Flips and Flops but Don’t Stop!

Flopping on the bank, bouncing up and down in the mud, wiggling and squirming, my struggle exhausts me. A wide open mouth seems to gasp, but the dry air does me no good. My greenish black scales and white belly don’t feel like they belong here. A tailflap or another spiky raise of my back spines is useless. These things I can do, my abilities, seem pointless here.The stuff that is naturally me, just isn’t working… at… all…

I want to point our discussion today to CONTEXT. It’s the key. CONTEXT makes all the difference in our world. Nothing else can shift us as fast, as quick and as for real, as a complete overhaul of CONTEXT. 

How long have I been here? Too long to remember the before times. What is it like? Tiresome, Painful, Aggravating, Depressing, Hopeless, Pointless, Bleak and Barely Worth the Fight Anymore… But I flop around some more… That’s all I can do… One eye resting in the mud, the other pointed at the sky. My side fin is pinned under me. It can’t lift my body. It takes all my nonexistent energy to quickly heave my being up and (maybe) forward. Or sideways. Just somewhere adjacent, somewhere ever so slightly different. Heck, how do I know… It’s hard to tell where I am, when the only visual glimpse I get of the surroundings is in a sudden fleeting flash of movement, during my exasperating action.

My gills are parched. The land is scary, where I can barely breath. At first I would panic and freak out, and flop and flop and flop some more. Even the slightest splash of the shallowest puddle would provide life again. After awhile, I learned to live without. It’s a sincere and deep suffering, when the air all around, steals my moisture, and leaves me almost without a reason to go on flopping.

Then there’s the caked on grime and muck. I am getting all gummed up and sticky. Little stones and twigs and dead grasses adhere to me. Yuck! I don’t like that feeling at all! It’s annoying and embarrassing to look so ugly and dirty…

I’m feeling alone now too. I can’t remember the last time I was laughing with friends, or sharing a meal with loved ones. I’m the only one like me here. I can see the occasional little ant go by, or notice the black fly who stops to rest on me. A break from his buzzing around. It seems everyone else here, has the tools to make it, in this world, but me. They can scamper over the mud, or fly through the humid air, to wherever they’d like to go. I just wish I was a bug sometimes. Then this life would be easier…

I haven’t eaten in forever. My favorite meals of little juicy worms or spastic swimming larvae, are not here. Not out here on the bank. Even when I see a worm, they crawl right by me, I flop at them, but fail. Boy do I feel stupid.

My plight feels hopeless. So I just sit sometimes and wait. What else can I do? I think it will have to end at some point. I can’t go on forever like this right? So, why am I still here? Why have I made it this long, in this crummy condition? Why am I here, doing this flopping, yet still feel so stuck! And now, I am not just sad or forlorn or sorry about my stuck-ness, dammit I’M MAD!!!

Yeah! This SUCKS! It Sucks! It Sucks! It Sucks! So I silently scream my fishy head off, without making a sound. Flopping around on the land, where I don’t belong.

Until.

Until I flip that one most important next flop. I couldn’t see how close to the water I was. And I can’t say for sure if it was even me. It could have been gravity that rolled me. Or maybe someone else came along and nudged me with a boot, or a stick. However it has happened… all of a sudden…

SPLASH!!!

Whoosh, down into the coolness. Water! My Home! I just fell so fast and easy down, down, down into the sweet drink of life. Sucking and slurping and swishing. It’s almost too good to be true! I feel the tingle and the wash of wetness rinsing me outside and in. The caked-on mud and grime now floats and drifts away as I work my fins loose once again.

My equilibrium is returning after so long without use. I can sense things around me in brand new ways. I feel the current, the flow. I know that taste, that smell, everything is familiar again. I am receiving messages from all around. A young frog just exploded out of his hiding place, I may have scared him. The plants wave and rub and touch me, such a welcome massage. A wise old turtle lurks down below me, I feel his mass and just know it’s time to move out of his dangerous reach.

