On A Positive Note: Growth from Stagnation

AUTHOR: Chris Gorman – JETRO Accountant

So many thoughts and ideas seem to pass through my head especially in these times when I am more with myself than normal.  I have locked all these thoughts in my mind’s vault to release them in some sort of pre-determined fashionable order.  They have been locked away for longer than I would have liked but I feel only inclined to speak or share my thoughts on a matter when I can speak with my own truth.  I can’t write with authority on a matter or idea when I am not entirely at peace with it and so after only one blog piece, I found myself “stuck”.

So often and with ease I have found myself in this same place of stagnation with either a thought or an idea or an ever growing to-do list.  Intrinsically I know that the only way to move forward it to take action but more often than not I feel paralyzed.

I also know that personal growth can only happen when one endures a challenge and as per a quote that I stumbled upon: “We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are” – Max DePree.

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are” – Max DePree.

In my quest for “release from stagnation” and personal “growth”, I started a couple years ago on a journey to fill my thoughts with the positive in an effort to smother as much negative as I could.  To do this I turned to either the tangible book, audible, or podcast.

I highly recommend finding an inspirational audible or podcast and listen to it on an early morning walk before your thoughts become stifled with the challenges and mental preparing for the day ahead.   Listening to an audible or podcast can be a welcome distraction…. but choose your source wisely. 

On a fluke I found “Wake Up and Live” by Dorthea Brande Original Classic Version on “Audible”.  There are a few variations, I have learned, of this book as the original was published in 1936! 

When I read the synopsis of the book, I thought the book would be good for a laugh, I mean we are much savvier now then we were in 1936.  Somehow I had the notion that all the stresses and personal uncertainty we face is somehow a “modern” problem but as I listened further,  the “us” of 1936 struggled with many of the same dilemmas and the ideas suggested to help are eerily akin to the “breakthrough” thoughts suggested in the personal growth literature of today.

..the “us” of 1936 struggled with many of the same dilemmas..

Below is an excerpt that I found inspirational and that needs to be shared. I was unable to find the text readily available and as this is the “original classic version” it varies from the text I found online so the below is what I was able to transcribe from the audible.  It may not be verbatim but is written as I heard it.

I have to share this or at least transcribe the excerpt before I can continue with listening to the audible. Rewinding is a nuisance, and in life it seems that if a process is too much of a nuisance it is usually abandoned for the more convenient and then all too often forgotten.  Sad but true.

I guess you can say that if I don’t share this, and right now, then I will remain stagnant on a couple levels. 

My challenge for you is to read the except below and then read it again.  I will leave you to your own interpretation and personal application.

The reference source is Chapter 5: Righting the Direction from “Wake Up and Live” by Dorthea Brande Original Classic Version:

“Often I have thought of this matter of desire and suggestion in connection with the planting of vegetable or flower seeds. Once the soil is prepared and the tiny seeds are placed in it, it is but a short time when they put forth roots and sprouts begin to appear. 

 

The moment they start upward through the soil in search of light, sunshine, and moisture, obstacles mean nothing to them.  They will push aside small stones or bits of wood and if they can’t do that, they’ll extend themselves and grow around them. They are determined to emerge from the ground.  They blossom and give forth fruit, vegetables, or flowers and they succeed unless some greater force destroys them. 

 

While we are not aware of the details of Nature’s secrets, we observe the seed for a long time in the dark gradually expanding and exerting itself until it becomes a thing of beauty or usefulness.  Cultivate it, attend it, give it sunshine and water and it grows into a full life. 

 

Remember it always produces after its kind be it single or hybrid.  So, with you and the suggestions you impart to your subconscious mind. 

 

The result will be pure or complex depending upon the original seed and the attention in which you give it. 

 

In other words, plant the right kind of seed, thought of a pure strain, and habitually feed it with strong affirmative thought, always directed towards the same end, and it will grow into a mighty force finding ways and means of overcoming all obstacles. 

 

It will reach forth with its roots to find more food on which to grow and expand its foliage to gather more sunshine.”