Little Things Mean a Lot

The human body is amazing.  We are built with utmost care and precision.

But have you considered those pesky little gnats that fly around you when you’re trying to work?  When you squash one, it’s no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence.  Yet, inside a gnat is a pulmonary system, a nervous system, a digestive system, a circulatory system, a skeletal system, and a reproductive system.  How on earth does all that get inside a teeny tiny gnat?

I can spend a day contemplating this miracle of creation as I’m in awe of how such little things have so much going on inside them.

Now, consider your brain.  The adult human brain weighs about three pounds and is the size of your two fists put together.  Yet, inside that little package lie not only billions of neurons, synapses, and such, it also contains every thought you’ve ever had, every sight you’ve ever seen, every word you’ve ever heard or spoken.

Let’s say you get an idea for a book and map the whole story out in your mind.  Once the story is written into a book, the physical book itself could never fit into an area the size of your brain.  And realize, every book you’ve ever read is stored in your brain.

Can you picture the house you grew up in?  The arrangement of the rooms, the color of the walls, the placement of your bed?  That entire house, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, is tucked away in your brain.  AND, surprise surprise, there’s still room left over for a lot more information.  Our brain is something we can never fill up.

Makes you feel rather special, doesn’t it?

And don't even ask me to consider the brain of a gnat.  My own brain might explode.

Today’s Quote:  People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.  St. Augustine

Dream High

How high would you dream if you knew you couldn’t fail?

This saying has been my beacon for many, many years.  It tells me that the biggest impediment to achieving my goals is my own insecure self.  I’ve been told since childhood, or at least learned by watching family and friends, that someone like me should be content to be average.  Don’t make waves.  Don’t set your expectations too high so you don’t get disappointed.

Writing a book, being a published author, doing book signings, being a success, is something “other people” do.

Babe Ruth said, “Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back.”  Of course, if you never get up to bat, you never strike out.  Thus, you are safe in your own little world of never taking chances.  If you write a book but never submit it to a publisher, you never, ever, get one of those nasty rejection letters.  Then you can sit back and say, “My manuscript is probably great but as long as I keep it in a drawer, I’ll never know and never have to face being told it doesn’t meet someone else’s standards.”

What if, every manuscript you sent in was accepted?

What if, every goal you set, you achieved?

How high would you dream if you  knew you couldn’t fail?

The summer Olympics are on right now.  What if every athlete said, “I won’t win so why bother?”  Olympian Dara Torres says "Never put an age limit on your dreams."  She didn't and she won the gold in swimming 2000, 1992, 1984, silver 2008 and 1988, bronze in 2000 and 1988.

Are your dreams turning into nightmares?  Would you rather not try at all so you don't experience failure?

Dreams are those marvelous thoughts that tell us we can be more, have more, do more.  But we have to dream high enough.  We can’t limit ourselves by our own vision of what we “should” do or are “expected” to do.  Get out there and tear down the barriers that are holding you back.  Write that book.  Send in that query letter.  You never know what might happen when you “go for the gold!”

Today’s quote:  Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.  Winston Churchill