Elizabeth Gilbert- following our calling

Elizabeth’s story was truly eye opening. She described her life as “going as planned.”  She had done everything right, everything that was expected. And, she was finally at the point where she should have been begun a family.

One problem, she -like many others- felt restless. She would ended up on the floor of her bathroom every night around 3 am, crying. She said something didn’t feel right. She needed more..  and she was fully aware that what she was doing was easy. And what she was about to do, terribly difficult.

During the process of her two year divorce, she found herself praying and crying in one of the busiest post offices in New York. During this session, the universal voice that had been talking to her told her to go out into New York and find something beautiful.

She thought to herself, “Beautiful? In New York?” But, none the less, she said felt resilient and determinded. Upon stepping foot out into the big city to begin her mission, there in the street was a line of elephants all dressed up and festive.

It would be a year later that she set out on her ultimate quest. Any hard times she hit through that year were often greeted with Elephants,  on sweaters, necklaces, newspapaers. Always a friendly reminder that, while her “planned life” was ending, but her real journey was just beginning.

One of her connecting examples is a story of a mother, 28, 5 kids, married. Again, sounds typical. Until one day, her husbands decides to never come home. That day, that women did a few things, got a job, and decided she would see the world by putting a $1 in a coffee can every day. She also decide that her life wouldn’t stay that way. 20 years later,  empty-nested, she cashed in those coffee cans and bought a freight ticket to spend a year going around the world.

Now the surprise isn’t in that she did it, she had promised herself she would. 

It is in the fact that her kids were shocked because they could never have imagined that that would have been one of her dreams. They hadn’t ever thought that their mother wanted anything more than to provide for them.  (I know I am definitely guilty of this.)

The  lesson in this, is listen to the universal voice. If something feels wrong, it is because you are meant to be doing else.

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Oprah #LifeYouWantWeekend #Tour was nothing short of life changing [Part 1]

This post will start off a 4-part recap of the Life You Want Tour. 

I will go over what I took away from each speaker. 

I hope that I do a good enough job that you too be able to understand how to have the Life You Want.

To begin with, being in the presence of Oprah for two days in a row was a feat on its OWN. (see what I did there?) But, secondly the way she and her guest speakers spoke life into your soul was honestly a privilege to enjoy.

Oprah opened with a segmented on how our lives are connected by dots.

She explained how our "dots" connect to make our life what it is today. One of her "dots" was when she was about still very little. Her grandmother, who was caring for her, was outside boiling clothes and hanging them. Oprah was standing on the doorway about to churn butter when her grandmother shouted back at her, "You better watch me real good because one day you will have to do the same." At that moment, Oprah thought in her head, "No I am not."

She said it was even then that she understood she was going to do something greater. As she got older, she said she would get complimented on how well she spoke publicly or how well she read. All the way until she was 16 years old, getting a spot at a local radio station which eventually lead her way into a news anchor. All of those moments would make up her dots that connected to her where she is today.

Co-creating our lives

This section focused on how our lives are designed by the decisions we make and the way choose to think about those decisions. The way we speak to and about ourselves WILL shape our overall outlook.

The whole focus of this part was  that "everything you've been through will help you get through." Her whole life had prepared her to use her gifts to share her voice. She goes on to say that God (whomever you choose to say is God) puts certain gifts and situations in front of us to help guide our understandings. But the way we speak to ourselves will also help manifest those thoughts and ideas into life.

Her example here was when she was reading the Color Purple. She loved the book so much she bought copies and handed them out to everyone she knew. She so badly wanted to be in the movie but had lost hope on getting the part. But her attempts to speak it into existences say it manifest.

Her next lesson: Wanting for others

This lesson actually asked the audience to thing about someone they truly love and the clearly envision a life for them. What kind of car would they drive? What kind of house would they have? How many kids? Job? Friends? Where would they be? 

In understanding, it was what you would be willing to give that person if we could. What dreams of theirs would you want to see fulfilled and would be able to be truly happy to see them achieve. This is to help us understand the power of giving and also how to want for others. This lesson is powerful, it really tests your willing to give. But also shows how easy it is to want to see someone you love happy. 

To piggy back off of her earlier example, she said she finally had to come to terms with the possibility that the other actor was going to get the part and to allow herself to be happy for her and blessings before she was able to find out that she indeed had gotten the part.

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