I went to a movie some years ago\u00a0called \u201cYesterday.\u201d It was about an international blackout that lasted for a\u00a0few seconds at the turn of the 21st century. When it was over, one unsuccessful, unremarkable singer\/songwriter was the only person on the planet who remembered that the Beatles had ever existed. At first, he thought he was crazy. If no one else had ever heard of the Beatles, was he delusional?<\/p>\n
He strummed a few of their songs onvhis guitar and he realized he wasn\u2019t making them up. He thought it was tragic\u00a0that the world had lost this unequalled excellence so he did something radical.\u00a0He introduced the songs as his own. He had been depressed because no one had\u00a0acknowledge his talent. He hadn\u2019t been able to get anyone to even listen to his\u00a0demos. But now, the powers that be in the music industry were amazed and wowed\u00a0by his talent and they immediately gave him a record contract, something he had
been chasing for years. He had found new purpose and meaning. Each time he\u00a0played a Beatle song, he knew he was bringing beauty to other people so although\u00a0he felt guilty for taking credit for something he didn\u2019t do, he took comfort in\u00a0finding a way to do what really mattered to him.<\/p>\n
It can be hard to figure out your
purpose in a world that is so chaotic and dismissive, a world that rewards\u00a0celebrity and bad politics and discounts a more modest approach to the truth. Some\u00a0people have lofty ambitions while others have simpler goals.. Some people are\u00a0meant to take center stage and others are meant to remain in the background and\u00a0offer support. One is not better than the other. It\u2019s about admitting to\u00a0yourself what you need to feel satisfied in life, what you\u2019re good at, and start
going after it. It\u2019s about being authentic and finding out what really matters\u00a0to you.<\/p>\n
When I first offered my writing class,\u00a0seven people signed up and I thought I was a failure. I had friends who had\u00a0thousands of social media followers so what good was it to reach only a few? I decided
to go forward anyway and with each class, I slowly began to see the value in it\u00a0and how it served me. I wasn\u2019t cut out for working with large numbers of\u00a0people. I thrived in a more intimate setting and seven people had found a way\u00a0to tell the truth about their feelings and to heal. I had never expected the class\u00a0to be so valuable but My students had come to trust each other. If everyone touched seven people in their lives and created a healing environment for them,
just think about what a world this would be.<\/p>\n
Lately, in quite a few of my blogs,\u00a0I\u2019ve been focusing on the little things that matter. Very few of us will make a\u00a0big splash in life but all of us have small goals that will promote\u00a0self-healing and that of others. A friend told me she was a people pleaser and\u00a0she didn\u2019t how to change that. \u201cIf you\u2019re a people pleaser,\u201d I said, \u201cdon\u2019t you
come under the category of \u2018people?\u2019\u201d I suggested that instead of putting other\u00a0people first, she could ask herself, \u201cWhat do I want in this situation?\u201d<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t easy to reverse that programming,\u00a0but the more we try, the easier it gets. Some years ago, I was collaborating\u00a0with a successful motivational speaker who gave new meaning to the expression,\u00a0\u201cants in her pants.\u201d She was pacing the room one afternoon, on the phone with her\u00a0manager and she didn\u2019t look happy. Suddenly she stopped pacing and she asked me\u00a0breathlessly, \u201cWhat do you want for yourself? What are your hopes and dreams?\u201d<\/p>\n
I watched the gulls soar and swoop\u00a0outside the windows of her sumptuous Malibu estate. She had no idea that they\u00a0were there. In all of her accomplishments, she had no capacity to notice or appreciate\u00a0beauty. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeace,\u201d I said. \u201cI want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked disappointed and said, \u201cIs\u00a0that all?\u201d<\/p>\n
When you do a small good thing over\u00a0and over, it can become something larger. Vincent Van Gogh said, \u201cGreat things\u00a0are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are so many ways to fill\u00a0ourselves up. What other people do won\u2019t necessarily work for you so you have\u00a0to look inside and find out what really matters. I don\u2019t do sitting mediation like\u00a0some of my friends. I don\u2019t repeat affirmations. I don\u2019t keep a gratitude\u00a0journal, but I\u2019ve found my own way to take care of myself. I write every day. I
knit beautiful things. I listen to friends and help ease their pain. I teach\u00a0writing classes and give people a safe space to air their feeling and to heal\u00a0their hearts.<\/p>\n
Overlooking yourself is the path to
suffering. Remembering what matters to you is the path to peace.<\/p>\n
The Dalai Lama says, \u201cWe can never obtain\u00a0peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I went to a movie some years ago\u00a0called \u201cYesterday.\u201d It was about an international blackout that lasted for a\u00a0few seconds at the turn of the 21st century. When it was over, one unsuccessful, unremarkable singer\/songwriter was the only person on the planet who remembered that the Beatles had ever existed. At first, he thought he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/2706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}