Hustle and Flow

Quote of the day: “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” —Kahlil Gibran; Artist, Poet, And Writer

My mind looks at what has happened in my short-lived life (per the quote of the day) as an adventure. That’s the meaning I give it—nothing more, nothing less than an adventure.

I yearn for adventure. I crave it like my morning coffee. It wakes me up—not the wake-up that happens on Monday through Friday when I have to get up for work. Honestly, I am not really awake. The “I” that I speak of is the real me, inside, not the day-to-day Jill who runs on auto pilot. It’s normally not until I take a moment to blog that I begin to awaken the real me. I’m pretty much asleep until then. Isn’t that sad?

I can’t help but to wonder how many of us spend the majority of our days on auto pilot?

In effort to wake up, it’s not so much about changing my attitude. Most days my attitude is pretty good, positive and hopeful. It’s more about taking the time to reflect and connect, which is exactly what wakes me up.

What I find so fulfilling about having adventures, which I define in the most simple of ways as going with the natural flow for that day, is that I wake up both on the outside and inside. It’s a win-win! If only the day-to-day drudgery felt more like an adventure, like a natural flow, then all would be well.

Is it possible to approach each day as an adventure? I mean, each day of an 8-5 desk job? I’ve tried to, honestly, play that mental game, but I never could pull it off. For some reason the act of clipping newspaper articles doesn’t seem as fun and exciting as cross country skiing through Highland Forest.

In all seriousness, I understand how much our attitude towards life creates our experience. I get it mentally, I just haven’t been able to feel it physically, emotionally and spiritually when it comes to bringing an adventurous attitude into the office, mainly because it’s not my natural flow.

But, maybe the trick in doing so lies in approaching the day, not the tasks, as an adventure. That becomes a challenge too because my days are already planned out and fixed in regards to time and place, so that’s not really much room for “something” new to happen.

So, then maybe it’s about keeping my mind open to letting an adventure take place and being able to recognize it. The adventure then shifts to more of a mental flow than physical flow. It could be something as simple as having a side conversation with a colleague that turns out to be quite fulfilling, or receiving a phone call or email that tugs at my spirit.

I realize I may be pushing it here, but I’m trying my best. Like a river that ebbs and flows, I’m stuck in an eddy and am trying to do what I can—something, anything—to get going.

To get flowing…