Get a move on. You don’t want to miss the boat. Or do you? Perhaps secretly, you have no desire to board that vessel. You could be prevaricating deliberately, hoping it will sail without you. Sometimes it is hard to reach a decision or there may be disagreements in your head. You know what you want, where you want to go but not necessarily how you are going to get there. Boat? Plane? Donkey? Or could you just use your very own mind as the vehicle? At the outset, you find many reasons why something can’t happen. After you focus your mind, presumably, you will find all the reasons why it can.

Anything in this life worthwhile acquiring requires determination and focus. Determination makes us take those necessary leaps and bounds to arriving at that place and level of contentment. Focus keeps us centered, helps us to make sacrifices, and keeps our eyes on the prize. Obstacles [on the other hand], distract our focus yet challenge our abilities. Somehow, obstacles help us to see what it is we need to reposition. They only block our blessings if we allow.

Focusing the mind is a process that requires stillness, full concentration, and a conscious mode of behavior. Meditative practices such as walking to open your mind, yoga, physical posture, Zen practices, breathing exercises, and even sleep, are good ways to meditate. The aim of stabilizing meditation is to strengthen the mind’s ability to focus. Whenever many of these practices are applied to my own life, it helps me to achieve a calm abiding. Part of my achieving a calm abiding is through introspection, focus, and seeking clarity, regarding those things that are of great importance to my spiritual, mental, and physical development.

Presently, I am refocusing and repositioning myself for greatness, and determined to make it happen every day. More than a week ago, I attended an insightful and intimate writers’ seminar for women. It was the push I needed to “get on that boat.” Master teacher and award-winning author, Marita Golden, has been creating distinguished works of literary art, teaching, inspiring, mentoring, and hosting writing workshops for writers around the world for more than 30 years. She is a gift to us all and a guiding light as “our” world turns. Her leadership and passion as a literary artist has remained devoted, her faith unwavering, and her willingness to share herself with the world, purposeful. I am grateful for the wisdom she continues to bestow us.

To all of my writing colleagues who are strategizing their next steps, budding entrepreneurs who are developing faith to jump start their business, and even high school graduates like my daughter, who will soon enter the world of academia: whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you want – FOCUS with determination. Get on that boat. Ride the wave. Go get it. Make it happen!

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
– Henry Ford

Love for your Tuesday.