Elise Ballard’s TEDxKIDS Talk: Epiphanies & Listening to Our Gifts and Talents

LISTEN TO WHAT MAKES YOUR HEART SING

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ― Albert Einstein

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I spoke to 350 middle school and high school kids in December of 2011 about epiphanies and listening to what makes their hearts sing. After interviewing hundreds of people about their greatest epiphanies, I have come to strongly believe that what makes our hearts sing – those things we love to do so much that we go into our “zones” and time disappears when we are engaged doing them – those are our gifts and talents being utilized. The inner desires and yearnings of the heart are our gifts and talents calling to us. Many people who are fulfilled by their careers heeded those calls and there is collection of many of those kinds of stories in my book in the Callings section.

Believe in your passion. Believe in your power. Believe in being stubborn.
~ Diane Warren

Sometimes the dark moment you’re in is, in the end, actually a great gift.
Cory Booker

I highlight the stories of Cory Booker and Diane Warren in this talk, encouraging kids to listen to their inner callings and desires and hoping that I brought awareness to the fact that they could be having their greatest epiphanies in life right now, at their age, as Cory and Diane did. I also wanted them to know that we need them to listen to what makes their hearts sing and act on it. The world needs them to bring their gifts and talents forward.

All of us have unique gifts and talents the world needs us to be bringing forth and utilizing. Are you engaging yours?

Develop your talents and they will make a way for you. ~ Elizabeth Avellan


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Insights into Leadership: Lessons, Love Stories & Epiphanies of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (+ Inspirational Quotes & Videos!): Behind the Scenes at the Nobel Prizes: Part 2

What All Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Have in Common

In December, I attended the Nobel Peace Prize festivities and interviewed some of the key people who run the Peace Prize. It was incredible to be attending the year that the unprecedented had occurred – three women had won the Nobel Peace Prize!

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia and the first woman to ever head an African country; Leymah Gbowee (pronounced “Bo-wee”), an author and Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003; and Tawakkol Karman, a journalist and peace activist from Yemen and part of the Arab Spring uprisings — were all awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”

Tawakkol Karman was virtually unknown to the world before winning the Peace Prize and is the youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize (at age 32) and is the second Muslim woman and the first Arab woman to receive it in history. It was an amazing year to be there – especially as a woman, to say the least. If you didn’t see the highlights of our adventures in last week’s post about the Nobel Prizes in Stockholm, here’s that video again.

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I didn’t have the opportunity to interview the Peace Prize Laureates one-on-one as I did the Nobel Laureates in Sweden, but I saw them speak numerous times in close quarters and was just blown away. These three women were all very different, from different generations, they each had very different personalities, and Tawakkol Karman was even from a different country and culture than the other two. But they had all been through so much — all are mothers, all have non-violently fought and still work for peace and human rights in their countries, and all have been imprisoned and are always at high risk for their work. They also all emanated a certain beautiful strength, confidence, openness, humility, and love. Perhaps one could muse that all those qualities together might equal peace. The women actually seemed to radiate and embody peace. I was quite moved by them constantly, not just by what they said, but by who they were, their essences.

Every event from the various press conferences, parties, and the photo exhibition opening at the Nobel Peace Centre, to the Peace Prize ceremony and closing event of the incredible high-end production of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert was emotional, empowering, and uplifting. I could go on and on about what I learned and the epiphanies that came out of this part of the inspiring adventure, but here are a few of the highlights, inspirational quotes from the Laureates speeches, and more interesting trivia about the Nobel Peace Prizes that you may not know about.

5 Epiphanies from Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

1.) Sex strikes work! Yes, that’s right, Sex Strikes. Leymah Gbowee was asked about the one she led in Liberia during one of the press conferences and responded that it was really most effective in more rural areas (where men brought their wives flowers when it was all over!), but it was extremely valuable in getting them media attention, which helped the peace movement.

 2.) VISION and COURAGE are the distinct qualities of all Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Geir Lundestad has been the Director of the Nobel Institute and Nobel Peace Prize for 21 years, and he said all of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates during his tenure have been very different of course, but they all share these qualities of vision and courage. They all have a very clear sense of where they want to go with their work and what they want to accomplish in life. Most laureates have accomplished their work under very difficult circumstances. Many, including the 2011 Laureates, have been put in prison and work and live in life-threatening situations. You can experience for yourself the gregarious and delightful Mr. Lundestad talking about this below.

