The Element of The First Step and Its Hope for Getting Big Things Started In Our Lives

 

Picture Courtesy: Shutterstock: Erica Cross

What’s the secret to becoming a doer from a dreamer?

An activist from a moaner and groaner?

An agent for change from an armchair philosopher?

An achiever from an admiring watcher from the sidelines?

Simple.

Take the first step.

The First Step can Change Everything

The first post or article we write.

The first song we compose or sing.

The first dish we cook.

The first audition we go to.

The first presentation we make.

The first rock we climb.

The first fear we conquer.

The first emotional victory we achieve.

The first business step.

The first day of being clean.

First steps lead to bigger steps.

This I have seen.

From Sunshine Foods to Trident Fabrications

There is a hamburger cart in Bangalore which bears the sign “Sunshine Foods”. This cart was one of the first steps in the amazing entrepreneurial journey of my brother-in-law Arun.  Even before completing his engineering, he took up a machining contract from Mico and used a friend's shed on Tannery Road to execute the work with his friend Chakrapani's help. After getting his engineering degree, he started making helmets in his garage. Then he met a friend out of catering college and the two of them came up with the idea for Sunshine Foods. From selling burgers from a cart and fabricating helmets, Arun went on to set up 2 industrial plants in Peenya  to design and manufacture a wide range of products for the transportation industry, including earth mover cabins and seats. Recently he spread his wings and developed Sundance serviced apartments in a prestigious locale in Bangalore.  Arun is a great example of what a single person with a vision can do when they take the first step.  And one of the first steps in Arun’s entrepreneurial journey was Sunshine Foods.

From Ungal Butterfly to Slum Dog Millionaire

Ungal Butterly was a jingle composed for a tv commercial for the Butterfly range of cookware. It marked one of the early steps in the musical journey of A. R. Rahman.  From this ordinary beginning of composing and recording jingles for tv commercials, A.R. Rahman went on to become a leading composer in the Indian film industry, and eventually a global sensation as the well-known creator of the soundtrack for Slum Dog Millionaire.

From driving a single garbage truck to being at the helm of 3 Fortune 500 companies

In the 60’s, a garbage truck made its way around a Florida suburb from 2:30 a.m. till noon every day. Its owner-driver was Wayne Huizenga. That garbage truck was the start of an amazing business story in which Wayne founded Waste Management and bought 133 garbage hauling companies to create the largest waste disposal company in America.  Wayne would go on to create two other Fortune 500 companies - Block Buster and Auto Nation. And it all started with a single garbage truck he bought as a teen.

The First Step

Whatever our goal - financial, entrepreneurial, physical, emotional, spiritual or creative…it all starts with the first step.

When we take that first step, we are on our way.

We get connected with what we want from our lives.

Even if it’s different from what everyone else wants.

Even if it’s different from what others think we should want.

The first step may be a garbage truck.

A hamburger cart. 

A jingle for a commercial.

A car wash service.

A batch of cupcakes.

Only we know where we can go with that.

Others may not be able to see at all.

They cannot see beyond our first step. They will take it at face value.

When college-going classmates saw Wayne picking up garbage in his garbage truck, one of the classmates looked at another classmate and said– “just imagine that might have been us - driving a garbage truck!” The classmate had no idea. Wayne had big plans. Owning and driving the garbage truck was just the first step.  He did not know the vision Wayne had for himself. He did not know where that vision would end up taking Wayne.  To the top.  To making him the owner of the largest waste disposal company in America. And much more.

Following Our Vision

The first step.

Taking it means not letting anything hold us back from our vision.

The weight of our parents' achievements and expectations.

The weight of the values (and sometimes hot buttons) of the people in our lives – our family and friends.

The weight of what everyone else is doing. (Majority thinking).

Following our vision will require us to be strong and individual.

We are socialized to think in terms of “what can I do which will make the maximum income and bestow on me the maximum status and allow me to buy a fancy house and furnish it with envious appliances and furnishings and have a fancy car and clothes to go with it and go on fancy vacations?”

