by Tara Joyce | Apr 27, 2017 | Innerpreneurship
What distracts you from your goals? What leaves you questioning the path you are currently on?
All around you are distractions and noise. People, places, and things clamouring for your attention, for your time, and for your energy. Some may have your interests at heart, while most have their own interests in mind. Sometimes, your interests may align but this can only be possible when you know what you need and want, outside of the noise.
The noise can be overwhelming and supremely distracting. I dare say that most of us spend our lives caught up in it, swimming in it, pursuing agendas and avenues that ultimately don’t serve us. We listen to what is loudest, most authoritative, most shiny—giving our personal power away, unaware of how much we’re giving up and how distracted from our self we’ve become. Until some thing, some one, some place begins to awaken us.
The very things that distract and block you from your path, powerfully, are the very things to support you in focusing on it. They remind you of what truly matters to you, by asking you, pushing you, persuading you to focus elsewhere. They test you and teach you about the other options for your life, and allow you to feel into these choices to determine what truly feels right for you.
The noise can be your guide; not towards what it is demanding from you, but towards what you need for yourself, what truly matters to you as an individual. Your distractions can help you to focus, and your blocks can be your support. It’s your choice how they influence the life you’re building.
photo credit: Peter Hershey
by Tara Joyce | Oct 27, 2015 | My Journey | What's On My Mind, Self/Business Growth
Despite how we talk about it, reality isn’t one thing. One stream. One truth. Reality is defined and designed by you, the individual. And, by design, you get to decide how “real” you want your reality to be.
You are given the possibility, and the imperative, of being able to bring into reality the things that are truly real, and truly healing for you.
If you decide that your reality is full of lies and half-truths—or even a casual ignoring of the truly real—then this is your reality. Your detachment from your truth is a critical aspect of your reality.
What is real anyway? Perhaps what’s truly real is what feels most like our authentic truth.
This is my desire: for anything other than my truth to be the uncomfortable place. I want to learn to sit comfortably uncomfortable in the beauty and messiness of my truth. I want to feel that anything less than it is a trap I am creating for myself. For I know — and have learned — inevitably, the truth will catch up with me. I can’t outrun it, though I can deny it. Yet no matter where I look, it will still be there.
The denying of our truth adds pressure and pain to our lives. It’s the pressure to re-frame everything; to re-frame our reality so that it painfully fits into the limited perspective we’ve deemed acceptable. It’s a carefully crafted noose that will eventually hang us.
Instead, why not bring into reality the things that are truly real, and truly healing for you? Trust it’s your imperative as its designer.
photo credit: Alison J-B
by Tara Joyce | Dec 19, 2014 | Cultural Creativity
We share stories to share our voice and our perspective in a way we feel will be emotionally impactful. We craft our stories in a particular way, changing them each time we tell them. We craft them from our experience and imagination, and the beautifully unique way we each perceive our world. They’re not the truth, nor our truth. They are our stories.
It’s not even the whole story that we get the privilege of hearing or sharing with each other when we’re storytelling. It’s only a glimpse that we can see, and/or show in our moment of connection together. It might sound like the complete story I’m sharing but please believe me, it’s only part of a greater whole. The truth, my truth, is far more nuanced and complex than my story can share.
If our stories were our truth, we might call them that.
I love stories… but I don’t put a lot of energy into them. My stories and the stories of others are here to entertain, to persuade, to educate but to take them as “the truth” or to hold my own experiences up to them in comparison, is a game I’d rather not play.
I’d rather work on treating stories lightly, for my own health and happiness. They are not “the truth”, nor “my truth”. Our stories are a reflection of us and our own unique way of perceiving things. They’re our version of events. They’re our tools for connection, for empathy and for identity. They’re integral to us but they are not, and can not, be all that we are. We are so much more than our stories.
photo credit: Alessandra Di Nunno
by Tara Joyce | Nov 5, 2014 | Cultural Creativity, Self/Business Growth
It’s right. It’s wrong.
It’s neither.
It’s just an option. It’s just one way of doing things. It simply one way to approach something.
Take it and/or leave it.
It may be what I’ve done, and it may be what I’m doing, and it may be working for me, but it is still only one way of doing things.
Nothing more.
Take it and/or leave it. Be interested and/or think it’s bunk.
In the end, it’s simply what works for me, for now.
Nothing more.
The approach I am choosing is no more right or wrong than any other approach.
Take it and/or leave it.
Maybe my approach will work for you. Maybe it won’t. I can’t say for sure.
You know what’s best for you.
Take it and/or leave it. Be interested and/or think it’s bunk.
I am here, sharing my perspective on my experiences. And you are there, deciding what to do with them. You decide how much truth my perspective holds for you. You decide how much you’re learning.
It’s not about right or wrong. There’s no place for that here. In this space, it’s about possibility.
What’s possible for you?
photo credit: Dan Foy
by Tara Joyce | Aug 29, 2014 | Cultural Creativity
People will always have their opinions. And some of them may be about you, and about your work.
An opinion is simply one person’s point of view, one person’s way of seeing things. It’s no stronger or weaker than any another perspective. It’s no more true or false. It’s simply one person’s judgement. Nothing more.
It’s the way in which one delivers their opinion and why, that allows their perspective to hold more weight or less. How do you deliver your perspective? And why do you present it? Within these answers lies the true value of the opinion.
Not everyone needs to like you, or your work. You need to like you, and your work. You need to be proud of what you accomplish and create for yourself. In holding this space, in honouring the value of your contributions and growth, you can see more clearly the value (or lack thereof) of another’s opinion.
The people who judge and criticize can and will. Because they need to — in the same way you need to create. That’s their stuff. And it has nothing to do with you, or your work. It’s their stuff when they need to highlight the embarrassment of others expressions. It’s their stuff when they demean those who are vulnerable enough to reveal themselves completely. The amount of truth and value that lies in their perspective is yours to determine.
The people who praise and support can and will. Because they need to — in the same way you need to create, and others need to criticize. Similarly, the amount of truth and value that lies in their perspective is yours to determine.
You make the choice to be who you are, to take risks, to be vulnerable and expressive, and you get to choose how you want to process and respond to the opinions’ others may have of this choice. Positive, neutral, and/or negative. With every opinion you receive, YOU have the power to determine the importance you give to it, and the person presenting it. All opinions are not created equal.
photo credit: Ahdieh Ashrafi
