Later today I will be flying out of South Africa to the USA to follow a dream I’ve had for a long time. This dream is one of many but it is such an important one because when I embarked on this journey, I was completely unaware that the choices I was making would bring me to such an important chapter in my life.
I dreamt of speaking to people and telling them of what I had learned about how life works and why I have always had a burning desire to understand why we do the things we do, in the way that we do them. I am not sure why I was imbued with such a desire but I have come to understand that we all have it in some form, like a kind of unquenchable thirst, and unless we ‘drink in’ the right liquid, we will never feel that our thirst has been slaked.
As soon as I accepted that this is just the way I am, I felt like I had been intravenously fed with the finest blend of super powerful hydrating liquid and I finally stopped being so thirsty. I will always be a seeker and knowing now that I was born with a purpose and that unless I am fulfilling my unique purpose every day, I will remain thirsty and hungry but will never feel “fed.”
That is why I decided to ‘Burn the Boats!’and follow my dream of participating in a life-changing workshop in Miami, Florida, USA with one of my mentors and heroes, Dr Joe Dispenza.
I love the story about Cortez , who convinced his army to burn their boats once they had arrived at their destination, so that they had no choice but to be successful in their quest to take over the land they had set out to conquer. “If we are going home, it will be in their boats!” he told his soldiers. (You can find out more about the story of Cortez here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssv8v-lgPOM)
That is exactly how I feel about the second leg of my trip in the US, after I have completed my adventures with Dr Joe. In a conversation a few weeks ago with a fellow coach who is based in the US, we decided right there and then that since I was going to be in the US anyway, we should get together and present a powerful workshop to her circle of influence, about one of my passions – Brain Health. It was a definite ‘burning the boats’ kind of moment but once the intention had been set, there was no turning back, and despite the fact that we had less time than we would have liked, nothing planned and no way of knowing how it would work, we made a solid commitment to just do it!
So here I am, a few hours away from going on an adventure that I had no idea I would be going on just a few months ago, and everything has fallen so sublimely into place. Words like trust, faith and belief have filled my days, since we ‘burned our boats’ and once again, I am truly in awe of how spectacularly things come together when you simply trust that the Universe will work out the details. You just have to be intentional in your belief and have faith that you are ALWAYS in the right place at the right time, for the right thing to happen.
No matter how many people I get to speak to in the US, and no matter if it ever happens again, I will know that I have followed my dream by setting my intention and being open to the promptings of the Universe. Taking the leap of faith and saying “YES” to life is really about ‘burning the boats’ every time you become aware that you are being called to do something that might scare you, but that you know you must do if you are to follow your dream.
Perhaps you need to ‘burn the boats’ in an area of your life where you feel worried or scared to make a decision. Fear is simply a word used to describe something that hasn’t happened yet – once you get stuck in the feeling (emotion) of the thought of fear, you may very well deprive yourself of an experience that could change your life in a spectacular way.
For a very long time , I allowed fear to rob me of living the life of my dreams. Taking a leap of faith has become easier and easier, the more I allow myself to jump into the unknown. Will you take that leap of faith and ‘burn the boats?’ Ask yourself if you took just one action, even if it scared you, what might happen if you didn’t give yourself a way out? What might happen if you became comfortable with not knowing how things might work out, but trusted that they would always work? What if you decided today that you no longer wanted to live a life that would keep you safely stuck in your comfort zone?
But be aware that once you make the decision to ‘burn the boats,’ don’t be surprised at the opportunities, adventures and situations that might just turn up in your life to scare and oh so delight you with the temptation to follow your dream and fall in love with life once again!
More to follow soon, from distant shores.
