It’s a simple piece of equipment that the exercise physiologist gave my husband to strengthen his core and support his overly-aged back. Knowing my core was a bit on the flabby side, I decided to join him on his journey. Using the pressure monitor, we performed various core strengthening exercises that used muscles we didn’t know we had.
The instructions stated that we were not to move on to the next exercise until we had mastered doing the previous one with precise form. In only a few days we mastered exercise #1 and moved on to #2. Ken quickly progressed through exercises #3 and returned for more instruction, while I continued to feel like a newborn giraffe learning to walk.
When he arrived home, he began showing me the next exercises in my future, when suddenly I found myself feeling angry, hopeless, and wanting to give up.  “What the heck is going on?” I thought to myself. “There’s nothing wrong. Why am I feeling this way?” Within just a few short minutes, I felt ready to throw in the towel. “I’ll never get any better. I’m doomed to be fat and out-of-shape. Why even bother?” Luckily for me, I am well-rehearsed in A-B-C-D journaling so I grabbed my handy notebook and scriptures, and went out to the living room to process my emotions.
It didn’t take long to recognize some of the old thought distortions that had taken over my mind…old beliefs that I thought I had banished for good. As I recognized and challenged those old beliefs once again, I could see how I was comparing myself and my progress to someone else. I was expecting years of inactivity and poor choices to be reversed in a matter of days…or at least weeks!
Clearly seeing my distorted beliefs, I was now free to replace them once again with the truth: I am not competing with anyone else. Consistency compounds. Enjoy the journey! Already, I was feeling at peace once again.
Then I opened my scriptures. Would you be surprised if I told you that there on the page was a direct message from my Heavenly Father? Would you be even more surprised if I told you that He sent that message through His servant, Isaiah?
“Awake, awake, put on thy strength…Put on thy beautiful garments…for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down…loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”
I was reminded once again that we are all daughters and sons of God. That makes us royalty. With the Lord, we are strong, even when we feel weak. Sometimes we find ourselves lying in the dust, chains about our neck, captive to the will of the flesh or the beliefs of the world.
Today is the perfect time to awake…to not allow unclean thoughts and beliefs to enter our minds any longer. It is time to stand up, shake off the dust, break the chains that have bound us, and take our place as rightful heirs to the blessings of God.
Because you’re human, I know that you have distorted beliefs about yourself. I know there are times when you believe you aren’t worth it…that you will never succeed…that all is hopeless. We all do. My hope for you is that you will learn how to recognize, challenge, and replace those thoughts. Awake! Don’t allow lies into your head any longer. Arise! Don’t wallow in the dust like captives to the beliefs of the world.  You are a child of God. Come. Arise, and take your proper place.

It is said that an artist was once asked, “How do you plan to carve an elephant out of that large piece of marble?” to which the artist replied, “I will just start chipping off any piece that doesn’t look like an elephant.” Though this tale is unlikely true, the story does have a lot to teach us about the nature of human transformation.
 
Most of us want transformation in some way. We want to feel better, look better, or act better. We want to be more successful. We want closer relationships. In my work, I have learned that the wisest people want to transform their limiting beliefs…those thoughts that have held them back throughout their lives.  Whether you’re carving elephants, or a life of greater joy for yourself, there are some truths that never alter.
 
First and foremost, we will never create a masterpiece if we don’t have a clear picture in our mind of what it is we want to create. An artist does not begin chipping away at marble and eventually discover it looks like an elephant. They must clearly see the elephant within the marble, and every touch of the hammer and chisel will bring that elephant closer and closer to reality.
 
What is it you want? Do you want to have more peaceful relationships at home? Do you want to recognize personal revelation more clearly? Do you want to change your body, your job, or your home? First you must create a clear picture in your own mind of the future you are choosing to create. Then begin to identify which pieces don’t seem to match that vision of the life you are creating. Pick one, and start chipping away.
 
Second, elephants do not evolve from marble with large, crashing strikes of the hammer. Those who are impatient, believing that great drastic measures will get them to their destination faster, will find themselves with nothing but a pile of dust and rocks surrounding them, only to start again.
 
