Servant or Pioneer

Seth Godin observed:  “We are either servants or pioneers.” 

Which way do you want to play that one?

Seth’s full quote is this:  “You are either a

servant to a sovereign authority or you are a pioneer blazing your own trail.”

I like that later.  And you?

If I could empower you, I would say to you – reason things out for yourself. You have a voice. Use it.

You could be one of the best trail blazers this world has ever seen.  There is no one else quite like you.  Your voice is unique, as is your finger print, your DNA and your eye print.  Declare your uniqueness.  Declare your own brand of whatever it is you do best. 

I love the TV show Shark Tank for that very reason.  Week after week a handful of individuals and partners show up with their idea, their brand, their dreams and the hopes.  They have one chance to say their piece and attract the attention of at least one shark.  In those brief moments, they possess the spirit of a trail blazer.  They show their stuff as a pioneer and they simply want to blaze a trail for other like-minded souls to follow.

You are now handed the torch.  Wave it high.  Show us what you can do and mark your trail with a burning blaze so that we can follow and be inspired by your story.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

I Don't Like Bullies

I don’t like bullies.  They remind me of

dictators.  They demand that the world be ordered according to their selfish agenda, whims and wishes.

Bullies forget that I have a mind, a will and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad.  In other words – I can make really great choices for my life.

I don't like bullies.

I like marching to the sound of my own drummer.  I like making my own way.  I like the way my mind reasons things out. 

I have a voice.  I can use it for my own good and hopefully for the good of the tiny space over which I have some control.

I don’t like bullies.

But I do like the way I am capable of governing my life.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Fear and Creativity

Are you a creative type?  Would you like to wear the label “Creative”?  Then you have an ugly twin who follows you everywhere you go.

Elizabeth Gilbert says this about that:  “Fear and creativity are conjoined twins.”

Especially during the early days of being a writer and blogger, I felt great panic every time it came time for me to press PUBLISH.  My thoughts were these: 

  What if this is crap?

  What if nobody reads this?

  What if I’ve got ten misspelled words?

  What if it is boring?

   What if people laugh?

   What if the literary cops come and put me in jail for subject/verb abuse?

Most creative types I know and read about face this dilemma in pursuing their craft.  Every dancer wants to be perfect, every singer wants to wow their audience, and every speaker wants to astound their listeners with an amazingly glib delivery.

And along comes fear.

Fear rides on the shoulder of every attempt to be creative or every attempt to do something new. 

AND WE DO IT ANYWAY!

We create, we write, and sing, dance, build tall buildings, create movie scripts; we deliver sermons and speeches, we run for office and a thousand other pursuits, and all the while we thumb our nose at fear.  We say ‘Fear, get out of the way.  I’ve got stuff to produce the likes of which this world has yet to see.  Step aside.  My creative self is coming through.”

We face our fears and we create something of nothing.

Got fear? 

Who doesn’t?

A question for you:  Who’s going to drive your bus - Fear or Creativity?

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Tremendous Thing

This is about as wise as it gets for this blog post.  Would you like to go down in history as having done a few tremendous things?

Consider this.

Be a friend.

BE A FRIEND!

E.B. White says it best in the children’s classic Charlotte’s Webb.

I have a friend who confessed to me recently that he was contemplating suicide because he is at the end of his life and has a serious cancer attacking his body and there is nothing more the medical world can do for him. 

I called him just to say “Hi Roger.  I’m your friend and I care for you.”

I helped another man from Algeria get his computer up and running and saved him some money from a potential web scam.  He called me his ‘best friend.”

What is the value you have in your friend’s list?

Count them as gold.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time