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3.) The “3 H’s” of HONESTY, HARD WORK, and HUMILITY are guidelines for a great leader. When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was asked what describes her leadership, she replied she was guided by the “3 H’s”: Honesty, Hard Work and Humility. I met her later that evening and I could literally feel that from her when I stood in front of her and shook her hand.

4.) Love is all-powerful. We’ve all heard the line, “Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” But for Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman it’s “Behind a great woman, there’s a great man.” When we asked about Ms. Karman’s husband and family, we were told that her husband never leaves her side and is considerably older than her, and then we were told their story that gave us this interesting, deeper behind the scenes peek you might never know about. The couple has three children and they’ve been together for about 16 years. When they got together when she was still a teenager, she told him that she would always work for human rights, and he had to understand that. Obviously, he did, which leads to their love story that was really eye-opening and moving to me: Mr. Karman asked the photographer who was covering his wife for the Nobel Peace Center exhibit what he thought of him as a man. The photographer replied he greatly respected him and was inspired by him for standing by his wife the way he had, protecting and supporting her work. Mr. Karman was shocked at the photographer’s admiration. He said that no one in his country respected him and he had been ostracized for those very reasons. Because he, by all accounts, adores, respects and supports his wife, he has endured harassment and physical violence in his culture. In no small part due to her husband’s devotion and fierce love, protection, and forward-thinking, Tawakkol Karman has been able to accomplish what she has in their country. Behind this great woman, there’s a great man … and a great love story. 

5.)  “What am I doing to make this world a better place?” This is what I had to ask myself after celebrating what these women have accomplished and are accomplishing for peace and human rights and dignity for others, with so little resources compared to what we have available here. We are so incredibly fortunate and wealthy here in the US comparatively, especially as women. Those women have accomplished all that they have, with practically nothing compared to what we have in the way of rights, wealth, and basic necessities like reliable running water and electricity, much less sufficient enough peace in our streets that we really don’t have to worry about our children being killed or raped every day on their way to school. With so many more resources and opportunities on many levels than these women have had, I have to ask, “What can I do? How am I living my life? Am I living out of a place of love, peace, calm and strength? How am I serving? How am I helping?

I think I am going to be thinking of these things the rest of my life and about what these women have done and are still doing to fight for basic human rights and dignity for others in this world.

What are we doing?
How can we provide hope, strength and inspiration to others?
What can we all do to make the world a better place, just right where we are?

9 Quotes from the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. 
~ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

This prize is a tribute to peace, freedom and justice. It is a triumph not only of women, but of humanity.
~
Leymah Gbowee

 Speak noble words and work noble deeds.
~Tawakkol Karman

Future generations will judge us not by what we say, but what we do.
~
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

We all are members of one family. We are marching toward a new world – a world of globalization. I see the beginning of a new history full of love and fraternity.
~Tawakkol Karman

Societies that exclude women from their conversations and decision-making are setting themselves up for failure.
~ Leymah Gbowee

If people don’t feel they have a stake in a society and in a future,
they will never have peace.
~ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Be not afraid, my sisters, my daughters, my friends.
Find your voice.
~Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The new world means peace, which means love.
~ Tawakkol Karman

If you would like to learn more and see some beautiful videos about these women and their work, you can go HERE.

Some Nobel Prize Trivia You May Not Know 

Women have been awarded a Nobel Prize 44 times in total since the Prize’s inception in 1901 – the highest number being in the Peace category with 15 Laureates, which includes the 3 women from 2011. This is how it breaks down:  Peace – 15; Literature – 12; Physiology or Medicine – 10; Chemistry – 4; Physics – 2; Economics – 1.

– Peace Prize nominees can only be nominated by “qualified nominators.” That list is HERE and includes government officials or members of academia in any country. So if you want to nominate someone but you aren’t a government official or a professor, you can get your U.S. representative or senator to do it for you! The nominations are closed after February every year and much deliberation and study of the nominees occurs to get the list down until they chose a Laureate or Laureates by September of that year. Laureates are announced every October.

– Bertha von Suttner was a dear friend of Alfred Nobel’s and was a pacifist who was very involved in the peace movement at the time. Some feel she may have been the love of Alfred’s life. He never married, but she did, not too long after they became friends. Many feel her influence played a big part in Nobel’s interest in pacifism and his creating the Peace Prize in his will. (Although ironically, he made the bulk of his fortune in dynamite, originally believing that having something as powerful as dynamite would help end war and violence. Instead it led to escalated acts of terrorism and war, and he reportedly was horrified by this.)