Personal transformation is a process of a thousand, carefully placed and executed, little steps.  It is showing up early for work and putting forth your best effort every day. It is honoring your body one meal at a time. It is working to understand before trying to be understood, one conversation at a time. No “overnight success” actually happens overnight. Just pick one rough edge that doesn’t seem to fit into your vision for yourself, and begin chipping away.
 
Lastly, don’t be surprised if others around you don’t share your vision, or believe in the process by which you are choosing to obtain that vision. Well-meaning people will give you all sorts of free advise: “That looks more like a cow. Why don’t you just change it into a cow,” or “I know a faster way you could get that done,” or “that’s taking so much time, is it really worth it?”
 
It is at times like these that you must hold onto your vision with both hands. You may have to plaster a smile to your face, put plugs in your ears and blinders on your eyes, but whatever you do, pick the next piece that doesn’t match your vision and just keep chipping away at your transformation. If you do this, your naysayers will someday say, “I had no idea this was inside of you,” “that is amazing!”, “I could never do that!” or maybe even “how do you carve an elephant out of marble?” And that is when you will peacefully declare, I simply kept chipping away at all the pieces that didn’t look like an elephant.”

The heavy five-gallon bucket stood before me like a troll, daring me to pass under this bridge alone.  The extra-tall walls of our living room, family room, office and bathroom seemed to plead with me, “Please…we are scratched, chipped, dented, and dark. Can’t you help us?” My past paint partners have moved on to have lives of their own. Now it was just the troll, the walls, and me and I knew this was going to take far longer than I wanted it to.
 
I tend to be a microwave woman. I want what I want when I want it. And in this case, I wanted to transform all of my walls from the 90’s browns and dark reds to a beautiful, light “Revere Pewter” with white trim…and I wanted it now. But the School of Hard Knocks has taught me that the things we most value in life aren’t made in microwaves. They are cooked long and slow. They take a process. They take time. For many years, I gritted my teeth through those processes, keeping the end goals in mind. But now, I wanted to see if I could actually choose to enjoy the process itself.
 
I don’t know how many of you have ever prayed over painting your house, but as I stared at the troll, I did. “Please help me enjoy the process of painting. Help me not be so anxious for the end result that I miss the pleasure of doing the actual painting.” I’m grateful to say, my prayers were answered.
 
As I looked for the pleasure of each moment, I discovered the thrill of seeing a patch of “90’s Brown” come to life as “Revere Pewter” began to take over. I loved seeing how it seemed to be a different color on each wall, as the light in the room played with my senses; I took pride as I cut a piece of trim with a nice, straight line; I listened to entertaining speakers, comedians, and music in my headphones; and something amazing happened: I was enjoying the process. I didn’t mind the time it took or the chaotic displacement of my furniture so much. I went to bed each night with sore muscles and a peaceful, content heart. And when the project was completed, I felt satisfied in a way that was different than the satisfaction I’ve gotten from the work of hired hands. My end result was actually better than those who were supposed to be “professionals”. Why? Because I cared about the final product. I took pride in, and was present in the process.
 
I have found the same lessons to apply in my own personal transformations. As I journey From Food to Faith I am learning to find peace in the process. Not only do I want the nutritious and delicious meals, I’m learning to take pleasure in chopping the foods and washing the dishes. Not only do I want to find myself at a healthy weight with a strong body, I’m learning to love the feel of lifting each weight, or the stretch of a tight muscle.
 
If we think that happiness is waiting at the end of a goal, we are fooling ourselves. As Geneen Roth says, who you are through the process is who you’ll be at the end of the process. If we don’t learn to find peace in the process of achieving our goals, we will not have peace when we find ourselves standing in the middle of them. If we don’t learn to find joy and peace in the processes that lead to our desired destination, my experience has taught me that we aren’t likely to stick with those processes enough to achieve or maintain those destinations!
 
