller and more uncertain. We are walking naked into the unknown. We are leaving behind the safety of mass agreement and approval. It would be a sad situation if we truly were alone. But we’re not. We have guidance. We have a knowing sense within us, a more vibrant encompassing compass, and this beloved presence will empower us beyond our wildest dreams.

But most of us don’t consult this incredible resource until our old answers no longer bring us peace, freedom or prizes. That’s why feeling uncertain is the first step toward a velvet life. It’s when we become available or ready to expand our understanding. In twelve-step programs they call it “being teachable.” That means that “know-it-alls” are a bit hobbled in this realm. Finally, poetic cosmic justice. Because maybe those of us who sometimes feel as though we can’t find our way out of a paper bag might just careen our way into grace. Author Anne Lamott, quoting a friend of hers, says, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with.”

And all that being said, you do deserve to feel secure inside, resolved and whole. It’s time to don your eagle wings. Stop going it alone. Ask for help. Ask within. Begin this vital communication. Bring your hesitancy with you and even your cynicism. But don’t deny yourself the privilege of using your full strength. You have beautiful radar within you and it only gets more resonant with practice.

What a brilliant design. We have to feel frustrated by life so that we’ll reach deep within us to find answers we didn’t find in the world. Perhaps they’re the answers we came to give the world.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of “THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!)” She is also a national A Course in Miracles presenter and sought-after speaker and career coach who has helped thousands worldwide to discover and live their true life’s work.

Photo credit: Lori_Greig

Move Inspiration Through You

Here’s another holiday gift idea from Gabrielle Bernstein!

One aerobic workout ignites my inner light like no other. It’s called IntenSati. Founded by fitness guru Patricia Moreno, this workout is a combination of a hardcore cardio dance workout and positive affirmations. “Inten” means intention and “Sati” means mindfulness. IntenSati is designed to ignite the fire that lives deep inside you – also known as your inspiration or, as I like to say, your ~ing! The combination of powerful movements and positive affirmations creates miraculous shifts in your core and blasts your inner light through you. If I’m ever in a foul mood or over-thinking a problem, I can hop into an intenSati class and my whole mindset shifts within an hour. The beauty is that it’s accessible to you at home via Patricia’s numerous DVDs, which you can buy at http://www.satilife.com/

You can check out more of my favorite things here!

Photo Credit: Psychology Today

A Declaration of Independence for the Free Soul

By Tama J. Kieves

In honor of Independence Day, why not write your own Declaration of Independence?

What do you want to declare or break free from? I want to break free from holding back my power. I no longer want to live with only my low beams on. I want to shine so unequivocally that others decide to abandon their own shadow choices. I want to break away from the undermining thinking of the “realistic” world, and choose some independent thinking, some firecracker, celebrating, birth-giving thoughts. Here’s an excerpt from my Declaration of Independence. Want to come and live in my country?

As of this very second, I allow myself to be blessed.

I allow myself to be uncorked, unabashed, and showered with delicious good in every facet of my life.

I don’t need to fit in anymore, in the world of struggling, suffering, complaining, and belittling. I am going nova and that’s okay. I am willing to have things be easeful and brimming with sheer wonder and I am willing to deserve this. None of us deserve this. That’s why it’s grace. It’s not about deserving. It’s about allowing Spirit to love and give to us.

Spirit, I am willing to allow you to give to me now. My work here doesn’t have to be oppressive. I don’t have to plod uphill anymore, dimming my song, or accepting crumbs and crusts and bowing my head. I can keep my heart wide-open and parade through wide-open doors to a welcoming world. I believe you want every golden circumstance for me. I believe you want me to experience more fun, jubilance, connection, generosity, nurturance, and synchronicity than ever before. I believe you want me to know your nature, which is not one of limitation or punishment or lack of any kind. I believe there are doorways to your kindness that I haven’t opened yet. There are oceans and skies I couldn’t see because I subscribed to the map of the world. There is honey I’ve never tasted, bounty not of this realm.

I am willing now to let go of the familiar and allow your unparalleled love. I am willing to let go of what I think is possible or right or worldly or to be expected. I am willing to allow you to dream through me, dance through me, breathe through me, grace through me, vibrate through me, peace through me, burst through me, light through me, laugh through me, gleam through me, dream through me. I am willing to co-create with you. I am no longer willing to limit your power with silly, tired thoughts about my own. I am no longer willing to shape your destiny by crunching mine into a little ball of stunted possibilities.

Finally, I am willing to allow myself to be cherished and loved and nourished wherever I go and in whatever I do. This is not too much to ask for; it is barely enough because there are so many dimensions of goodness and promise that I have yet to experience. The more I allow myself to receive, the more I can open up to receiving and giving my true love to this world as I have never given before.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of “This Time I Dance! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!).” She is a sought-after speaker and visionary career coach who has helped thousands world-wide to discover and live their true life’s work. Visit her at ThisTimeIDance.com.

Photo credit: kyz