– The Nobel Peace Center only has 8 weeks to get the annual Nobel Peace Prize Laureate photo exhibit done, pulled together and on display before the Award Ceremonies happen. (The Center is must-see if you visit Oslo.)

Each Nobel Peace Prize Laureate this year received $500,000. Each said the money would be going back to their countries and into their peace and humanitarian efforts. Sadly, it was just announced that the prize money will be reduced by 20% in 2012.

The Nobel Peace Prize Concert is aired in over 100 countries (but not the US?) and always has major international talent hosting and performing. In years past, people like Anthony Hopkins and Oprah Winfrey have hosted. This year Helen Mirren and Rosario Dawson hosted and musical acts such as David Gray, Sugarland, Ellie Goulding and Evanescence performed. We loved the fact that it reminded us of one of our big award shows like the Grammys or the Academy Awards but instead of giving out awards, they were celebrating three brave women’s achievements in promoting peace and human rights in the world!

And finally, here is a short video of excerpts of some interviews about greatest life epiphanies from behind the scenes at the 2011 Nobel Peace Prizes in Oslo, Norway – one more adventure in continuing our exploration in talking to people all over the world…

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Insights into Leadership: 5 Great Success Tips from Nobel Prize Laureates & Other Nobel Trivia You May Not Know – Behind the Scenes at the Nobel Prizes: Part 1

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This past December, I had the honor of attending the 2011 Nobel Prize events in Stockholm, Sweden and then the Nobel Peace Prize events in Oslo, Norway with my friend and colleague, Ariane de Bonvoisin, to collect interviews for Epiphany Channel and to do research for a television idea I’ve been working on. To attend the Nobel Prizes and go behind the scenes and interview the Laureates and people who run the Prizes had been a long-time dream of mine. Besides the many insights I gained just by attending and interviewing these amazing people, realizing this dream was a revelation in itself. The video above contains some of the highlights of our enlightening adventure.

Alfred Nobel died on December 10, which is why the Nobel Prize ceremonies in both Stockholm and Oslo are held on that date every year, despite the intense cold and difficult weather, very short days and early nights (dark by 3:30p!), and close proximity to the holidays. We wanted to attend the Peace Prize Ceremony so we went to Stockholm first to do interviews and attend some events and then went on to Oslo. In Oslo, I interviewed Mr. Geir Lundestad, Director of the Nobel Institute, and he jokingly mentioned that it was too bad that Nobel didn’t die on June 10 instead of December 10. I think they should maybe reconsider and go ahead and change it to June 10 and say it’s his half-year death anniversary or something. They’d actually probably get a lot more attention if they did because it would be so much easier and pleasant for people to travel there. After all, it’s been over 115 years since his death, so I don’t think Mr. Nobel would mind. Do you?

In honor of that idea, I am now posting the impressions, videos, and highlights of the experience of this adventure in 2 separate articles very near this auspicious half-year anniversary — and on very warm, sunny, summer days!

 Life Lessons and Success Tips from Nobel Laureates

We spent the first days of our trip in Stockholm, where we attended the lectures of the Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry and Economics and had the opportunity to interview them afterward. I wasn’t really there to ask them about their actual work as scientists, I figured enough people do that – my goal was to find out who these people are – what makes them “tick” – and of course, what their greatest epiphanies in life are. As you’ve probably heard me mention thousands of times, our greatest epiphanies contain some of our deepest wisdom, so naturally I wanted to know what some of the brightest minds of our time had to say about theirs. These are some of the life lessons and epiphanies they shared with me.

1.)  BE WILLING TO FAIL.

Failure is not bad. You can’t succeed if you’re too scared of failing. When something does not work out as planned or completely fails, in the end you just admit it, people forgive you and you move on. Pick yourself up and start over. You cannot let failure stop you.

