This is Day 44 of my 500-Day Journey to 20022020. For some reason, 44 is a number that has relevance for me. I do not know why, nor do I question. I trust.
With that in mind, and my post of last week on GREAT Goals and the HUNT… this past week has been a 
challenge with work load and more. So many ducks! In walking my life this week, I have been reminded that Optimism and positive thinking are two different things for me. Positive thinking tends to stress eliminating the negative. Optimism sees the negative for what it is; something to meet head on and move forward through or around. Optimism believes that there is good and bad … and that the bad is good; because it tests and even directs us.
Consider this story from Baha’u’llah:
- There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love, his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart’s wound had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one deliver him. At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a watchman followed after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to the weary one. And the wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and there, and moaned to himself: “Surely this watchman is Izrá’íl, my angel of death, following so fast upon me; or he is a tyrant of men, seeking to harm me.” His feet carried him on, the one bleeding with the arrow of love, and his heart lamented. Then he came to a garden wall, and with untold pain he scaled it, for it proved very high; and forgetting his life, he threw himself down to the garden. And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked on his ravishing love, he drew a great breath and raised up his hands in prayer, crying: “O God! Give Thou glory to the watchman, and riches and long life. For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Isráfíl, bringing life to this wretched one!”
Your beloved heartfelt vision or dream, the true one, deep inside… the one you are consciously or even unconsciously greatly seeking; there are watchmen along the way. They take the form of obstacles, resistance (as Steven Pressfield puts it), distractions, doubts, confusion and more. We all have them. Healthy living and studying and working as an educator, entrepreneur, leader at school, work, business, community and life requires us to face the watchmen; indeed, the ducks. Famous stories of JK Rowling and many others attest to this.
With all of that in mind and countless examples of my own challenges thus far in life (which I will not recount here), this past week, I have considered my own expectations for what I am calling SNAPSHOT 1: November 15, 2018 through February 12, 2019… 90 days.
- I am walking as a daily student of the practice of character, unity and spirit
- I am learning the first basics of conversational Mandarin and French
- I am continuing my education studies, completing my current course
- I am prayerfully engaged in my Ruhi studies, Books 1 through 7
- I am singing, writing and living daily, with my #bestlittledogintheworld Panda
- I have re-launched the new Epic Engage™ in January, with:
- Project Black Wing™ for launch January 1, 2019
- DELIVER™ sessions November 2018 and January 2019
- Thinking CAPS™ national chats December 2018, and January and February 2019
- NLAWS™ and Speakernet officially launched January 1, 2019
- new blog-comic strip called Aukwords™ launched in January 2019
- momondays St. John`s December 10, 2018
- Speakeasies™ starting in January 2019
- I am sharing epic stories, via video and momondays
- I have strong connections with the business development community, including:
- MBO
- Futurpreneur, and
- NLOWE
- I have successfully completed the Fall term, teaching business leadership at college
- I have a 38 inch waist, eating “more than right”, walking daily
- I have completed and constructed my 20022020 462-day W.E.A.L.T.H.™ Plan.
… having worked on and/or completed those highlighted in blue. Despite the challenges this past week, I have met them with Optimism. I am feeling accomplished, knowing there is more to be done. The 90-Day Snapshot is a brick, with ingredients. Each 90-Day brick builds the 20022020 vision, and each brick’s ingredients (the snapshot) creates the brick.
For me, this is most useful. I will continue to focus on this brick, the brick of now. It is how I conduct my business and leadership coaching in working with others; and it works for me. It works. One brick at a time is how things get built. Concerning yourself with a thousand ideas at once is scattered; and counter productive. Having the end in mind, allows one to strategically focus on what is important… and that is most important.
Know your vision. Mine is:
- It is 20022020, and I am a master and lifelong student of the global body of work around character leadership and unity building. I have learned conversational Mandarin and French to bring that work more global. I have also engaged a deepened level of spiritual studies and practice through The Ruhi Institute, and more. I am living a life filled with love, song, dance, cartooning, writing, epic stories, archery, boxing and more of what and who I love. My #bestlittledogintheworld Panda is by my side in enjoying it all. I am teaching business leadership at College of the North Atlantic, in class and online; and doing my global work of Epic Engage™. I am loving it! I am 110K in weight (slim for my body structure) and benching same; healthy and strong. And, I am financially ready, willing and able to support special projects in which I deeply want to invest and contribute.
Boiled down to:
- It is 20022020, and I am The Unity Guy™; student and educator around leadership grounded in character, unity, and spirit… delivering in English, Mandarin and French. I am living a life filled with love, song, dance, cartooning, writing, epic stories, archery, boxing and all of what and who I love. I am healthy and strong, and wealthy enough to do the work I choose; living as a happy and joyful man.
Then read GREAT Goals and the HUNT, again. Then design your building and understand your 90-Day bricks. Focus on them one at a time. You will get there.
Peace, passion and prosperity.
Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy
