Part 3: Seven Steps to Keep from Getting Stuck in the Wrong Pot

Are You in the Right Pot or Is Your Pot in the Right Spot?

Continued from Part 2: http://wp.me/ppImQ-gS

Are you growing and surrounding yourself with light? Do you have an inspiring vision that makes life meaningful and joyful?  Are you getting a healthy diet of inspiration, encouragement, and stimulation regularly?  Are you surrounding yourself with creative and positive people, a clean harmonious environment, and love?  Remember, love is the most powerful light.  Give more love and you will receive more of it.  Also, are you willing to pull those stifling weeds or toxic people from your life once you’ve identified them?

Are You Challenged?

In order to get the right answers in life, we must ask the right questions.  So, are you challenged?  Are you doing something meaningful that gets your creative juices going?  How do you feel, just blah or energized? Are you excited about your life?  Are you growing or are you stuck?  Do you have opportunity?  Are you waiting for it to knock on your door or are you creating it?   Energy comes from exciting and meaningful pursuits.

Can You Grow in Your Current Pot?

And finally are you making sure that you are in a pot that allows you to continue to grow?  Do you need a new pot or different pot?  Do you need  a bigger pot or perhaps a smaller pot?  Maybe your pot is too big and its hard to feel secure and plant your roots and you need a smaller space.  Or, perhaps the opposite is true, your pot is  too small and you can’t move or grow so you need a bigger pot?

Some People Won’t Feel Comfortable in Any Pot!

We are all different. Our talents are different; our capacities are different.  Some people won’t feel comfortable in any pot,  no matter what the size, location, or  how fancy, expensive, or beautiful it may be.  These type of people thrive on being able to move and grow freely without limitations.  Perhaps that’s you.  Maybe, you’ve been switching pots trying to find the right one, when in reality, you don’t need a pot at all.  Maybe you need to plant your dreams in the open fields where the Creator provides the natural sustenance and the possibilities are endless.

I Needed a Major Overhaul, New Pot, Different Pot, and New Spot

Are you in an environment that allows you to spread your wings and fly?   Happiness is your thermometer.  Years ago, it was apparent to me that the pot I was in was too small.  I wrote the book, ‘On Track On Fire On Purpose’ to chronicle my journey of moving from a small pot to a bigger pot.  You can get a copy of book if you like from my website or Amazon.  I share the lessons I learned to get from the Projects to become the poet and publisher today, from the teenage mom to the happily married wife for over 30 years.  I personally needed a major overhaul.  I not only needed a new pot, but a different pot, and a new spot to pull off my remarkable transformation.  And, I found out that I was one of those pot-less people.

To continue reading Part4 of Seven Steps to Keep From Outgrowing Your Pot, Seven Steps To Keep You from Getting Stuck in the Wrong Pot , click here http://wp.me/ppImQ-hl

Barbara Talley is a workshop leader, keynote speaker, author, and publisher who speaks and writes on value-based living themes.

Part 2: Seven Steps to Keep from Getting Stuck in the Wrong Pot

Continued from Part 1: http://wp.me/ppImQ-gL

The natural order of things is that things are either growing (progressing) or dying (regressing).  I’ve learned a lot about growth by watching my plants grow, which lately, have been thriving.  As long as I water them and give them the appropriate amount of sunlight, protect them from stifling weeds, and put them in a pot that will allow them to grow, they flourish.  But, if I forget to water them, leave them without light, don’t pull the weeds, or don’t replace their pots when necessary, they slowly die.

We Are All Works In Progress

As I watch my young grandchildren grow, I am reminded that we are all works in progress.  Given the right tools, each divine creation will progress naturally.  Watch the grass, a plant, a tree, or the physical human body, they don’t strain to grow, they just grow.  But the human mind must be consciously, consistently, and carefully nurtured.  My youngest grandchild, just six months old and unable to speak but a few words, listens intently to every sound, carefully studies every face, knows who is familiar and unfamiliar, who to trust and who not to, and how to get his needs met.  The point is he started out a few months ago helpless and knowing very little but has been steadily growing stronger and smarter every day because he has the right environment.  He is in the right pot; he knows he is loved and his environment is stimulating (brightly colored educational toys, loving parents and family, healthy mother’s milk,  beautiful home, etc.)

To continue reading Part3 of Seven Steps to Keep From Outgrowing Your Pot, Are You in the Right Pot or Is Your Pot in the Right Spot? , click here  http://wp.me/ppImQ-h7

Barbara Talley is a workshop leader, keynote speaker, author, and publisher who speaks and writes on value-based living themes.