We will have to buck that.

We will have to ignore the voice in our heads that says “am I crazy – to be wanting to drive a garbage truck, to sell hamburgers from a cart?  I should just follow the crowd.”

Don’t.

Don’t be afraid to think what you think.

Don’t be afraid to want what you want.

Don’t be afraid of the ideas you have.

When people go on a vacation to Italy and we see the work of Michael Angelo or Leonardo da Vinci, no one stops to think:” Why aren’t our times like the Renaissance?  What would it take for a modern day Michael Angelo and a modern day Leonardo da Vinci to flourish?”

Maybe you have thoughts like this.

A Renaissance type flowering of the arts in our lives is possible.

I am not too cynical to hope for it in my lifetime.

One reason why artists flourished during the Renaissance was because people invited them to compete for art commissions.

Can we promote art in our times doing something similar?

I invite you to think about this.

I thought about it and came up with the idea of One Wall.

One Wall would be an online site which would showcase various artists who could offer their services to the public.  Maybe, like Michael Angelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, people could sign up to have a modern day Michael Angelo paint one wall of their home.

If everyone had one wall of their house painted by an artist, we would have a lot more art in our lives, it would help the arts to flourish, and we would cherish our houses more - think of them as beautiful keepsakes rather than as investments.

Anybody ready to take up the challenge of creating One Wall?  I hope someone somewhere will read this post and make it happen.  Or come up with their own idea to create a Renaissance in our times. The idea can be extended. One Song (you select from different bands to compose and perform one song for you – a birthday song, wedding song). One Skit.  And so on and so on.

But back to what I was saying about taking the first step.

Here are some of the first steps I took in my life I am so very grateful I took and am happy about till today…..

Starting this blog

As many of you know, this blog means the world to me. The first step I took to get it going was writing and publishing my first post 4 Decisions I Wish I Had Made Earlier. This was on December 27, 2010.  I am now on my two hundred and twenty second post. Yay.

Learning to Meditate

As my post Connected Minds states, my life changed in many different and wonderful ways after learning to meditate.  The first step I took was to apply the technique suggested in the book How God Changes Your Brain.  Initially, it was hard to go for 20 minutes, but I kept at it and now it’s a regular part of my life and I never watch the clock.

Starting Purple Patch

Running my own creative shop -Purple Patch – was a hugely fulfilling experience for me.  The first step I took was to leave HTA and spread the word about my availability for freelance creative work.  I did this knowing full well I might fail and have to eat a large slice of humble pie.  But Yay - Purple Patch had a great run and even spawned the careers of two other copywriters.

Becoming an SPM Consultant

I love being an SPM Consultant.  It has given me the opportunity to work at several different companies and on several different implementations and projects.  It has given me exposure to sales commission plans in a variety of different companies – Trepp, Salesforce, Splunk, Fusion IO, Lynda, Epicor, White Hat, Cyberonics and Varian Medical.  And I have met and maintain contact with several wonderful people whom I met on assignment. The first step to becoming an SPM consultant was not letting a bad economy stop me from giving up my full time job as a commissions analyst.  With a few strategic steps  -and the good fortune to get connected with Solution Partners and Spectrum Technologies -, I have been able to enjoy this for 3 years running.

Giving Up Anger

As you know from my posts The Path To Change and How Many Times A Day Do You Visit Ireland?, learning to deal with my anger issues is one of my big emotional victories.  My first step was to observe the thoughts in my head while angry and not act on them.  When you do that, typically the thoughts subside and the anger goes away.  Expressed anger usually leads to more anger, as in “I can’t believe you made me so angry that I said that or did that”.

Getting Over My Fear of Public Speaking

Most people have a fear of public speaking.  Mine was a crippling fear. The first step to dealing with it was to join Toastmasters and do my Icebreaker speech. Before I knew it, I had completed the 9 other speeches and earned my CTM badge. And all I had to do was take the first step of joining Toastmasters.

