Planting Seeds for Success

About the Author:  Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a colorfully creative journalist, inspiring transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, editor, radio host, BLISS coach, event producer, Cosmic Concierge, the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of Embraced By the Divine: The Emerging Woman’s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose. She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz,  J Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr., Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. Edie writes for The Huffington Post, Psych Central, Beliefnet, Elephant Journal, The Good Men Project, Expanded Family, Meaningful Mom, Bucks Happening, Montco Happening, Hunterdon Happening, as well as a growing number of other venues. Edie is the founder of Hug Mobsters Armed With Love, which offers FREE HUGS events on a planned and spontaneous basis. She also facilitates a workshop called Cuddle Party which is a 3 1/2 hour opportunity to engage in safe, nurturing, non-sexual touch by consent. Communication and boundary setting skills are taught as well.  www.opti-mystical.com 

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        Like many who are reading this, I am a Renaissance person, a serial entrepreneur, what I refer to as ‘professionally polyamorous,’ with many overlapping career paths offering financial support and emotional gratification. It has been this way for as long as I can remember. Throughout my adult life, I have been a lifeguard, swim team coach, massage practitioner, teacher for adults and children, practice patient for a medical school, social worker, addictions counselor, bereavement specialist, therapist, ice cream parlor scooper, waitress, artists’ model, clown, life coach, journalist, editor, book author, magazine publisher, interfaith minister, radio host, event producer, PR Goddess, greeting card writer, organ donor educator, support group facilitator, as well as active volunteer. I refer to myself as a ‘Cosmic Concierge,’ which means that I am well connected and know how to help people find resources.  My path continues to unfold before me.
        Periodically, I find myself (or lose myself) in feeling as if I am not doing enough fast enough for my nagging, nudging inner critic. That’s when I do something that I recommend for overachieving Type A’s…I Google myself! When in doubt, you can check it out too. You may be surprised at what you have accomplished.
      When I do that, I got a goofy grin on my face as I shook my head and think, “Wowie, that woman is busy!” When I can view myself from an outsider’s perspective, I can allow myself to relax, at least for the moment. Then, in typical fashion, I am off to the races again.  I chalk it up to being the daughter of a mom who, in my early childhood, worked from home as an Avon Rep., gate guard at our community pool in the summer, columnist for our local newspaper and designer of doll clothes. I would laugh at the cosmic coincidence that her boss for that last job was Mrs. Handy. In addition, she too was a volunteer, at the hospital, with Girl Scouts, and at the elementary school my sister and I attended. When Jan and I were old enough to be latchkey kids, she went to work as a switchboard operator at Sears until she retired at 65.  My father focused on one job for decades as a milkman for two different dairies and then shifted gears (no pun intended) and became a bus driver for SEPTA (the regional transportation company). Both instilled in me a sense of responsibility and told me that I could do whatever I wanted professionally as long as I enjoyed it and could support myself. They never said it would be single focused, thank goodness. Not sure how someone can remain in the same job for a lifetime. My curious mind is always reaching for new ideas. 

​       As the Grammy and Academy Awards have just occurred, I found myself fascinated with the success stories that played out on the screen. There was a time when each of these folks were not household names. I was delighted to hear that Brandi Carlile won Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for “The Joke”, and the album the track comes from, By the Way, I Forgive You, was named Best Americana Album. I initially heard this kick ass singer songwriter on member supported Philly based radio station WXPN around 10 years ago. The stirring song honors people who are marginalized and endangered, being seen as out of the mainstream. 
Rami Malek who rocked the screen and world as he embodied Freddie Mercury in the epic Bohemian Rhapsody was handpicked after being seen in the television show Mr. Robot. It was the role of a lifetime and likely will catapult his career even further.
          These are just two examples of those who likely had big dreams that they fed, watered and nurtured. I wonder who was on their team of yaysayers and if they faced naysayers who told them they wouldn’t reach that pinnacle. When I hear acceptance speeches, I am touched as award winners thank their families, friends and colleagues who lifted them aloft.
         In my own life, are many who fall into the first category and blessedly no one in the second group. Despite that, I still waver and doubt that my own vision for my life will play out the way I desire, all evidence to the contrary. It’s then that I turn to tried and true tools.
        One is what my friend Ruth Anne Wood calls Scripting For Success which is a vast toolkit of ideas to bring to here and now reality what we may only have mused about casually.
 
How to cultivate your glorious garden:

• Decide the crop you want to harvest. If you want watermelon, don’t plant tomatoes. You can’t get what you want, until you know what you want.
• Prepare the soil. Don’t plant on rocky, litter strewn surfaces. It is unlikely that any healthy crop will take root.
• Design the pattern and layout. Sure, scattering seeds randomly may yield something, but is it what you envisioned?
• Dig deep. If you place the seeds on top, they will blow away in the wind, or wash away in the rain.
• Weed out discontent and doubt or they will choke out the new growth.
• Nurture what is there, showering it with love and praise.
• See the finished product even while it is in process; keep your eye on the prize.
• Sometimes ‘shiny new object syndrome’ will kick in and distract you, in part as a way of protecting you from fear of failure.
• Have accountability partners who will keep you on track. These are folks who will remind you of your commitments.
• Create mini-goals for yourself if tackling intentions all at once seems too daunting and enjoy checking them off.
• Offer yourself small rewards for these micro milestones.
• Spend time with those you admire who have reached their goals and keep climbing higher. Remember that birds of a feather flock together.
• Remember that one hand washes the other, so it is important to be of mutual support to others. Don’t make it all about you even as you are being ‘shamelessly self-promoting’.
• Find a mentor. For the past 30 some years, Dr. Yvonne Kaye has been mine. From the get-go, she inspired me with these simple words, “Discipline is freedom,” which provided the structure from which my creativity could flow, and my free-spirited nature could emerge.
• Know that you are worthy to have your dreams and desires come to fruition.

Count me in as an ardent admirer and cheerleader!