Poof! It was like they just disappeared! I don’t know the exact moment when. Or which ones specifically left first. But a bunch of my life-long ideas, my limiting beliefs and my ‘stories’ about my own shortcomings and undeserving-ness went away this week.

I do know Why.

I can’t afford them anymore.

Funny, when in hindsight we find out how rich we’ve really been in our lives.

Rich enough to procrastinate. Rich enough to waste time. Rich enough to run mind-circle after mind-circle thinking about how I’m not good enough, to do, or have or become, the person I’d really like to be…

Yeah, that was a reality for me.

Until Monday.

I have been doing this coaching thing in a new way for the last year or so.

I have been coached by world-class individuals.

However, I had not yet hired a longer-term agreement, a very expensive agreement.

I have paid very well for coaching in smaller chunks, but for me this one was a biggie.

In fact, it took all the rest of my stash of money, that I’ve held onto since 2010.

Yup, the emergency fund is gone.

Spent purposefully, to create urgency. To step forward boldly once again into a new created future. To hire expert support, guidance and honest challenging feedback.

It was spent for Launch.

And now, I can no longer afford to hold onto my limiting, victim-oriented, blame-game thoughts that keep me from moving forward or taking action.

Writing the big check was like sitting butt-down into a super-speed slipper-slide that took me up, up, up the ladder of consciousness. Like a reverse-gravity fall. A true mind-shift.

Sure it was scary. Of course! But the movement, and freedom of release, leaves us only one direction to focus, and that is forward my friends.

And Forward Feels Good!

There is this thing in the world called Coaching. It creates powerful and amazing results in the lives of real people. I have experienced the teaching and coaching from the world’s best. In person I’ve seen this work transform. I’ve been transformed.

It’s Real.

And I now boldly declare ‘I Can Help You.’

(see I would’ve been too afraid to do that before 🙂 )

The funny part is, that when I had my first conversation with Megan Sillito, that would lead to me requesting her fee and a contract with her, I coached her first.

Yes, it was a peer coaching (back and forth) call, that I began as Coach, her as Client.

Our work together was deep and moving and fun. I was flattered when she added the results of our work, to her daily mantra script. She had developed it previously with her world-class coach Rich Litvin. This was a big success moment for me.

Then when the tables turned, and I showed her my inner desires for really serving people, instead of just talking about it, I first brought up the need for support longer-term.

It’s fun when someone sees you playing with fire and wants to join in. Even to help you spread that fire around and add a bunch of their own fuel to the flames. Megan’s sassy like that, and we’re a good fit. This is going to be Real Fun!

I don’t know if this blog will survive the Launching process, or if it will transform into something new. I do know that already, my writing has been the tool of my new actions.

I have YOU, the reader, to thank for that.

Without somebody out there watching these words every week, I wouldn’t have been honing this skill for over two years now.

We’ll see if it’s true that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

So, as I look back at all the reasons why I haven’t been inviting conversations that could have supported and ignited other people’s dreams immensely, they seem so small.

Funny, that I was really too cushioned, and too complacent in my relative ‘richness’ to actually step up and challenge these baby speedbumps.

Gathering No’s and Working, really Working for people is my bold commitment.

It has to be, I’ve given myself no choice.

Thank You Megan for ‘tossing your hat in the ring’ as someone who wants to play All Out and Up Our Game Together.

Thank You God, for being patient with me, for your steadfast love. A love so deep that it  allows me to make my own mistakes. To persistently hold myself back. To strain and fight to keep my own light dim, while you know the brightness you created in all of us.

I’m again amazed.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

Logos, I’ve created TONS of ’em. Too many to count.

You have too, lemme explain.

I have a professional level skill in graphic design that I’ve used for many years, and yes, you probably think that’s what I’m talking about with Logos.

A company name, or school name, or event name layered with shapes or an image and a font that expresses a unique quality… That is a Logo right?

Sure, but there’s more…

I remember waaay back in grade school, when computers had real floppy disks and the screen was just black and green, there was a program named Logo.

Did you ever use it??

I spent tons of time typing in commands to a little green ‘turtle’ that would zip around the monitor, and leave a trail behind him. He could go left, right, up or down and maybe even angles too. It would only take like a whole painstaking hour to create a set of stair steps graphics and make you feel completely genius as a computer programmer…

Anyway, that software was called Logo – it began my experience with computers.

And now, on Wednesday nights at my church, I spend an hour and a half being a ‘table parent’ at our kids’ program… Called… you guessed it, Logos!

