A man was teaching his young son how to ride a bike, and inevitably, his son fell many times. Each time the boy fell down, his dad would tell him, “You’re getting so good!”
After a while, frustrated, near tears and lying on the pavement, the young boy asked his father,
“Why do you keep saying that? I’m falling down over and over!” The man replied, “Yes son, that is exactly how you get good. You are learning what doesn’t work.”
The next day the man awoke to shouts and laughter outside his window. When he pulled back the drapes he discovered his son joyfully riding his bike down the sidewalk.
If you are keeping yourself trapped inside your comfort zone to avoid making mistakes, you may actually be making the greatest mistake of all—limiting your opportunity for growth.
With the benefit of 60+ years of hindsight, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no such things as mistakes. Only things I tried that didn’t deliver the result I expected in the way and time I hoped. But some of my greatest learning experiences have come from what looked like my greatest fiascos. Sometimes, years after the event, I can see how things not going the way I planned proved a better path for revealing and advancing the highest good for all, in all, through all.
To experience my most cathartic, joyful breakthroughs and make my greatest possible contribution to the world, I had to let go of my fear of the unknown and the unpredictable, give up the illusion of control, trust my intuition and take some risks. While the dead ends, bumps and bruises along the way were sometimes frustrating and painful, they were also my greatest teachers.
Say a resounding “yes” to life! Keep expanding your horizons. Embrace new opportunities and challenges with hope, curiosity and a grateful heart. Over time, like all of the great inventors, you’ll tap into huge veins of gold by becoming really good at eliminating what doesn’t work so that you can reveal the immense power of what does.
In the words of country singer Kathy Mattea, “Spread your wings, close your eyes and always trust your cape!”
© Copyright 2015 DJW Life Coach LLC. All rights reserved.
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 
Thank you for the messages in your newsletters. I find such comfort in the words, especially your last one about falling off track this fall and then going back to the basics to overcome your fear and overwhelm. I am feeling lots of both right now as I end this job in Denver and move back to Wisconsin for another job. It’s a lot to take in. Have a wonderful weekend, Heidi Normandin(Denver)
From: Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! To: heidinormandin@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2015 11:18 PM Subject: [New post] Expanding Your Horizons #yiv5913218280 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv5913218280 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv5913218280 a.yiv5913218280primaryactionlink:link, #yiv5913218280 a.yiv5913218280primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv5913218280 a.yiv5913218280primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv5913218280 a.yiv5913218280primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv5913218280 WordPress.com | djwlifecoach posted: “A man was teaching his young son how to ride a bike, and inevitably, his son fell many times. Each time the boy fell down, his dad would tell him, “You’re getting so good!”After a while, frustrated, near tears and lying on the pavement, the young boy ” | |