Welcome to Moving Boulders. You have just stumbled upon a new website and company that is going to change your life forever. Our aim is to help teach you the tools that you will need to overcome obstacles in your life. Moving Boulders represents overcoming obstacles, figuring out how to move out of the way the bad or negative things in our lives, and then strategically placing good things in our lives that will bring us joy, shelter, and empowerment.
Have you ever walked into a room, cast your eyes about, and found someone who just seems to have everything together? They are fit, smart, engaging, funny, organized, and just downright enviable, but in a good way? That could be you. It won’t be you tomorrow, but follow along and together we will make the journey.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, right? What is the right first step? What is the right second step? Today we are going to talk about the first few steps that will lay the foundation for you to be a better you. For you to be the you that your grandmother thinks you are. For you to be the you that you have always wanted to be, but never knew how to get there.
The first step in the process of the new you is less of a step and more of a way of thinking. You are a unique piece of art, like a painting or a sculpture. Every piece of art has worth. Every piece of art is valuable. Different pieces of art have different value to different people, but they all have value to someone, whether that is the finger painting on a mother’s refrigerator, or the Mona Lisa sitting in the Louvre. You have value, more than you know.
Just like a painting, there is a process by which a finished piece comes about. Some pieces come together quickly and others take time, with lots of trial and error. This will be the same with you. Some things you will do will come very naturally and easy to you. Other things will be very difficult and you will make mistakes. The first step in this whole journey is to make peace with your mistakes, imperfections, and flaws.
This leads us into the second step, self-evaluation. Know your flaws and own your flaws. Know your fears and embrace your fears. Don’t be afraid to try something hard, just because you are scared of failure. Embrace your failure. Celebrate your failure. Without failure you wouldn’t know the joys of victory. I would even recommend publicly sharing your failures and flaws. Tell your friends that you have a flaw and that you are going to overcome it. Sharing is empowering, it teaches you that your flaws do not own or define you. You own your flaws. Your flaws and failures are subject to you, not the other way around. The last thing this step empowers you to do, is be humble. Admitting your flaws and failures helps strip you of pride, and pride is the enemy of change. I recently watched the movie Meet the Robinsons (2007, Disney), I would recommend sitting down and watching the movie. The central theme is to ‘Keep Moving Forward’, mistakes are not failures, they are opportunities. At the time of this writing it is on Netflix. Yes it is a cartoon, and yes it is kind of cheesy, but the message in it is one that people need.
The third step is motivation. This step is very simple and very straight forward. If you don’t want to change, you aren’t going to change. If you are overweight, or if you have a drug or alcohol problem, or if your spouse wants you to change, and you don’t care; stop now and don’t go forward. What will happen is you will get frustrated and angry that things aren’t happening. You will blame me or your spouse or God or the world and you will be less likely to try again. Like I said in step one, you have value. Just because you don’t have the motivation to make a change doesn’t make you any less valuable. All it means is that now is not the right time for you. Accept that all things have their time and place, this may not be yours, and that is okay.
The fourth step that we will talk about today is consistency. Human beings are creatures of habit and ritual, even if we don’t know it. Aren’t you grateful that we have the ritual of queuing in a line at the store, instead of having everyone try to push their way to the front. Isn’t it wonderful that our bodies naturally want to sleep when the sun goes down and wake when the sun comes up. Even if you feel your life is chaotic, find the habits that you have. Find the habits that you do consistently, day in and day out. We are going to build on those consistent habits. What we don’t do consistently in life will never change us long term. What we do every day becomes who we are.
The final step today, number five, is patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were you. Change takes time. There are no magic pills, no special app, and no easy answers to life’s big problems. In the world today of instant access to information and get rich quick pitches, we have forgotten how important patience is to the long term success of people. Yes there are 25 year old millionaires, but those 25 year old millionaires didn’t fall off the turnip truck, still wet behind the ears, and make a million dollars. They are some of the few people who were able to develop in their youth the habits and characteristic that would enable them to have success at such a young age. Basically, they took the same amount of time as you and me, they just started a lot earlier.
These five steps, make peace with your flaws, self-evaluation, motivation, consistency and patience, form the foundation that everyone needs in order to make changes in their lives. They are the anchor points to moving the boulders in our lives and setting those boulders where we want them. The boulders representing good, we organize in a way that will protect us and invigorate us. The boulders representing bad, we move away from us and into far distant places.
Today is just the beginning, for you and for me. I will be updating the website with new and interesting items and articles as time permits. It may be a little sporadic at first, but as we grow we will become more consistent, eventually having new content weekly. We will even begin putting together some local seminars for people who learn better in an interactive environment.
Please take a moment to leave a comment or feedback in the comments section. I promise I will read every one.