5/13/13—Cleaning Out Your Closets

Today's Draw: The Empress in the What's Crossing Success position from the Peaceful Path Tarot and the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Are you considering a big change? Is your life ok, but nothing terribly exiting? Could you use to shake up your routine a little?

The "Crossing" position in tarot is one that can help or hinder whatever it's modifying. And in the case of this card combo, I think it's saying that the continual birth of new ideas—and the continual rebirth of ourselves—symbolized by the Empress is what adds to our success in life.

I'm sure it's possible to be successful doing the same thing in the same way over and over again. In fact, I've noticed that a lot of authors in the spiritual non-fiction realm just regurgitate the same book over and over and they're successful. And it makes sense, in a way, because sometimes people just need to hear something a different way in order for it to sink in. So if you tell them the same thing over and over using different words, you're certain to reach them.

So you can find some forms of success regardless, but I think if you want success in marriage, personal development, career and all-around, you really have to try new things. In fact, I think it's a major contributor to happiness. And it's not just trying new things, it's having new ideas and thoughts—and being open to new ideas and thoughts.

I think the more we challenge ourselves to step outside our areas of complacency, the fresher and more vital life feels. When I look back on my life, I see where I've "reinvented" myself many times. In a way it's a rebirthing...you change your hair color, you switch careers, you change your lifestyle...all of those lead to a "new you". And think of vital you feel when you do something like that!

Beyond the dramatic things, what are some behavioral things where you're responding the same way over and over again? How can you change something there in a way that supports growth? Is there a way you see a certain issue where you could open your mind a little? Or some part of your daily routine you could reinvent? 

Also consider that if you have a big change you need to make, that the momentum can begin just by changing something small. So say you want to quit your job as an accountant to open a bakery and that feels like too big a leap to make, why not teach baking classes out of your home? Or try catering a friend's party? Or play with some recipes, substituting different flours? Or heck, why not just come up with a name for your bakery and print up some business cards? Or consider some sort of partnership pairing, like Sue's Bakery and Tacos...haha...just throw some ideas out there where someone could come in and share the risk. I've noticed that a lot of coffee shops get baked goods from neighborhood bakers...maybe start there. See? Instead of thinking "how am I going to afford this?" or "how am I going to create this change in my life?", just brainstorm all kinds of ideas. The act of thinking or doing or taking baby steps alone, could inspire something you never considered. 

I think if we all really took a look, we'd see there are some things we decided for ourselves 30 years and haven't challenged since then. They might be things we're happy with, but what if there's an option out there you'd be even happier with? You won't know that until you consider other options. 

In the same way we go through our closets every once in a while to throw out old fashions and things that no longer fit, the same opportunity exists in every area of our life. How long has it been since you've become conscious enough of your life to ask yourself "is XYZ really working for me anymore?...is the way I drive to work...the way I cook chicken...the way I engage others...the way I respond to stress...is all of that still working for me or is it possible there's a better way?" Often if we change the way we do something, things around it change, too. Are you ready to see what you can give birth to in your life today?

2/28/13—Celebrating Your Successes

Today's Draw: The World in the What to Do Next in Regards to My Goal position from the Tarot of the Sidhe and the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Do you feel you fully celebrate your successes? Or are they just a blip on the radar of your busy life? Do you ever just stop and give yourself a good old pat on the back?

So today I used the same Deck of 1000 Spreads technique of creating custom spread positions that I used yesterday. But I also did something I'm not sure I've done intentionally in the nearly three years I've been writing my daily posts: I drew a card specifically for me to explore what to do next now that my deck is out. 

See, the Deck of 1000 Spreads wasn't a destination for me. It was never been intended to be one. The "destination", as many of you know from reading this blog, is to be a spiritual/self-help type of writer, dispensing the kind of insights I deliver here each day. While on that road I got this phenomenal idea for a product serving the tarot world and I HAD to do it. And doing it was divinely inspired, not only because it has been such a gift for me so far, what with all the positive feedback and the things people are doing with it. But also because of something that became clearer to me just the other day. 

OK. I'm going to brag. Facebook people are probably sick of hearing this...haha. But I haven't told the people who just know me from my blog. For the past week or so, the Deck of 1000 Spreads has been a best seller in the Fortune Telling category on Amazon. It's been anywhere from #1 to #7 when I've checked. It moves around a lot. At the time of this writing, I'm #1 in Fortune Telling, #4 in Tarot, #15 in Divination and I'm really nowhere near the Top 100 in the New Age category (the next level up). Yet. Haha. But I'll tell you this much—none of this was on my radar a month ago. These rankings never occurred to me. 

Now that I've seen them and the little outline that goes along with the photo here, it occurs to me that I'm already writing in the category I want to: Religion & Spirituality. I'm a few levels deep into it, but I'm already in it. And this fills me with hope that I will be able to achieve my dream of being a mainstream spiritual author and helping and healing people with my words. I think I do that now here and feel very blessed by it. 

Do you know I've been operating this site for more than two years and this summer will mark three years of daily posts I've been making and I've never once heard a negative word about what I do? I mean, there are critics everywhere in life, but I've been so blessed to hear only words of support from you. I'm getting all emotional just writing this. But this has been such a gift because I get such great feedback. AND I share some stuff that makes me uncomfortable admitting from time to time, and it's such a safe place. On my blog and on Facebook, this post has been a safe place for anyone who has ventured in. 

Anyway, to get to the actual reading we're doing today, the rest of my week is slow in my actual job. So I have a couple of days of lull before I get busy again next week. And I want to continue this momentum that seems to be building over my deck and ride it into my next project, which I'm thinking right now might be a few ebooks adapted from this blog. Over the years people have asked me to put it in ebook form, but I can't take the tarot with me in ebook form, primarily for copyright purposes...I can't print cards from all these different decks in a money-making venture without getting permission.

So anyway, that's what today's draw is all about. What should I do next to reach my goal? And The World is telling me to tie up loose ends first. To integrate the experience I've been having. My deck has been out in the world for, like, two weeks...haha. I can keep enjoying this fun for a little while longer. Like, I haven't even drunk a toast to this release or had a "me" day to celebrate. And that's so typical of me. I'll wallow for weeks in my failures...haha...but I feel bad bathing in my successes. And, when you think of it, that's just not the way to live. We should forgive our failures and celebrate our successes, instead if the other way around. So I think The World is telling me to do just that...to do something to synthesize this moment it before I take the next step. 

And the next step is? Well the next step is The Fool. I begin the cycle again. I make the leap into the unknown and start out on another journey. But for now...for maybe another week or so...I get to stand atop the World...or atop the Fool's cliff...and enjoy the view. :)

3/2/12-3/4/12—Finding Another Way

Weekend Reading: Six of Swords from the Forest Folklore Tarot. The path to success is not always straight and clear. If you come up against a roadblock, find another way. Sometimes the obstacles in our path are blessings in disguise. They could be keeping us from walking into a situation much harder to get out of than the workaround we're currently faced with. When we view our roadblocks that way instead of as signs that we're doomed to fail, we keep our energy high and positive and tend to see the gift in every situation. If you simply can't go on anymore, then don't. But if you're just frustrated, suck it up and keep moving forward. The only way to truly fail is to give up too early.