Still in disbelief, my recharge is almost instantaneous. I am wide awake and electric with energy! In my first real try, I Zing! and I Dart! and shoot around effortlessly, carving intricately around rocks, over submerged stumps and under an angled fallen limb! Haha! What fun it is to swim again! I am strong and sleek and made to glide! It’s just so nice to see all of my world, my eyes are wide open again. I know what’s ahead of me, where I want to go, and how I want to get there. I can plan and shift and go as slow or as fast as I’d like to. It’s up to me now.

Feeling refreshed, full of life, clean and at home again, I can look for nourishment. I grab some quick snacks under mossy rock. I cruise on. I am really feeling giddy now. My fears are gone. My belly is filling up, and there is plenty to eat here.The bleak hunger that was killing me, is now a smorgasbord of choice morsels!

What’s that? Movement and silver flashes up by the rapids! A whole school of friends! Wow, what fun they’re having! A few quick wiggles of the tail and I’m with them! Jumping and frolicking, daring each other and taking a leap up and over some rocks! Whoa! Not sure I’m ready to jump up and out of the water again just yet!

Ha, these are the finest fishy friends a bass could ask for! They have no idea, that it was just a short time ago, that I was struggling up on the bank by myself. Amazing to me, that now it just doesn’t even matter! My past was long gone the instant I hit that water! I could be myself again!

My true self is such an easy thing to be… Me! When I’m where I’m supposed to be. My struggle is gone, barely even a memory! All I can do is thank God. Way back on the dirty dry bank, I didn’t want to flip or flop or hardly even shrug. I almost, just almost, Gave Up.

But I didn’t. And how, or why or who could’ve known when that struggle would finally end. If I really think back, I know I had given up, over and over and over. It was a series of letdowns and actions and hopes dashed again. But that final move, that final flippity flop, or gravity roll, or nudge from another, was so slight, so small that I didn’t see it coming.

My CONTEXT was reborn in an instant. My CONTEXT, that seemed like death, is now washed with life. My depressing and pointless attempts have ended. It’s now time for flight and fun and freedom again. All in a shift of CONTEXT…

And the amazing thing about this story for us human beings is that when this shift of Context happens, it’s instant. Context lives in our minds. It’s not all about our surroundings. Context is how we process the world around us. It can seem physical however. That is how strong our minds are. It can physically feel like a dying dried out fish, hitting the cold fresh water of a stream, to shift the Context of our minds. It happens in a tiny moment, right where we are at. It takes no change in location, or job, or purchase, or sale, to feel the bliss of a Context shift.

I’m writing today, living in a  new world. A new context. Right now I breathe in a minty brisk air. It’s invigorating! Right now, my mind sizzles and pops with creativity. Right now, my heart is exploding with fullness of love and deeply connected peace. I am in knowing again.

I want to publicly thank my wife Lindsay, for being the spark that ignited this most recent big shift. Wow. What an honor, to share our lives and moments like this together. These are special ones. I appreciate each delicious breath. We did ask for it in prayer. I have asked for the help of others, of Coaches. I am in full awareness that I was nudged back into the freshness of a world I belong, by a power much greater than my own little flip-flapping could ever accomplish. Thanks be to God.

Are you feeling the fresh and fantastic ease of your natural confidence and power? Or do you struggle and gasp and feel the pain of separation from your true calling? Or have you wiggled yourself into a nice shady spot, in the cool mud, resigning to make the best of the situation. Do you say and believe things like: “It is, what it is”, and intend to just ‘get through’ life, riding it out, in tragic comfort on the banks, nowhere near the fun of your true fishy potential?

These choices are ours to make every day. I suggest to keep on flopping, don’t give up, you never know when the next step is the one that makes all the difference 🙂

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

(attributed to ― Albert Einstein)

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

Shift your CONTEXT by talking with me about ‘Struggling or Swimming?’

