Peace, Love and Oprah

Last week at this time I was waiting for the start of Oprah's "Life You Want" weekend. The experience was incredible and life changing. Oprah spoke for two hours about using your unique and extraordinary spirit to get the life you want. Here are just some of the more important words of wisdom she had to share. I hope that these words bring a few "AHA" moments.

• The life you want is about starting each day anew. Living your calling. Believing in who you can and will become. Uplifting yourself and then others. Celebrating the daily dawning of possibility. 
• To get the life you want you first have to look at the life you have.
• There is no life without a spiritual life. Your life is always speaking to you. You need to listen to your spiritual GPS for everything you are going to do.
• Everything you've ever done and everyone you have every touched is your LEGACY.
• The ordinary moments make for an extraordinary life.
• Purpose is spirit seeking expression.
• What doesn't work in your life is information. Use that information to move in a new direction.
• Everybody has a calling. It's your job in life to pay attention and share it. Nothing you have ever been given as a GIFT was meant to be kept to yourself. Your life is validated by your service to others.
• Not everyone can be famous but everyone can be GREAT.
• Everyone wants the same thing in life. Everyone wants to be heard and know that they matter.
• For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What you put out is going to come back. If you put out hate you will get hate back. If you put out love you will get love back.
• You become what you believe. We are held back by our negative beliefs.
• You have the power to let negative thoughts go. Rephrase negative thoughts into positive phrases that are empowering.
• Worry and fear is trusting in your own power.
• You are responsible for the energy you bring.
• You have a finite amount of time and a finite amount of energy. What will you do with your time and energy?
• Your greatest power is your ability to love. Everyday you get another chance to choose love.
• Failure is life at its most poignant pushing us in a new direction.
• You get to choose the way you think about things. What you focus on expands.
• When you want something all the universe rises up to where you are to help you achieve it.
• Messages come to you in whispers. Listen to the whispers. A whisper feels like a hmmm... If you say to yourself "That's odd"; "that's not right"; "this doesn't make sense..." then listen. That is your life speaking to you. Pay attention to the whispers. 
• If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you.
• Everything you've been through is going to help you GET through. 
• Whatever has happened to you has happened FOR you.
• Nothing that has ever happened to you was WASTED.
• You can't figure out what you're supposed to do if you have to ask someone else.
• When in doubt do nothing. Be still for awhile.
• It is time to say "yes" to your life and say "yes" to your dreams.
• Train yourself to say "thank you" every day.
• Write a new story for yourself. Start to live that story intentionally.

Find some of the stories shared at the "Life You Want" weekend and more inspirational messages in her new book "What I Know for Sure" by Oprah Winfrey.

Change is Hard

A former boss and the best mentor I ever had often said "change is hard" when promoting a new idea at a staff meeting. Gasp! To her this "change" was filled with excitement but everyone else saw any change to the status quo as filled with dread. What does this mean? Will my job get harder? Will I have the skills to do this new thing? What's wrong with doing things the same way we've always done them? It's safe and known and I'm pretty good at it. Does change really have to be this hard?

Sometimes a life change IS hard and sudden and dramatic (a devastating diagnoses, an unexpected loss) and is associated with something bad. No one wants bad things to happen so we strive to avoid any kind of change. It's safer to not think about life changing.  How do we graciously accept constant change?

I've learned that good change and bad change coexist together to create the yin and yang of life.  Some changes in life are by choice and some just happen whether we like it or not. We can't appreciate one without the other. A year ago this week we were settling into our apartment in Savannah. I consciously made the choice to change jobs, move to Savannah, leave friends and family, and exchange the "safety" of what I knew for a different opportunity. I was excited about all the possibilities that Savannah had to offer. I was ecstatic to start an increasingly more responsible position at the public library. I was thrilled for the chance to learn something new.

Positively, we moved to a wonderful city that we love. We've enjoyed a lot of quality time with family and have met some fascinating new friends. We bought the perfect house in the middle of the historic district within walking distance to everything. We've explored, tasted, talked and laughed our way through the last year.

Unfortunately my job change did not work out so well. With loving support from my husband, I made the choice to walk away after eleven months.  I had no way of knowing that the job would turn out to be something different than I expected. My personal and professional ethics were challenged and I opted not to compromise my personal and professional ethics. As I said to one administrator, "I'm too young to retire, but I'm too old to put up with these shenanigans". So I walked away with my self-respect in tow. At first I worried a lot about losing my "librarian" identity but it was more important not to lose myself. It seemed like a big, life-altering change at the time but is getting smaller and easier by the day. The best part is that I get to spend more time with my family and friends doing the things that I love in a place that I love. Through the entire soul searching process I learned a lot of positive things about myself and that is always a good thing!

A few years ago I attended a library workshop called "Lead the Change". The presenter, referring to  library organizations, said "if you're not changing you're not growing".  This is true in our personal lives as well. I have found that what might look like a "bad" change usually leads to something very good. I'm not sure what is in store for me next but it is time again to embrace change and grow.  Change is good!