Part 1: Seven Steps to Keep from Getting Stuck in the Wrong Pot

Today’s question is, “Have you outgrown your pot?”  or “Is your pot in the right spot?” Let me explain.  Sometimes we don’t notice that we are stagnant because the process of growth is so gradual or the people around us and in the same pot as us enable or discourage us from rocking the boat.  The seed does not instantly become a tree, the mineral does not rapidly become a stone, and the human embryo does not reach perfection all at once.  We are designed to keep growing and growing, and growing.

To Stop Growing Is to Begin Dying

Although growth is a natural gradual process and requires patience, we must be clear, the goal is always to progress, to perfect ourselves, and to keep striving to become the best we can be.  No matter what our age or accomplishments to date are, no one should ever choose to ‘stop growing.’ That’s the point when we begin to die.

It Is Our Vision That Gives Us the Will To Keep Growing

Look around you, there are dead people everywhere, (vision-less, goal-less, and unhappy people).   The Bible states that, “Where there is no vision the people perish.”  It is our vision that gives us joy and the will to keep growing, striving, serving, and living.  Outgrowing your pot simply means that you are no longer growing, progressing, feeling like you are making a difference, or moving ahead. To continue reading Part 2 of Seven Steps to Keep From Outgrowing Your Pot, All Living Things Are Growing or Dying, click here http://wp.me/ppImQ-gS

Barbara Talley is a workshop leader, keynote speaker, author, and publisher who speaks and writes on value-based living themes.

We Are the Makers of Our Misery and of Our Merriment

Do you believe in fate, karma, or that, ‘what goes around comes around?’   Perhaps you are not the mystical type but are more scientific and believe instead in ‘cause and effect.’  Two different perspectives, but they both lead to the same conclusion and that is, ‘our faith, beliefs, and actions produce our results.’  Certain beliefs and actions produce happiness and other beliefs and actions produce unhappiness.

What You Believe Is Your Reality!

We are makers of our misery and we are the makers of our merriment.  It is all about perspective.  Studies have shown that happy people don’t have fewer tests, challenges, or problems.  But they do have an uncanny way of finding the good in most circumstances.  Their attitude in turn changes their problem into an opportunity.  These people tend to take responsibility for the good and the bad.  Now some will disagree with me and say, “I didn’t cause …… to happen!”   And, I agree. What you believe is your reality.  I however prefer to believe that I in some way did cause or attract my current reality.  Otherwise I’m admitting that I’m powerless, that I’m a victim of circumstances and that I have no control over what happens or doesn’t happen in my life.

Choose! Are You Powerful or Powerless?

We can’t have it both ways, either we have power and what we do matters or that we are powerless and forces beyond our control determine our fate.  If we choose to believe we have power then we must accept the role we played or refused to play that created our current reality.  We must accept responsibility for our lives and not blame others.  But, in this acceptance, we unlock the doors of power and unlimited possibilities.  In refusing to accept responsibility and instead blaming others, we unconsciously relinquish our power.  So, if you want to be happy, choose to be.

The Holiday Season Isn’t A Swap Meet

The holiday season isn’t about a swap meet.  It’s supposed to be a ‘heart’ meet, where people connect and celebrate the religious, cultural, or social significance of the season.

Focus on the Season, But Don’t Forget the Reason

Just as it is important to reflect on the reason for the season, it is equally important to focus on the reason for giving.   Many do not give ‘just for the joy of giving’, but instead give as a reciprocal duty or obligation.  Someone gives you a gift and you feel obligated to give back.  In this heartless exchange, no one wins.

When you miss the spirit of giving, little thought is put into the gift itself.  You look for a good sale where the price is reasonable and the discount is huge.  You leave on the full price sticker so that it appears that you spent more than you actually did.  The gift may even be something that the person cannot or will not value, use, or appreciate.  In some cases you may just regift something you were given that you don’t want.

Put Your Heart Into It

When the heart is not in the gift and no serious thought is taken to think about what would make the other person happy, the gift can trigger the opposite emotion.  Instead of bringing joy, it could backfire and make the receiver angry especially if they feel that their gift was more expensive or more thoughtful than the one that they received.  We can avoid a lot of this when we give for the sake of giving and realize that a gift is its own reward.  Radiance and I have a private story about this very same thing.  She went out of her way to give a friend a very generous gift and was very displeased with the gift she got in return.  To this day she calls the girl, “crappy gift giver.’

My humble advice to you, if you can’t give with the right attitude, then it’s probably better to not give at all.  After all, it is the season to be jolly and if you’re not happy, then you’ve missed the point!

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.
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