You’re invited to join the next weirdforgood hangout, and engage in our online workshop – you’ll need a free Google+ account, 45minutes to work with us, at 5:30 CST. You need a device with a camera & headset/microphone. If you can Skype, you can do this, (it’s actually really easy  ) Then email me at aaron@truenorthffc.com – before Tuesday – I’ll send you the hangout invite through Google+ when we start.

Check out last week’s hangout here, to get a feel for it. Join us if you dare!

Big Bad Wolves Are Eating You Alive, Why Feed Them?

I’m Not Creative. It’s True. My mind is bleak and bland, repetitious and boring, dull and taupe in (lack of) color.

Creativity has never really been my thing. In fact, just this week, I had my very first crack at true imagination. I made something new. It was beautiful. It may have been the very first time ever, in my whole life. I enjoyed it 🙂

Now, if you have known me for a long time, you may be wondering why I say I’m not creative. And if I’m not, then why would I pick things like artistic graphic design, photography, web design and writing, to express myself? Maybe you think, I’m being self deprecating, and you can prove that I’m creative, because you either have one or ten tee shirts in your closet that I have ‘created’ over the years, and you think they look cool? I will admit, I have a knack and have practiced for many years to be able to pick fonts and colors and graphics and use professional programs to make a cool design. Even now, I’m writing to you on a blog that I have custom created myself, including all the graphics, all the photography, all the writing too… But I’m speaking about Creativity, in a much more powerful and profound way.

It turns out, that I haven’t been using my Creativity at all, in a very important area.

My thoughts.

Once again, this week, like a thousand times before, I was in reaction mode. I had a couple things on my mind that were bugging me. I had saw myself as backed into a corner. I felt pressure from the weight and heaviness of the issue. I saw a future unfolding because of this issue that I didn’t like. I was perturbed and annoyed that certain things were in my life, and in the life of those around me, that I felt didn’t match up. I had dug a hole of depression in my brain around this issue, and there I sat. Stuck.

Until I got a great message… Until I was blessed with a step up in conciousness… Until I saw that I wasn’t being Creative at all…

See I had this certain situation in my mind, that had me down. If you want to play along, insert any situation of your own, that brings up emotions like: annoyance, regret, disappointment, sadness or anger.

Then run it through this question: Have I decided that this thing is Bad?

Whoa, take that again, more slowly this time:

Run your situation through this question: Have I decided that this thing is Bad?

Powerfully simple, yet profound. I believe this question was a message from a higher power to help me jumpstart my creativity, in new ways.

I HAD decided that this situation I was thinking about, was Bad. I Did think that relationships were suffering and my options were being limited and I couldn’t be fully me, because I HAD DECIDED that this thing Was BAD.

Wow. Now, I’m going to boldly stand here and intentionally ignite a fuse with some readers. On Purpose. (Because I really don’t think this is BAD)

Politics. Religion. The Economy. These are issues that you may have decided are BAD. How about issues with a spouse, or co-worker, or boss, or children? Have you experienced something and immediately gone into a negative reaction mode? Check with yourself right now, and ask, ‘Did I decide that thing was bad?’

If you are capable of asking yourself this question, Bravo! You have a chance to practice a new form of creativity. It can unlock you from stuck situations. It can free the emotional bondage around a broken relationship. It can grease the rusty and mechanically frozen wheels in your mind, that stopped dead in their tracks, the moment You Decided Something was Bad.

We can see in hindsight, plenty of reasons to disprove this choice and judgement of any situation. Seeing later on, that we avoided more pain, or a new door was opened when the one we wanted closed, gets plenty of praise. But let’s live one step closer, in creativity, to  a place that is more exciting and FUN for our naturally creative minds.

I (in theory, and more easily, with more practice) can take any situation, and stop myself before I decide it’s Bad. Or (if I missed that moment) I can see afterward, while feeling junky, that I’ve made this Choice, and go back and pick something new. It’s all up to me. I can switch things around at any time. I’m in charge. Not the situation, or the other person.