I found it fascinating that every single one of the laureates I interviewed brought up failure — how they had faced it and failed hugely, not just professionally but also personally — and what they learned: You just have to pick up and start over and not be scared of failing again. In fact, you had to be willing to fail in order to succeed. For two of them, failing was part of their greatest epiphanies in life. Tom Sargent, one of the Laureates in Economics, even said he had to start over completely. He discovered that everything he had built his career on was wrong, so he had to go back to school at age 30. Saul Perlmutter, one of the Laureates in Physics, talked about how the project he had received the Prize for was expected to take two years, but in the end, it took all of ten. They all had a sense of humor and were good-natured about their setbacks, though at the time things had been rough to be sure, and they all also had a deep sense of gratitude. (Note: Alfred Nobel apparently failed quite a bit too but finally started succeeding in his ventures and ended up leaving what is equivalent today to $250 million to the endowment of the Nobel Prizes.) This insight probably had the greatest impact on me and greatly lessened my own fear of failure. Every time I start to go there, I remember how all these guys failed again and again, seemingly even with humor and dignity, until they didn’t.

 

2.)   FAMILY IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE. 

Each laureate I spoke with mentioned his family – his wife, children, parents, and extended family – as being a huge source of support and inspiration. This included several of them who had fathers or uncles or family members they’d looked up to who were scientists, which got them interested in the profession at an early age.

3.) LOVING YOUR WORK MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

Every laureate loves his work – they all lit up when they spoke about what it meant to them personally. They were excited about winning the Nobel Prize of course, but all talked about when they got back to life as usual, that it wouldn’t matter. What matters to them most is their actual work and research and the people they work with.

4.) COLLEAGUES AND COLLABORATION ARE KEY AND IMPERATIVE TO SUCCESS.

Their colleagues are very important to all these men. Each one of talked about the collaboration and the camaraderie that it takes to make discoveries like these. There were three laureates in the Physics category and they mentioned that the friendly competition between their two research teams helped them make their discovery that the universe is expanding, not contracting.

5.)  WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN THE SCIENCES! 

In case you hadn’t already noticed, all the 2011 Nobel Laureates in science and literature were men, but they expressed a desire and hope to try to recruit more women to the sciences. Women have received a Nobel Prize in the Sciences only 17 times since the Nobel Prize’s inception in 1901. *See the Nobel Trivia below to read more.

Also, just as an interesting aside, one of the other things the Laureates I interviewed all had in common was a love of music, and they all played some kind of musical instrument as a hobby.

Here are some brief video highlights from our interviews and some of the Laureates’ greatest epiphanies in life so you can experience what they said for yourself!

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To see more about the Laureates and watch a wonderful in-depth video about them and their work, please go HERE.

After interviewing the Laureates in Stockholm, we took off to Oslo on December 9 to attend the Nobel Peace Prize events, press conferences, and the Award Ceremony on December 10, and we conducted interviews with some of the key players who make it all happen. Stay tuned for that article on the Nobel Peace Prizes and the remarkable women who won the 2011 Peace Prize next week!

Some Nobel Prize Trivia You May Not Know

– *Women have been awarded a Nobel Prize 44 times in total since the Prize’s inception in 1901. (43 Laureates in total because Marie Curie won one for Chemistry and one for Physics.) This is how it breaks down: Physics – 2; Chemistry – 4; Physiology or Medicine – 10; Literature – 12; Peace – 15 (includes the 3 women that were awarded in 2011); Economics – 1.

The Nobel Prizes in Sciences and Literature are set up and awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Peace Prize is overseen by a 5-person committee chosen by the Norwegian Parliament and the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. There are theories, but no one is exactly sure why Alfred Nobel wanted it that way.

Here is a list of all the 2001 Nobel Prize Laureates in the Sciences and Literature. All are men and most are American.

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
Saul Perlmutter, Adam G. Riess, Brian P. Schmidt – United States (though Schmidt now lives in Australia)

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Dan Shechtman – Israel

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
Bruce A. Beutler, Ralph M. Steinman, Jules A. Hoffmann – United States and France

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Tomas Tranströmer – Sweden

THE PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES
Thomas J. Sargent, Christopher A. Sims – United States

– For More Interesting and Random Nobel Trivia you can go HERE.

AND NOW YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE VIDEOS ABOUT THE SECOND HALF OF OUR ADVENTURE AT THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZES IN OSLO!!

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Epiphany: “The Secret” Leads to “Regis & Kelly” & A Biz in Vision Boards!

This submitted epiphany story is in question and answer format (questions found on the Share Your Epiphany page).

