Foot on the Brake, Foot on the Gas

At this past week's Monday Night Alive, a successful young actor in the group began to speak about how when he gets a new acting job, he "puts his foot on the brake" in order to balance his life out. And if I remember correctly, sort of as a reward to relax for having gotten a solid job. Ariel & Shya told him how that's the point in the time when he should be putting his "foot on the gas" and not on the brake. He should line-up a new job for after his run of shows. The Kanes then asked "how good are you willing to let it get?" Meaning how successful will you allow yourself to be, without dimming yourself down to fit in with others? To allow yourself to shine brightly, regardless of those who might try to bring you down, because they are jealous, competing, or afraid that you will leave them behind. This is why a support system of those who can be honest with you about how you are being, and are there to really support you when others might aid you in diminishing in your greatness, though they don't do it intentionally. I love the phrase "you can't do it alone." Boy, how I do wish I that I could do it all on my own. I naturally want to be independent and do it all by myself. Thing is that is a lonely way to live I'm finding. It's easier and more fulfilling to allow myself to be supported, and to support others. It makes things feel effortless.

I find for myself that I'm busier and ever but life is taking on this zen-like quality...work is very busy with many projects, I'm taking voice and acting classes, getting my songs up to speed to perform, writing this blog and managing a group Transformation blog, I'm revamping my apartment with new furniture and paint, and my social and dating life is as active as ever. In the past, I would have reasoned-out that I need time to relax, and balance-out my activity. But now that I've been learning from Transformation that one you start going for your life, you can't stop. I mean you can, but you'll lose momentum. You have to use that momentum to keep going and going more! I remember my uncle once saying that "the idea of balance is bullshit" I can agree in most cases. We think we are capable of doing of only doing so much, so we relax. We get wasted, do drugs, and hang around people who aren't supportive to dim ourselves down. It's a concept that didn't make sense to me at first, but now I can really feel it. Once I leap, I have to keep leaping, to stay on the edge of my life and really keep going for it.

So lately I've been noticing that when I accomplish a lot at work, at home or with songwriting I naturally will start to feel as if I need time to "chill out, relax and balance things out". But I am seeing that this is a form of putting my foot on the brake. Instead of resisting the feeling of wanting to slow down I see it as a signal. It's a signal that now's the time to put my foot on the gas; to complete my work project with greatness; to revamp my apartment with new paint, furniture and a new arrangement; to finish a set of songs so I can start playing out as soon as I can.

It's important to note that I'm not making a rule about balance or always going for it. At times it very well may be important to relax and tend to balance. But with me in the last month, I can intuitively feel that the foot must go on the gas, that I must keep going for my life. Didn't you know that your time is short here? Easy to forget especially if we're lost in the drama of our own lives, stories in our minds about what we can and can't do, and not being present to what's happening right in front of us and what we are doing. Yoda from Star Wars has said it so well: "All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing."

So where is your attention right now? On yourself, on the future, or on the present and on what you are doing? I ask myself that all the time when I find myself drifting away, into fantasyland.

Until Transformation, I had always heard about the concept of people dimming down their own success, but it was just a set of words. And I certainly didn't see how I could dim myself down to hinder success. I'm just starting to see this latter point. After all I was brought up with the phrase "moderation in all things." Which isn't a bad phrase and isn't it wrong by any means, some things I may need to moderate. It's just that it has its limits if I live by it as a rule in any situation.

So go for it, keep going, don't stop. Life only gets more magical when you live this way.