When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then?
What price is so cheap that you would question the value of this widget?
At what price would this widget be a good deal?
At what price would this widget be expensive, but still worth buying?
At what price is this widget too expensive?
How interested are you in this widget?
Last week, my company switched providers of an expensive commodity. The company we had been with realized we were moving on and moved into high gear to keep the account. At one point, it was clear that they could have gone into war room-mode, denigrating our decision, criticizing the new company and scorching the earth. I watched the gears turn, though, and saw them take a different path.
We called that the ‘story crisis,’ and we never expected to have another one. But you know what? There’s been one on every film. We don’t stop production for five months. We’ve gotten a little smarter about it. But there always seems to come a moment where it’s just not working, and it’s so easy to fool yourself - to convince yourself that it is when you know in your heart that it isn’t.
Never follow somebody else’s path; it doesn’t work the same way twice for anyone … the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way.
The caddie, Bagger Vance, said, “God is happiest when his children are at play.” I keep that line on my desk lamp so I won’t forget. Whenever I’m feeling like my work is drudgery or there’s effort involved, I know that, in that moment, I’ve shifted from expressing my life purpose to something else. Usually the something else is related to some “should” values acquired in the past.
The wounded ego isn’t going away. YOUR wounded ego isn’t going away. And although it will try every trick in the book to have you believe otherwise, there is nothing you can do to fix it, kill it, ignore it, or bury it. You can’t make it disappear by achieving, earning, educating, marrying, divorcing, dieting, or negotiating your way out of it. You can’t manipulate, manage, or control it. But you can give it what it actually wants – safety, compassion, kindness, understanding, love, and reconnection with your whole self.
As you answer the following questions, keep in mind that no one is looking right now. It’s just you and you. Give yourself permission to be more honest with yourself than you’ve ever been. My favorite quote from the I Ching will help you get started: “It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success may be recognized.
We thought you’d like to know that we shipped your items, and that this
completes your order.
— Amazon’s shipping confirmation email. I love that they explicitly state whether there’s more to come, or whether this is the final shipment in this order. I always look for this line in the confirmation emails.