What is your greatest epiphany in life? (summarize in 1 or 2 sentences)

While watching “The Secret” somebody said, “We usually think about what we DON’T want.”  Suddenly, I knew that’s exactly what I had been doing – always thinking about what I didn’t want instead of what I most desired – and now I could change that.

What led up to that moment?

Years and years of reading self-help books led up to the purchase of “The Secret.”This made sense to me in a way that made everything else make sense.

What happened in that moment?

I felt POWERFUL!  Since I was the one that created my whole life situation, that meant, consciously thinking, I could make my life exactly what I wanted.

What happened afterward? Did your life change? If so, how?

After finishing “The Secret,” I embarked on a reading frenzy that included books like:

The Power of Positive Thinking
A Return To Love
Creating True Prosperity
Think and Grow Rich
What the Bleep (movie)
…and many others.

I read about 2 books a week for a year, studying, doing the exercises, and taking notes. One of the exercises was to make a vision board. The instant I pasted some flowers by a woman’s cheek on my vision board was the moment I found my joy, my gift, my happiness.

Since I hadn’t traveled much, I made a “TRAVEL” vision board (pictured above) and not a few months later, I received a call from LIVE With Regis & Kelly! They asked me the daily trivia question, I got it right, and won a trip to Barbados on my daughter’s 13th birthday! I have another vision board with Kelly Ripa on it that I had made previously stating “ADVICE” on it – and now I have “Dish With Trish,” a local advice column. It was time to get down to business with exercise so I made a “HEALTH” vision board and made up a 40-Day Challenge to exercise every day for 30 minutes. I ended up going 431 days.

Then I started making vision boards for friends, family, non-profits and found another amazing by-product. While making vision boards for other people, I kept being asked time after time,”How did you know this? How did you know that?” and I suddenly realized that the process had become intuitive. I somehow could channel in their deepest wants, desires, and goals! It is a precious thing to watch their faces as they gaze over their dreams and many burst into tears.  It’s now 4 years later and the vision boards have become a great business that I love.

Tricia Waltman
Superior, WI
www.SeeyourVisionArt.com

IF YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT VISION BOARDS, HERE IS AN EARLIER BLOG ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE WITH THEM – COMPLETE WITH A LINK TO A GREAT ARTICLE BY MARTHA BECK IN O MAG ABOUT THEM!

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“How to Get Honest About What You Truly Want”: Epiphany Exercise

Last week, in the online course I am teaching for en*theos Academy, one of the exercises I talk about is the value of thinking about and writing out your greatest epiphanies. And if you think you haven’t had one, you just pick a moment you’ve had of any revelation or realization and when you really think about it and are writing things down, other moments come to you and you’ll discover a lot more than you think. You’ll probably end up uncovering a buried epiphany or two. This happened to me when I was writing about the evolution of the Epiphany Project. I wrote about it in one of my earliest blogs ever.

My earlier epiphany came from a wonderful exercise that will serve anyone who feels stuck in life or can’t make a decision OR who has suddenly lost a job or has been thrust in a situation unexpectedly where you don’t know what to do next. This exercise really helps you get clear about what you truly want in life. I’ve excerpted my blog called Epiphany and The City below

As I was writing my book proposal and was working on the part about my background and how the Epiphany project came into being, I had a realization about my epiphany (an epiphany about an epiphany!…happens all the time, I’ve discovered…).  I realized that, actually, I’d my first major life epiphany while living in New York in my early 20’s — an epiphany that put me on a completely new direction and life path.  (This is not the epiphany that is in the book or that I talk about as being the catalyst for my starting the Epiphany project.)

I never, ever knew (or admitted) what I wanted to do when I “grew up.” My major in college was Undecided (yes, they actually had that as a major) until they finally forced me to pick a real major second semester my junior year.  I would “accidentally” get into plays and musicals as a kid and took drama all through high school and college even though I opted never to try out for parts or ever take it seriously – probably because I was a big chicken, simply terrified that I wouldn’t get parts.  It was only when I found myself suddenly jobless in New York City after a brief stint at a marketing company right out of college that I finally had to really examine what I wanted to do in life.  New York City has the best of the best of every profession operating there, and I had been interviewing, exploring opportunities and gathering information in every field I had ever been interested in: fashion, publishing, film production, literary and entertainment agencies, public relations, Wall Street, and even politics, and I had also somehow bluffed my way into my first professional acting class, even though I don’t think I even knew what a headshot was at this point.  Of course, I told everyone that it was just for fun anyway.  One day, while confiding in a friend that I was freaking out about all this research I was doing and still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and career, he said this to me:

“If anything was possible in the world, there were no obstacles, no fear and nothing at all was impossible – it’s only you and God in the world – what would you do?  Write it down.  That’s really what you want to do. Then, from there, you figure out how to back into it or build up to it with small steps.”

