A dear friend sent me a link to the inspirational story of a young man named Kyle Maynard.  Kyle was born without limbs and in a world where accommodations are few and far between, Kyle’s parents made a conscious decision to treat him no differently than his siblings. Kyle, despite his perceived “limitations”, does everything for himself and has become a motivational speaker.

“Every excuse that we make keeps us away from the things we want the most out of life.”

Despite anything that anyone has told him, Kyle lives by the “Make No Excuses” code.  In 2010, he decided to honor his commitment to the veteran community by taking a soldier’s ashes to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Kyle was determined to crawl all 19,341 feet to the peak.  And he did it!!!! But not before realizing the biggest lesson that the mountain had to teach him.

Looking Back to Help You Move Forward

It was day 9 with the summit in reach when Kyle realized that he kept on looking up at how far he had left to go, instead of looking back and seeing how far he’d come.  Just as the mountain shared this lesson with Kyle, it became clear to me on that day that the mountain’s lesson was for me as well.  The mountain represented every “mountain” I have ever confronted in my life, whether it was 3 years of law school, 2 years of deep transformational work in my Master’s program, Baby Blues, starting my coaching practice or surviving the sudden loss of my mother. In those moments when I questioned my ability to carry on, my focus was always on how far off it seemed, instead of honoring where I was and appreciating how far I had come.

The Gift Is The Climb

The gift of the mountain is the climb, because it is in the climb that we discover more of who we are.  It is with the small steps, one foot in front of the other that we reach the peak; if only we would choose to look back and acknowledge all of the steps we’ve taken up until this very present moment.  This simple shift in focus is so empowering and can propel you forward in your life.

I find that in my life, for so long, I argued for my limitations and supported them by never acknowledging my accomplishments.  I chose in the past to only give myself credit for the “Peak” and not the journey, the ultimate goal versus all the mini-goals achieved along the way.

How many times have you failed to give yourself credit for what you have accomplished thus far?  How many times have you looked ahead at what you had left to accomplish and allowed it to rob you of the pure perfection of the present moment?

Shift Your Focus Today

Choose today to empower your vision from a place of knowing what you have been able to accomplish up until this point. Allow the path behind you to catapult you into fearlessly stepping up to your dream, one step at a time.

With two-thirds of the year complete, I have shifted from beating myself up for not accomplishing everything I had intended and instead decided to pull out a sheet of paper and write down everything I did accomplish… quite a powerful exercise!  You will be surprised what life looks like with your internal GPS set to look for the good in your life.

Take a few minutes and share below how far you have come this year in taking one step at a time towards your vision.  Celebrate your steps… they add up! ;)

Today, I celebrate YOU!

Love and light,