For those of you who subscribe to my e-mail newsletter, you know that it has been on the inactive list for a long, long time. This morning, I re-launched it with a new name, FUEL! (which stands for Fully Energized Life).
If you would like receive it in the future, you can subscribe here (as a bonus, you will get a free six-installment audio-course on how to get Wild About Work).
Here is a copy of the premiere issue.
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Welcome to FUEL!, a newsletter focused on helping you create a Fully Energized Life.
FUEL! is the new incarnation of my Wild About Work newsletter. While creating a career that energizes and inspires is still a primary focus, the expanded view is a nod to the whole-system nature of our lives, and that work doesn't happen in a silo. The various facets of our lives are interconnected, and what happens in one part often affects the others.
And now it’s time for…drum roll, please…the premiere issue of FUEL!
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QUOTE:
If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
- Vincent Van Gogh
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SILENCE THE VOICE OF DOUBT WITH ACTION
[Note from Curt: Please help me focus on what you care about and answer the one-question survey at the end of this article.]
If you commit to creating a life that lights you up, at some point along the way you’re likely to hear the voice of doubt. “You can’t do that,” it might say. “You don’t have what it takes. That’s not practical. That’s impossible.”
I am consistently amazed at how often that voice of doubt is wrong. The voice would have you believe that it is simply giving you a picture of reality, but frequently it is merely reflecting a negative view of reality that it has created itself.
One great way to take the wind out of the voice of doubt’s sails is to take positive action and give it space to grow. Taking action opens the door to possibility, and giving it space to grow (i.e., having patience) gives a positive outcome room to unfold.
Why is taking action so powerful?
Action creates opportunity
The voice of doubt is strongest when you can’t easily see the possibilities. When you take action, it sets the game in motion. It creates the potential for opportunities to appear that you could never have known about while standing still.
Action can prove the voice of doubt wrong
When you take action, you create the opportunity to prove the voice of doubt wrong (or at least raise serious questions about the strength of its arguments). If you take no action, that voice is right by default.
Action creates your reality
If you want to be something, take steps to become that, whether or not that’s how you see yourself to begin with. Think of the steps you take as the brush strokes with which you create your masterpiece. You don’t start out with a work of art. You start out with a blank canvas. It’s only through exploration and action that the image starts to emerge.
Action creates positive certainty
The voice of doubt thrives on uncertainty. Any time you don’t know for sure what’s possible, that voice is more than happy to step in and fill that space with a negative certainty. When you take action and start to have successes – even small ones – you start to create a positive certainty.
Try this: Think of a vision you haven’t pursued because of that voice of doubt. Make a list of steps you could take in pursuit of that vision, both baby steps and giant leaps. Pick one that feels doable, and take action. When you have done that, come back to the list and choose another.
Please take a moment to share your perspective with this one-question survey. I would love to know on a scale of 1 to 5 how much interest this article’s subject matter holds for you. Over time, this will help guide this newsletter’s content.
To answer the question, follow this link.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATION
There are so many great books out there that will help you create a life that lights you up. In each issue of FUEL!, I will recommend one of my favorites. Some of them will be how-to books, while others will be stories of inspiration and hope. This issue’s recommendation lies in the latter category:
Make the Impossible Possible
One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary
by Bill Strickland
This is one of those books with an “anything is possible” feel to it. Born in a poor inner city neighborhood, Bill Strickland’s prospects looked bleak until a high school teacher inspired him to believe that his future could be different.
Strickland is now the CEO of Manchester Bidwell, a jobs training center and community arts program. He has received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” lectured at Harvard, served on the board of the National Endowment for the Arts and, together with Manchester Bidwell, been the focus of three Harvard Business School case studies.
It’s worth reading both for the insights and the inspiration.
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Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst TM
"Love your work. Change your world."
e-mail: curt@passioncatalyst.com
web: www.passioncatalyst.com
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