September 13

FREEDOM MONTH: DAY 13: “Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man’s lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one’s self.”― Max Stirner

We only get from life what we put into life. We cannot put in garbage and expect diamonds. Life is not like that.

The responsibility that we have is to put out 110% of our efforts into everything we do. Why? Because we get back that amount in results. I once spent some time, I think it was 100 days, reading a book by Og Mandino. He was an inspiration to me in early recovery. I did that particular book of his 3 times. It told me, repeatedly to always give 200% to everything I did. To “go the extra mile” was the phrase he used.

What was extraordinary about that was his insistence upon doing nothing half-way. I learned that. It was also written in Chapter 5 of the BB that “half measures avail us nothing.” So I want to always dive more deeply into what I am doing than I am asked. Always. This is my way of truly doing whatever I am doing. It does not matter if I am baking a cake or pulling weeds or working with a client or reading a book. I go deeply into that experience and give it my full attention and mindfulness.

As a result, I seldom miss out on the benefits of mindfulness and being present to people as well. It was great training for me to learn how to be in the moment, to sit with whatever was happening without the mind chatter, and to become truly authentic and real and have true integrity.

And because of this, I have never failed at anything or wondered if I were doing the right thing. When I commit to something, I go all in. It is the way I live my life. If I am questioning if I want to jump into something, then I know it is not the thing for me.

And THAT teaches me that I do not do things for others unless I am willing to do them completely and totally. It is the only way we get to have integrity and honor. I don’t trust people who do anything half-assed. If they do one thing half-assed, they do everything half-assed. And people like that are not in my circle. I don’t have time for them.