I thought, “uh-huh, whatever”…but later, I went ahead and grudgingly sat there with a pad and pen and thought about that scenario over and over… “no obstacle, anything in the world is possible, no obstacles, anything in the world is possible”…and much to my surprise, eventually I had a revelation!  I slowly put that pen to the paper, took a deep breath and witnessed myself writing “ACT.” And then I slowly circled it. Huge exhale. I felt such relief! And then I slowly wrote under that “BE THE CREATIVE.” And underlined it. It dawned on me that I had been dancing around what I really wanted to do, dancing around with all the businesses surrounding the arts and acting, because I was too scared to admit that what I really wanted to do. What I really wanted to do was be an actorBe the creative.  I didn’t know what I’d really do about it in the moment but man, it felt great to really admit it — even to myself! I was actually a bit in awe that that is really what I wanted to do.

Once that and the excitement that, “Wow, I really do know what I want to do!” sunk in (and trust me, you will know if that’s what you really want, you’ll feel it), the next thing was to figure out steps of how to really go about doing that — how was I going to “build up to it” or “back into it” as my friend had explained. Because no one in my family had ever done anything in the arts professionally, I hadn’t really ever considered it an option for me. I really started taking the whole thing seriously.  I think one of the first things I did was buy BackStage newspaper which is a weekly paper primarily for actors. And I went from there. I started taking acting classes, studied the entertainment business, got headshots, went on random auditions from BackStage, eventually got an agent, got into the union, started booking jobs, etc., and within a year, I was working professionally as an actress.  This path has continued to lead me over the years to other avenues in the entertainment business of producing, directing and now, writing. 

This is probably my first epiphany as an adult.  This happens a lot as I interview people.  While describing what led up to the “greatest epiphany,” many times they discover that another earlier epiphany had occurred to bring them to that point.  Many times, we discovered this together while doing the interview, and sometimes they discovered it while thinking about what their greatest epiphany was and then shared the various epiphanies with me.  

From this exercise, I realized I didn’t want to be the agent or the producer or the marketing person in entertainment. I realized I wanted to be the creative, and since that moment, my life has never been the same. It’s not always been easy and sometimes it’s even painful, but it’s amazing to be on what you feel is your right path. This exercise always keeps me honest. Now that I have interviewed 100’s of people about their greatest epiphanies, I have come to believe that our hearts wouldn’t yearn for something that isn’t what we’re supposed to be doing or that something about it won’t serve us in some way – maybe it’s about just taking some steps to get there that is the purpose, but you’ll never know until you get clear and honest about what it is you truly yearn for.  A wonderful teacher of mine always says… If not now, when?  

If. Not. Now. When. 

“GET HONEST ABOUT WHAT YOU TRULY WANT” EPIPHANY EXERCISE

If it were just you and God in the world (if you believe in God or a Higher Power, of course – otherwise, just say it’s you) and there is no fear, no lack, there are no obstacles, no commitments, no responsibilities or obligations blocking you  — ANYTHING, ANYTHING is possible – nothing is impossible – what would you do?  It can be ANYTHING – backpack through Europe; meet a girl or guy and have a baby and be a househusband or housewife; climb a mountain; become a farmer, an actor, a doctor, a writer, a race car driver – whatever – but what is it, really?  What would you do?  Where would you live?  Who would you be?  Think about or meditate on this question with a pen and a piece of paper in front of you and be open to being absolutely honest with yourself.  It will come to you. And then, Write It Down – it’s only for you, no one else has to ever see it, you might even throw it away later – but write it down.  Write down what is really, truly in your heart when you answer this question.  Whatever it is may surprise you…but when you answer truthfully, it is such a relief.  And then sit with it for a bit, absorb it, and – beginning with what you truly want – start backing into it – start by write down the smaller, attainable steps that will build toward your ultimate goal. Take the steps. Even one baby step every week or month. It doesn’t matter. Just move. Take action. And then watch the world conspire to support you.

Have fun!

 

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