An “appetite for distraction” implies that the more we chase these pleasurable distractions, the less we focus on what really matters – on being our true selves and being able to be present to what life is about in the here and now.

The other morning I was immersed in part of a 40 day & night transformational process I’m developing.  In response to a writing prompt about what I believe about my business, I wrote down the following:

“I believe when I find my right audience, I will be able to be myself fully expressed…. The truth is that by being fully expressed, I’ll find my right audience.”

Whoa. Talk about future tripping. Here I was chasing something in the “someday” instead of practicing being fully here right now, showing up as my full-bodied, glorious self.

Then last night, I was watching Marie Forleo share her own early biz adventures in a video for her b-school re-launch, and she said something that brought up a BUNCH of emotions. Essentially, she was describing her “multi-passionate” nature and said that having to pick one biz venture felt like “severing a limb”.

Um, yep. That’s me. And no matter how hard I try to chase one rabbit, something invariably comes along, and gets me fired up.

At first, I thought it was me being all ADD and whatnot. Maybe I’m just not focused enough. But time and again, it didn’t feel like a lack of focus, because I was getting massive stuff done. When I’m working, I hustle. In fact, right now, I feel like I’m being incredibly unfocused because it’s been a while since I’ve put a new program on the market, I’m really limiting the number of clients I work with, and I’m taking my time to nurture what’s going on with my creative work. Plus, I’ve got bits of my projects in the hands of other people and I’m patiently allowing them to work their magic on it (okay, I’m really chomping at the bit to get going, but I also recognize there’s a process to this stuff, and I’m coping as best as a get-it-done girl like me can!).

Yet,  when I think about being fully myself, there’s this hodge podge of “facets” that have had difficulty playing nicely together in my head:

• When I use my Tarot cards, I believe I’m supposed to take that revelation back to GOD for clarity.
• I  believe that my life is a musical – I do spontaneously break out in song.
• I’m crude, blunt, and sometimes inappropriate.
• I’m compassionate, deep, and a spiritual seeker.
• I’m a no-nonsense, no-excuse, no-bs kind of gal (“Let’s get this done, shall we?”)
• I believe that there is ALWAYS a way to make something happen.

“It’s the irony of chasing stillness…of improving ourselves so we can finally accept who we are. It’s exhausting.” – Danielle LaPorte

Yeah. Exactly.

I’m the first person to tell you that you can’t chase multiple rabbits. Find one thing and do it with excellence. But here’s the kicker…

Being yourself is doing one thing. And to do it with excellence you have to be fully yourself… no limb severing allowed.

When a pilot hops into the cockpit of a plane, he’s got a plan to take him in a particular direction. He lifts off and heads into the sky, allowing the process to unfold.

But while he’s in the air, he doesn’t just leave everything to chance.

No. Every time a bit of turbulence or air traffic comes his way, he adjusts his course. Course corrections are part of the necessary actions that keep an airplane on track to reach the final destination.

Likewise, stepping into your new testament, allowing your True Self to fully manifest is not a one-time decision or action.

Making the commitment once isn’t enough. Too much stuff will happen to try to throw you off course. You must course correct.

Every course correction is a re-commitment to the path you’re on.

Josh Chandler wrote a moving piece on women in society, and how we need to stop talking and start doing. That’s a decision to act. He decided it was time to stop “talking” and start “acting”, and then took his own action by writing about it. If you care at all about this topic, I encourage you to read and at least consider the actions Josh recommends at the end of his post.

But more than that, I ask you to do something (regardless of the topic) and re-commit to it daily.

Because it’s easy for a mountain climber to say  ”I’m going to scale Mount Everest.” It’s a lot harder to actually do it. It’s even more difficult to press on once you’re on the mountain, staring down hurricane force winds, frostbite, snow blindness, and other obstacles that keep you from the peak – or may even kill you on the journey.

Once you’re in the throes of the process all kinds of things come up to distract or block you from your ultimate goal. It gets a lot easier to quit than it does to persevere. All kinds of voices step in to overpower the voice of your True Self.

To me, that is why it’s called the still, small voice. The God voice. Because it doesn’t try to fight. It’s just there, always inside you, patiently waiting out the storm of noise around you. Waiting for you to “be still and know”.

We’ve spent 10 days getting you to reconnect with your True Self. This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of a new relationship with who you are really meant to be in the world. If you walk away now, and never make the daily re-commitment to your True Self, then all this work will have far less impact.

And you may find yourself somewhere on the side of the mountain, wondering why you haven’t made it to the top yet.

Things you can do to re-commit daily:

• Re-visit these posts or other posts that inspire your True Self. Comment, interact.
• Connect with friends that support and uplift you. Create a network of those people so no one person is always doing the supporting.
• Find others on this journey and be an encouragement by being an example.

This 4th grader has more intestinal fortitude than many adults I know. She is a great example of what we all do before taking the leap.

We try to talk ourselves into it. We obsess, we interrogate, we obsess some more.

We feel our nerves, sometimes we shy away from the edge, and we generally believe we’re not capable.

Then, with the encouragement of a guide, a mentor, a friend, someone around us, we give it a go.

When we come to the bottom of our 20 meter jump, we realize that it was the anxiety at the top of the hill that made it feel so crazy. We confidently say that a 60 meter jump is nothing now. We can do it because we’ve got experience with the smaller jump.

But that first jump… it’s a doozy!

When it comes to making a commitment, we hem and haw quite a bit, don’t we? But once we make the commitment, once we jump, all we can do is surrender to the process. Try not to “snowplow” on our way through the jump. Keep it straight. Essentially stay committed to the course.

When we come out on the other side, we’re whoopin’ and hollerin’ and generally thrilled with our result. We don’t bemoan our form, or how poorly we did something. We DID it, for crying out loud. That’s enough cause for celebration right now.

But a decision alone is not enough. Did you hear her at the beginning? “I’ll do it… here goes something.. I guess…. I’m gonna jump…”

Did you hear that small voice of her friend at the top of the hill? “The longer you wait, you’ll be more scared.”

Finally not only does she decide to jump. She commits to it. She actually jumps. She leaves the comfort of knowing the person she was before the jump, leaves her “old testament” and literally leaps into her new testament. This is what Queen Latifah calls a “life stopping moment” where life as we knew it ceases to be. It STOPS. Because we’ve begun something new.

“World changing ideas are born out of evolution. Breathing life into those ideas is what becomes the revolution.” - Simon Sinek

When I was a teenager, I read Jump and The Net Will Appear by Robin Crow. Not a traditional book for young readers, but I was obsessed with reading anything I could get my hands on related to the music industry. Robin’s story is now one that resonates deeply in my heart because of the parallels our stories share. At 40, Robin was facing the end of nearly everything, when he was inspired to step into his new testament. At his home in Nashville he built Dark Horse Recording into the premiere recording studio that many music legends now call their home away from home. He’s since gone on to author best selling books, multiple albums, and has become a sought after speaker – all since the age of 40.

Who says you’re too old to pursue your dreams?

But you can’t keep standing at the top of the hill talking yourself into your dreams. You’ve got to jump.

Robin parlayed his commitment to his new testament into a wildly successful venture that now includes an institute to train leaders and music professionals as well as business minds across the globe. Not bad for his new testament.

Is it all rosy? No. And we’ll go there tomorrow. Today, though, make the commitment to actually jump. And act. Jump into your new testament and surrender to the process. Let the net appear, and enjoy the ride.