What's behind the meaning?

I am someone who is frequently looking up the meaning of words. I tend to use an actual book instead of the dictionary right here on my computer! There is something that I love about holding a book, paging through it, marking it, cross-referencing or just picking random pages and reading the words on it. As corny as it may sound, I just love my books!

A lot of times I am looking up words that I commonly use. They are words that flow naturally, without a bat of the eye or a second thought. But yet, I feel I have lost sight of their true meanings. Or maybe it’s that I say a word, and it just doesn’t sound right. Then I say it again, and it sounds even stranger. Then I say it so many times that it makes absolutely no sense, leaving me to question whether it’s even a word!

So, you guessed it, I’m starting out by looking up a few words and their meanings. Then I’ll write about how I/we interpret the meaning and what impact does it make on our lives.

Starting with values, here are some of the key words/points that I found: Worth, importance or usefulness of something or somebody, the standards of a person or group, to regard something highly. I also like to use the children’s dictionary because the definitions are easily interpreted and straight to the point! Here is what I found there: Peoples values are their beliefs and ideas about what is most important in their life. Now that pretty well sums it up! It is what I believe to be most important, in my life! Interesting, this sounds as if it could be different for us all.

Making Decisions

Leadership is not about making all the right decisions, but about making decisions, and then making them right. I hear my father often reciting this John Maxwell quote, and wow, what a powerful statement! The approach really sounds quite simple, just make a decision. If I trust myself and trust my judgement, then it would seem to make sense that this model works. If things are going good, keep doing more of it. If I'm unhappy with the way things are, you guessed it, do something different. So how is this working for me?

When there is something new that I want to try, more specifically, something outside my comfort zone, I visualize myself in the scenario. You may be thinking, that is great, burn that image in, really see yourself there. But my reality looks a little more like this. OMG, how did I get here, I don't know any of this stuff. You expect me to do whhhaat?!

I might have a tendency to be a little dramatic, just sometimes!

So where does this leave me? Hmm.......I know that I am a confident person. I know that I am capable of making good decisions. So what keeps me from making them? I think, actually I know, it comes back to that old deal of not starting with the first step (read my Jan. 25 post). I miss out on all that important information. The information that helps me to know that indeed, I am making good decisions, or that I need to start redirecting my coarse. Or maybe, this is really not what I expected, I don't want to go any further with this!

I am excited about 2010! I wonder how many steps I can take this year?

Where do I go from here?

Where do I go from here? What are the blogging rules? How frequently do I post? What do I talk about? Is it business or is it personal? Are there any "no-no's"? What will people think of me? Are there even people that think about me?!

Oh, the questions begin! They are my fears and my doubts. But they are perfect, the exact reason that I am doing this. An outlet to get it all out! If my brain were a muscle instead of an organ, I know it would be "ripped"! It is always working, day and night. It doesn't even mind getting up at 3am for a work-out. It is seldom tired, but ahhh, it is so exhausting.

I am excited about putting my thoughts down, but also nervous. The questions already seem to reappear, but what else would I expect? My thinking is consistent, and that I can trust. I know where it wants to go, so it doesn't need to catch me off-guard. It is just part of my process!

Getting Started

Why is getting started so hard? I have typed and deleted about 10 times now! For a person who is not typically at a loss for words, I am feeling pretty frustrated! A few things I know for certain about myself is that I have a lot to say and I am full of ideas. This is what sparked the idea of starting this blog. So today I called my brother to ask for ideas on what would be the easiest way for me to get started, and of course, this was one of his suggestions! But he also had a few others, which I really didn't understand. Those options were truly for someone with more experience. Being a person with very little computer experience, I did the obvious. I went with the more complicated option, the one that was way over my head. I was looking at information that was completely foreign to me! Hours later wondering what I got myself into, I ended up right where I should have started.

I frequently know what it is that I want, but I don't know how to take the first step. I typically start on about the 25th step and fail because I missed out on what I needed to learn, landing myself in uncharted territory. If I am being honest here, it's not that I don't know how to take the first step, but that I am too impatient to take the first step. I get very excited and anxious and want it all to happen NOW!

If you can believe it, this year one of my goals is to celebrate the journey of taking these "steps". And here I am today, already skipping a whole flight! But the difference this time is that I actually didn't throw in the towel, I was not defeated. I actually went back to the landing and took the first step!