Janis had an incredible imagination. She had dreams that were so full of color and beauty that others would be stunned to witness them. She wondered what it would be like to live her imagination out loud. It was a scary proposition. What if people thought she was weird? The ideas that sprang from her imagination were incredibly unique, and Janis knew it. What if the rest of the world didn’t like them?
There was one memory that held Janis back. In grade school she did let her imagination emerge into the real world. She drew a fantastic picture for a school project. It was beautiful and brilliant and uniquely her. But her fourth-grade teacher didn’t have much of an imagination. She couldn’t see the beauty in Janis’ work, and she chastised her for not “coloring in the lines.”
That one memory held Janis back for a long time. She was afraid of letting her brilliance emerge again. One day she decided to take a risk. She would not limit her imagination to her dream world. Her creativity was keeping her up nights, and she had to do something to share it with others. Janis started writing and illustrating a series of children’s books that night. She lived out of her imagination; she got her thoughts onto a page and dared to share them with the rest of the world. Within months, a major publisher accepted her first couple of books and gave her a hefty advance to produce more.
Janis finally had the nerve to live out of her imagination instead of her memory. Are you that brave?
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It’s great to have long-term goals. They help you remember that there is a bigger picture. Life is a series of ups and downs, but the overall trend is what should really command your attention.
It probably doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of things if you flub a presentation at work. Is anyone going to remember that a year from now? Probably not. It’s not the end of the world if you got a rejection letter from a college you really wanted to attend. That is only one aspect of your life, and there are a lot of other options for you to get a great education. No matter what happens to you today in the negative column, things are bound to get better tomorrow. You just have to learn to ride out the storms and keep moving in the right direction.
Look at your overall progress. Is the red line on the chart moving upward despite occasional dips? Then you are in great shape! Failures are very frustrating, but they really don’t mean much if you resolve to keep moving forward. Everyone has failures. Do you still have your ultimate goal in sight?
Your assignment today is to make a line graph of your progress over the last year. Pinpoint specific victories and failures along a timeline and then connect the dots. How does it look? Is there a trend upward or downward? What can you do today to keep the overall direction moving up?
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There will be storms in life. You can be absolutely sure of that. Will you choose to hide in a corner and wait for the storm to pass, or will you dance in the rain?
This is a great quote, but it’s a lot harder to put into practice than it sounds. When life is going badly, it’s difficult to find positive actions to take. It’s much easier to hide and wait out the storm. If you really want to move along the road to success, though, you need to get out there in the rain. Launch yourself into the eye of the storm. When you’re in the center of the action, you have a much better chance of changing the outcome for the better.
Paula was the CEO of a small factory, and she was facing economic crisis and potential layoffs. Instead of hiding behind false reports and fake smiles, she told the truth. Paula went to her employees directly by holding a company meeting. She told them exactly what was going on and let them know that she was open for suggestions that would save the company money and increase profitability. Paula was shocked at how her employees responded to her plea. They came up with terrific ideas for saving money and increasing efficiency. By the end of the year, sales were looking up, and Paula offered an across-the-board raise to her employees as well as several bonuses to the workers with the most effective contributions. They came together as a corporation during a time of crisis rather than scattering and hiding in the corners. Paula and her employees learned to dance in the rain.
How can you practice dancing in the rain rather than hiding from storms?