My job is to sit down and eat dinner with 2nd-6th grade kiddos while we keep a civilized and orderly table together. We pass our dishes family style and share about our week at school or whatever. It is another fantastic program that I’m lucky to be a part of.

Now, why spend all this time pointing out that this word Logos has been in my life so long?

And why say that You Too have created Tons of Logos in your life?

Well, Pastor Tim had explained awhile back that the Greek translation of the word Logos, is basically Word.

Origin: 

1580–90;  < Greek lógos  a word, saying, speech, discourse,thought, proportion, ratio, reckoning,
akin to légein  to choose,gather, recount, tell over, speak; compare lection

Sure, we’ve all created tons of Words in our lives, right?? How important are they?

They speak our lives into existence. The ones we choose are paramount.

Powerful Are Words.

In fact, the most divine of Word, shows up as Logos in John 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Wow. I was blown away when Tim shared this definition.

lo·gos -[loh-gos, -gohs, log-os] 

Is it a profound ‘coincidence’ that my life itself has been saturated with this idea of Logos since early childhood? And now, every week, I sit among the bright and silly kiddos of our church, while they express the true essence of the love of Jesus Christ.

I see and love that Logos, the Word, Christ, has been with me, and is with us Always.

Thanks be to God.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

How did it get there? Who did this? Why didn’t someone else notice it? Whoa is me, my wedding pictures would be great, if it weren’t for this darn blue box!

See it? It’s right there? Right in the middle of the picture!

Are you looking?

Okay let me show you more.

Surely, you can see it there now right?

Surely you can see this big problem too, right!

Yeah, there it is now, I see it everywhere!

Okay, GREAT, now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t see anything else! Wow, these pictures would be really awesome if it weren’t for that Blue Box!!

Really?? Truly?? Is anyone out there rolling their eyes right now?

Why would I spend so much time focusing on a small unimportant part of this picture, this event, this amazing day? Why would I lament and moan and groan about a very minute issue that I clearly can’t go back and change? Why would I sit here and show the world my little issue and problem in an otherwise beautiful set of pictures?

Cause that is what we tend to do with Life. And it’s a misunderstanding we can clear up.

How many times have I spent energy and time pointing out a small detail of my otherwise beautiful life experience, until my energy and focus has it become The Whole Thing. Where in our lives are we speaking up and pointing out something ‘wrong’ about ourselves, our bodies, our careers, our relationships, our families, our friends, our community, our politics, our economy, our world?

So is the Blue Box really that ‘Bad’???

First of all, it’s only there in my life, because things are in my life. It’s Life.

Second of all, it’s only ‘bad’ because I decided it was bad. My Choice.

Third of all, it’s only super noticeable to me, because I chose to spend more time noticing it. I Directed My Own Mind to It, and since I decided it was ‘bad’ already, the more I noticed it, the more ‘badness’ I found.

Are you seeing sillyness here?? Are you bold enough to see the sillyness it represents?

A friend, coach and author, Molly Fiore, calls it the Rabbit Hole. We are choosing to go down the Rabbit Hole of the thinking about the Blue Box. I can even expand on this if you want, it may make it feel more familiar…

• Oh, that blue box just keeps showing up!
• Someone else messed this up! Putting it there, wasn’t considerate of the pictures!
• Oh, why didn’t I see it there, and ask that it be moved! I could have fixed this!
• You know, there’s always a blue box that ruins something good for me! FML!
• Just wait, young person out there, be aware of the blue boxes that mess things up!
• We need to ban all boxes, especially blue ones, then we wouldn’t have problems!
• If it weren’t for the Blue Boxes of the world it would still be great! Like the good ole days before we had plastic blue boxes! Rucksacks and baskets were the best!

Really? Yup.

This is how we live from the Outside – In. It’s Victim Thinking.

This is when it appears that something outside of us, has created a feeling within us.

Impossible.

It doesn’t work that way.

All of our feelings are created within. We can choose anything we want. We can stop all agony over all the blue boxes in our life right now, in this very moment.

When we really get and notice that We Choose to put all judgement on that box, then our brain, our body is just carrying out the ‘feelings’ that we told it to have upon seeing it.

There are no bad boxes, unless we call them bad. There are no good boxes, without calling them good. Same with the whole picture. It is, whatever I Decide it is.

• It could be almost all good, but for the problem blue box.
• It could be something to be fixed and photoshopped, then it will be good.
• It could be completely ruined.
• It could be Perfect as is.