The reason for all this playing around and testing new systems of operation? Because I want to feel good.  Guess how I feel, when I decide something is bad… really… think hard on this one! Yeah, BAD! Guess how I feel if I decide something sucks… Yeah, I feel sucky! Guess how I feel, if I decide something is hard… or difficult, or stressful… (yes, these are all DECISIONS we make, not 100% truths) I feel exhausted, and tired and stressed out!

When I decide something is Good. Well, I feel Good. When I decide something is AWESOME! I feel AWESOME! When I decide something is profound, and deeply moving, I feel an ocean of peace and internal power.

Okay, so time for some creativity! Time to awaken the artist in my mind. Time to use my imagination to make something that I actually WANT, rather than just how it operated when I took it out of the box 33 (almost 34) years ago. I get to use this tool of my mind to DECIDE, how my life is right now, and how each of these little situations unfold throughout my day. It’s all up to ME!

I can see the hope, I can see the challenge, I can see adventure, I can see problem-solving, I can see a puzzle, I can see a game, I can see unmolded clay, I can see something I choose to let go of, at anytime, instead of a BAD PROBLEM, if I so chose.

Of course, not all things are Bad. And that’s why we stay stuck. We see some things as good naturally. So we just expect to keep our eye out for more good situations or people or opportunities to show up. We want to grab ahold of the ones we already see as good, and grip them with an iron fist. We get the feeling that the world has a lack of good things, and we should make the most out of the ones we get.

WRONG!

All situations show up as completely neutral, until we decide a judgement about them: Good or Bad. Don’t believe me? You can test this. Just think of two polar opposite things in your life, one good, one bad. Ask Yourself, When did I decide that this thing was Good? When did I decide this thing was Bad? You will get an answer, because you did the deciding. You already know this truth. Test it.

So, Get Really Creative. Play Artist in your own mind. Repaint the things that don’t make you feel good. And also see that the already good ones, have some flaws too. You need to see that you’ve made this choice  You have the Power. You can OWN your Life. Situations don’t own you. YOU own YOU.

This way, you can begin to flow, in the natural harmonious rhythm of our universe. In our Lord’s Prayer, we ask for our Daily Bread. That is Bread for the Day. Not for a stockpile of cash, and a basement full of ammo and food for the apocalypse. That is living in a chosen state of Fear. That doesn’t leave room for God. Seeing and freeing ourselves to live in a cycle of ebb and flow, is Biblical. It actually feels good. All things come and go. We can enjoy them or Not. We can dance with life, or it can break us. It’s all Our Choice.

What do you chose today? Here’s an idea: Choose Love, for God, for your Neighbor, for Yourself.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

The Story of Two Wolves

 An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life.

 “A fight is going on inside me,” he told the young boy, “a terrible fight between two wolves.  One is evil, full of anger, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity and false pride.  The other is good, full of joy, peace, love, humility, kindness and faith.”

“This same fight is going on inside of you, grandson…and inside of every other person on this earth.”

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asks, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The old man smiled and simply said,

“the one you feed.”

 

Want to talk together about ‘The Big Bad Wolf?’

You’re invited to join the next weirdforgood hangout, and engage in our online workshop – you’ll need a free Google+ account, 45minutes to work with us, at 5:30 CST. You need a device with a camera & headset/microphone. If you can Skype, you can do this, (it’s actually really easy  ) Then email me at aaron@truenorthffc.com – before Tuesday – I’ll send you the hangout invite through Google+ when we start.

Check out last week’s hangout here, to get a feel for it. Join us if you dare!

Weirdforgood Hangout – 3 – The Smashing Trees

We invite you to watch and leave your own comments on the discussion we host in the Hangout this week.

Our launching point is The Smashing Trees Blog from last week, and we open with the razor sharp question:  “Do you think I get, how the world works?”