What are the first steps you have taken in your life?

And what first steps are you getting ready to take?

What is big in your heart to do?

A new direction?

An unexplored creative pursuit?

A secret passion?

A new idea?

A desire to share the truth about yourself with the world?

Well, you know what you have to do.

Just one thing…..

....take the first step!

As always thanks for reading and have a great day and week…I hope this post will inspire future Aruns, future A.R. Rahmans, future Wayne Huizengas.......M….a Pearl-Seeker like you. P.S.  If you need further inspiration to take that first step, read my post What's Next For You? and my post The Element of Release from Inhibition and Its Hope for Discovering Our Creative Self.

The Element of Mindfulness and Its Hope for New States of Consciousness.

Picture Courtesy: Sylvia Sky

We live in a state of continuously changing consciousness.

We eat something.  We feel pleasure or disgust.

We listen to a song on the radio.  We feel delight or awe or emotion.  If the song has rhythm, our foot starts tapping.

We enter a church or museum – we feel awe and reverence.

We go to a movie.  We feel fear, we feel excitement, we puzzle over the plot twists.

Our favorite sports team or our political party loses a battle – we feel frustrated.

We play a chess or video game, or we try to solve an intellectual or human puzzle.  We are in a state of engagement. 

When I learned to meditate, it became one of my goals to alter, escape, control, heighten, or reduce the severity of these alternate states of consciousness – depending on whether I wanted more of them or less.

I started by becoming more mindful and aware of my state of consciousness. Noticing how my mind changed and my body changed in response to different situations. What my thoughts were. What my sensations were. And what my feelings were.

Then I thought about what the ideal state of consciousness for those situations would be. 

Here are some of the questions I posed to myself about situations, and the state of consciousness I thought would be appropriate. 

Does the situation call for delight?

When I eat one of my favorite foods, or when I eat something new which delights my palate, I want to be in a state of total attention and in the moment - so I can enjoy and delight in the food. I don’t want to be walloping it down mindlessly, while I think about the next task on hand, or while I fret and fume about today’s annoyance, problem or irritation.  

Does the situation call for non-ego?

When someone cuts me off on the road, or expresses road rage at me, because I am not going at the speed limit he or she wants to me go at, I want to respond with non-ego. Of course, this is tough to achieve; so what I want to do is the next best thing – to observe my reflexive angry ego internal response until it evaporates. Sometimes, it will leave leftover emotional residue which will take a little longer to wear off – I want to observe that too.  I feel strongly about road rage.  Horrible things have happened because of it.  A year ago, a bus and a motorcyclist got into a road rage spat which resulted in the bus and the motorcyclist knocking each other, eventually leading to the motorcyclist’s death and his body being dragged for a mile under the bus.  Please read my post How to Become a Low Maintenance Person if road rage is an issue for you.

Does the situation call for counting to 1000?

At work, someone shouts “you didn’t do this” or “why can’t you understand?” or “how come you don’t know this with all your experience?”  This happens because we are not perfect, and there are bosses and coworkers who don’t know how to deal with imperfections. At such times, we have to figure out a way to alleviate and reduce our instant internal defensive, angry fight or flight feelings and thoughts, until those feelings and thoughts go away.

Does the situation call for engagement?

When we are fully engaged in something, as when writing this blog, we may not need to watch our thoughts – our consciousness is in the best state it could be – on task, in the flow, as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would call it.  So far, I am glad to report, I have always been in that state when writing this blog.  Of course engagement carries its own challenges.  When someone disturbs us in the middle of something we are engaged in, and which requires our full attention, we have to learn not to lash out.

Does the situation call for attention?

When anyone is talking to us, they deserve our full attention - and not our distracted only-half-there minds.

Does the situation call for awe?

