Soul Food Revolution

The fourth principle in our series this week: “I have a decided heart”

A wise man once said, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’ Knowing this to be true, I am taking my first step today. The power to control direction belongs to me. Today I will begin to exercise that power. My course has been charted. My destiny is assured. I have a decided heart. I am passionate about my vision for the future. I will awaken every morning with an excitement about the new day and its opportunity for growth and change. My thoughts and actions will work in a forward motion. I will freely give my vision for the future to others, and as they see the belief in my eyes, they will follow me. I will lay my head on my pillow at night happily exhausted, knowing that I have done everything within my power to move the mountains in my path. As I sleep, the same dream that dominates my waking hours will be with me in the dark. Yes, I have a dream. It is a great dream, and I will never apologize for it. My hopes, my passions, my vision for the future are my very existence. I have a decided heart. I will not wait. I know that the purpose of analysis is to come to a conclusion. I have tested the angles. I have measured the probabilities. And now I have made a decision with my heart. I am not timid. I will move now and not look back. I do not procrastinate. All my problems become smaller when I confront them. If I touch a thistle with caution, it will prick me, but if I grasp it boldly, its spines crumble into dust. I will not wait. I am passionate about my vision for the future. My course has been charted. My destiny is assured. I have a decided heart.

Excerpt taken from The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews. Also, follow Andy on Twitter.

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Let that chicken go! Let that chicken go!

Creative Commons License photo credit: leoncillo sabino

Yes. It lies deep within each of us. The chicken that says we can’t. Oh, you’ve heard it! Remember the time your friend needed help and you talked yourself out of it? That’s the chicken. Remember that lady on the side of the road–the one with the flat. Five miles past her you kept thinking, “I should have stopped.” You didn’t. Chicken. Remember that business venture you’ve always dreamed of trying? Everyone else said it wouldn’t work but it was your passion! Now, 25 years later you wonder, ‘What if?’ Chicken. He lives in all of us. That stinkin’ chicken…

But very deep within lies something stronger. Where do those thoughts of kindness and love come from? From where does that innate sense of motherhood in women come from, or the warrior/provider mindset in men? What about those creative, crazy ideas? Why do they stick with us all these years? Those ideas, friends–thhose innate senses and acts of spontaneous kindness–they derive from the soul. You see, that chicken we talk so much about is our own undoing. It is our fear rising against our nature telling us we can’t accomplish greatness. But the soul? The soul cries out, yearning for us to live! To live a life of imagination and sharing. A life of response and action. Our soul cries out for us to live…..well……..from the soul.

I like to say, ‘Let that chicken go! Live life from the soul!’