Today I challenge you to notice the little things along the way that make you happy. Notice the beautiful designs of those vegetables you are chopping. Feel how alive your muscles feel as they move. Bathe in the calmness of letting limiting beliefs go. Then you will find joy now, not just at some future imagined moment. You will find happiness today, not just when your jeans fit again. You, my friend, will find peace in the process. 

By the end of May we will have married off 3 beautiful daughters. Each looked like princesses in their beautiful gowns, but the end result came after a lot of work, and frankly, a few tears. Multiple shopping trips, followed by endless tailoring appointments, got us closer and closer to creating the fairytale image they were seeking. In one desperate attempt to create the perfect fit, I wound up buying $900 (yes, you read that right) NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of form-fitting shapers to achieve the perfect fit desired, breathing room being a luxury at this point. (Shout out to Kohl’s for their amazing return policy!)
 
Having “dress #3” ready to go, I breathed a sigh of relief and could not help but think about how this experience applies so accurately to the rest of our lives.
 
The world tells us what we should look like, act like, walk and talk like. It tells us when it thinks we are too short, tall, round, or thin. And all the while, we often find ourselves doing whatever it takes to mold ourselves into what others want us to be.
 
What if we allowed ourselves to simple be? What if we let our clothing fit us, rather than the other way around? What if we just embraced our way of walking and talking? Our height and breadth? What if we realized that believing we are “good enough” today does not prohibit us from being better tomorrow?
 
What if we stopped judging others and started loving them where they are…how they are…today…while still giving them breathing room to do, have, or be more tomorrow?
 
What if we realized that fairytales are simply that, and that life is lived by real, genuine, slightly broken, good-enough people, and that we are one of them?
 
So, put on your proverbial sweat pants, throw on your comfy shoes, and take a load off…off of your heart and mind, and realize that today, you can just be.
​

How you choose to spend the seconds within those days is up to you. You can be the person who just does what they have to do, or you can be the person who impacts; the person who creates significance…that adds value, lifts up, and that is there for someone else for one of their 365 days this year.
 
If you do that often enough in your relationships, in your friendships, in your marriage, with your kids, with your mom and dad, with your brothers and sisters, with your aunts and uncles, your neighbors, with the man or woman at the grocery store, with your community, you will become world famous to them.
 
Most of us can’t imagine the rewards we get by living a “world famous” life. For sure, you will make somebody else’s day, but you know what? There’s more than that. When you begin to recognize your true potential, your true power to make somebody else’s day, as you begin to tap into the resources of curiosity and imagination, you begin to realize and believe in your own significance.
 
You have significance. You have the power to add meaning to somebody else’s life. When you realize this, then your own life will never be the same again.  When you look in the mirror, you will see something different within you. You will see a power inside of you that can impact anybody you come in contact with.
 
It’s a choice we can make. And not only do we enrich the lives of other people, we enrich our own lives in the process. So to paraphrase Clint Eastwood, go ahead, make their day

​By implementing the Fish! Philosophy in your home or organization, you empower others to make a significant difference in the lives around them. This dramatically improves relationships with family, coworkers, clients and community. Discover how to transform your organization today. 

​When taking pictures of a baby, try getting down on their level to see things as they do. When taking a picture of flowers, try focusing in on just one flower, or better yet, a recurring pattern within the leaves. Realtors know that an aerial view of a yard can be much more attractive than one from the typical eye-level.
 
I have learned that the same can be true about life.
 
By the time you have circled the sun a few decades, it can be hard to remember that your perspective on life is not the only possible view. We think we know people, situations and things. We predict what will happen at work. We mind-read our loved ones. We decide what is possible based on what we believe has “always been”.
 
What would happen if you spent just a moment looking at your life from a different view? What does it look like through the eyes of your child or parent? What might you attempt if you had never failed before? Is there beauty in the individual pieces of your life that you have missed in an effort to fix the whole?
 
A good coach is trained to help you view the challenges of your life differently…in a way that can help you see and access their possibility and potential…and help you use those challenges to bring greater significance and beauty to the life you live.
 
Before you give up on your dream…before you settle for the everyday picture, do yourself a favor and get a new perspective.