We cover:

  • Strong Thoughts create Strong Feelings?
  • Outside In vs. Inside Out
  • Testing Slowly Through a Thought vs. a Runaway Train of Assumptions
  • My response is My responsibility
  • What ‘World’ are we trying to ‘Get’ Anyway?

And cool stuff like that…

Enjoy!

To be part of next week’s Hangout – Email Me at aaron@truenorthffc.com, each week I send out an invitation email with the details on how to get setup. (It’s pretty easy) then join us at 5:30 CST with 45 minutes to get in depth and have a fun – REAL discussion!

Sno’ Money

Good Morning from a Brightly Snowlit, Chilly and Debt-Free Corner of Princeton, Kansas.

Honestly, I’ve been wanting this fluffy white stuff to show up!  I’ve had a snow-blog idea that’s been rolling around in my mind for awhile now. Hope you enjoy!
Here it is, Your Challenge: Cover a thousand square miles in 5 inches of white fluffy frozen powder in just a few hours… Okay…

How would you begin a process like this? What would be your first step? Can you even fathom it?

Well it’s a huge area – so you need something really really big right? Where would you start? Seems like waaaay to big a project to ever get going!

And from these pictures from south and west of Princeton, we have proof once again that it can be done. It is proven time and again every winter here in Kansas…

I am amazed when seeing this beauty and realizing that it is all done with billions of tiny snowflakes that are each created unique. The first several billion of these creations fall to the ground and melt immediately! They Give of themselves to cool down the surface so the others can take hold. Eventually with more and more and more flake effort, the whiteness starts to stick and then takes over…
How opposite of thinking is this from anything that ever crossed the mind of a human. Our creator’s ways are just beautifully amazing.

A day of country cruising and enjoying the new-fallen snow reminds me that we are not nearly as smart as we think we are. Our minds are not built like that of our creator. But we can learn those ways.

When it comes to finances, we believe we have the right answer. We believe that our way of Spending Money Wisely and Having the Things We Need is best.
With research we find out that these are not the ways of the wise and learned in the recorded history. Dave Ramsey will say he teaches God’s and Grandma’s ways of dealing with money. It actually goes way beyond that. The wise teachings of old from all over the world, every faith and nationality, are all chock-full of emphasis on Giving, Saving and Then Spending.
Is this the way that your mind approaches payday?
Our universe has such a perfect rhythm and balance, but we are not using this architecture in our own lives. The more we can find out about the True ways of handling money, the more we find out that our potential is surprisingly inconceivable.

Not all winter blessings are out in the cold. Not all rich blessings are money. Case in point: I was blessed to share Monday’s Snow Day Drive with the beautifully adventurous Lindsay. Yup, God likes me 🙂

We do have the ability and responsibility to blanket our financial future with snowy white riches.
If you’re ready to begin this process, throw out all your smart ideas. Get some of God’s. He seems to know what he’s doing 🙂
Sincerely,

 

 

Aaron Nichols
True North Financial Fitness Coaching
aaron@truenorthffc.com
785-218-6134
http://www.truenorthffc.com/

Got a leaky Wallet? Bulging budget or none at all? Dilapidated Debt that you’re sick of living with?  You are losing hard earned dollars every month! Let me show you how to spackle the cracks and firm up your financial foundation. DIY or using my professional services, either way, the best time to fix your finances is Now!

Thanks & Giving

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Today I’ll take a break from the debt-free drive and just give thanks.

When it really comes down to it, Family is what is most important. I am a Blessed Man in this area.

Thanks to all my friends and family who support me and remind me why this journey of life is so full. I am surrounded in abundant human blessings. I am thankful for the favor and second chances and too many good times to count. Thank You all. I love and appreciate you every day.

Thanks to You for reading these words, I wish you a Wonderful Turkey Day!
Also thanks to God who makes all things possible 🙂

Until next Thursday… Thank You and Make It a Great Week!

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

True North Financial Fitnesss Coaching
785-218-6134
Free 30 min Financial Analysis – No Obligation – Completely Confidential