I took this photo of the ancient Hawaiian tradition of “Hukilau” (which means to pull leaves) a few years ago, on the island of Oahu.  Traditionally, a group of family and friends would pull a large net together to get fish.  Leaves were added to the net, to scare the fish into the center of the net, for a bigger take.  It’s definitely back-breaking work but it fed the village.  All pitched in and all benefited.

I used this photo because it reminds me that nothing happens without action.  I’m no fisherman, but I know that if you want fish, they’re not going to jump onto your plate.  You have to go out there, where the fish are, cast your net, and bring them in.  Anything else is wishful thinking and only works in fairy tales.

I love this quote from Picasso – “Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”

Bottom line – Get to work on what you want or nothing is going to change.

Many times in my life, circumstances that seemed “bad” turned out to be among the best things that have happened to me. I suddenly and very unexpectedly lost a job about 12 years ago and it turned my life upside down.  We were already struggling a lot and losing the job hit me and my family like a hurricane, like the world was crashing down on us.  I never would’ve guessed at the time that it would turn out to be something I’ll always be grateful for.

Those were some dark days and I was out of work for a while, but losing that job put me in a position, at just the right time, for me to jump to a major software company. My brother Andy worked there, knew that I’d lost my job and he happened to know that they desperately needed someone to train a team of Japanese business leaders on using their  software in less than a week’s time.  I bought the software training manual and spent 3 days and nights doing a crash course in learning the software and then I had to translate everything into Japanese.  It was a terrifying day when I flew to Sacramento, to train a room full of corporate leaders on a software I barely knew in English, let alone in Japanese.  In fact, I’d never even seen the Japanese version of the software until I walked in that room to train about 15 executives.  It was one of the scariest and most intimidating things I’ve ever done.  Fortunately, it went OK.  (I’d love to say that it went great and I got a standing ovation at the end, but in reality, it was marginal at best.)

From this little opportunity, I got “in” with the company and l was able to become an official software trainer.  After that, I was able to apply for (and get) the position of sales trainer.  When that opportunity ended, I was able to secure a job at a small software company who never would’ve talked to me without my background at a major software giant.

All of my career success arrived after I got this “bad news” 12 years ago. There’s no telling how different things would be if I had stayed at that company and never had the opportunity that this event gave me.  It was my personal case of getting a lemon and finding a way to get lemonade from it. And I learned that sometimes, bad things turn out to be really, really good things.

Judge Not!

WAIMEA JUMPING ROCK

When I was 11, I was fortunate enough to spend the summer in Hawaii, where my mom grew up.  Waimea Bay is on the North Shore of Oahu and was one of my favorite places we visited that summer.  There’s a giant rock that sits in Waimea that juts out from the beach, where kids like to jump into the ocean.  The water is crystal clear and gorgeous and when you look down, it looks like very shallow, even though it isn’t.

It’s a loooooong way down!  I don’t know how high up it is…I’d guess about 40 feet at the top.  Even though my big brother jumped, I couldn’t get the nerve to jump from the top and so I jumped from about halfway up.  I wanted to jump before the summer was over and many times, I walked to the top and tried to work up my nerve to do it, but couldn’t overcome my fear and make that leap.

Fast-forward a few decades, I went back to Waimea and watched a new generation of kids jump from that rock (I took the above photo that day).  It was still scary, but this time I finally got up my nerve and made the leap.  It felt great to be back there on that rock, with my own kids who were about the age I was back then, and finally do it.  It was a small but exciting little victory for me!

Here’s a photo of Waimea Bay so you can see how big that rock is.  Check out how tiny the people are on top of it!

LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

What are you letting hold YOU back in your life right now?