When we look at the stars and think about infinity, when we ponder the diversity, vastness, complexity and amazing beauty of nature, when we enter a hallowed place such as a museum, a church, a temple, we want to be in a state of awe.  My post How to Become a New Person tells you how observing a full moon and coming upon a rattlesnake while walking the trail brought on that state of awe for me. The next time you are in a situation which calls for awe, I hope you will give yourself fully to the moment.

Does the situation call for respectful silence?

There are some situations, such as when we are honoring the dead, or watching a couple exchange bridal wows or watching any solemn ceremony – when we want our thoughts to be respectfully silent.

Does the situation call for joyful abandon?

When we watch or listen to enjoyable entertainment, or we dance to music, we want to give ourselves to the moment wholeheartedly and without reserve.

Does the moment call for overlooking and forgiving and forgetting and not doing anything rash?

Our biggest challenge is responding appropriately to provocation – not going berserk when our hot buttons are pushed.  This is the greatest consciousness victory of all.

Meditation has done wonders for me in all these respects.

In my post TheElement of Challenge and its Hope for Pushing Us Out of Our Comfort Zone, I make mention of the best FRD I ever wrote. This FRD was written for a company which makes an interesting medical implant for epileptics.  The device is a battery the size of a dollar which is surgically implanted in the chest of the patient and has threads going to the vagus nerve in the neck.  The physician programs the device to deliver short bursts of electric stimulation from the battery along the vagus nerve to the brain.  Additionally, the patient is given a hand held device to control the stimulation themselves. VNT (Vagus Nerve Therapy) helps patients who do not respond to medication to control their epilepsy.  It reduces both the frequency and severity of epileptic episodes.

Meditation, likewise, has helped me reduce the severity and frequency of angry, defensive flight or flight responses.  I find that even when I can’t get rid of the response altogether, I am able to meditate until I am out of that state. This is a big deal.  It cuts short the fretting and fuming that follows.  And keeps me from doing anything foolish, which of course, is always a temptation in these situations. I use meditation to cope till I calm down. 

Sooner or later, we always calm down. When enough time has passed, we even are able to laugh about distressing incidents.

When I came to America, I had a driving instructor from hell.  Once she got mad at me because I changed lanes without looking at the front and side mirrors. She swung the front mirror away from me and yelled, “obviously, you don’t need this.  You didn’t look at it once”.  I was terrified.  She regularly terrorized me and the other students during the lessons.  One student even started crying. I couldn’t wait for the driving classes to end.  Now I laugh about it and Rosie says I am a good driver because of the instructor’s harsh lessons.  Driving Boot Camp :)

Meditation has been such a win – win for me.

Not only am I able to deal better with provocation, I am also able to experience more awe and wonder, more “aha “moments, more delight, more cheerfulness, and more connectedness.

But then you know this from my post Connected Minds.

Connectedness and compassion is the best state of consciousness – when we feel connected and we care for others - we typically don’t need anything else to feel life is worth living.

It’s a fulfillment in itself.

As I said in my post The Element of Vision and Its Hope for Lighting Our Path, there’s not a soul in the world who can’t provide me with some information for my blog.

This is a wonderful epiphany.  An epiphany filled with joy and hope.

I am not unique –countless other people in the world are at the exact same point as I am. They have learned to become aware of their consciousness and experience positive changes in consciousness.

Changed consciousness is available to any and all humans in the world.

You don’t have to go to a monastery and train under a monk or priest. I didn’t. I just read a book and started from there. But if you think it can help, go for it. Alternate ways of thinking and being are just a question of letting the genie out of the bottle. And you may have to try different things to get the genie out of that bottle. 

Join a Bible Study Group.  Go on a retreat.  Give yourself the creative pause I recommend in my post The Element of the Creative Pause and Its Hope for Turning Us Into Idea-Generation Machines. Do what Trevor Blake suggests in his mind-blowing book Three Little Steps.

If you have a desire to find new ways to think and be, sooner or later, you will find new ways to think and be.  It’s just a question of time.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day and week…..M…..a Pearl-Seeker like you.