The ancestor of every action is a thought.
I have watched the movie Chicken Run at least a half-dozen times. Just beneath the surface of its simplistic look and story line lie a number of wonderful messages told by a bunch of claymation chickens trying to break out of their chicken-wire world to escape their fate on the chopping block. Their freedom leader, a feisty little hen named Ginger, comments profoundly in one scene: “The fences are all in your mind.” She reminds her fellow chickens, and us, that bigger than the physical fences they are surrounded by are the mental fences holding them captive. It is a good reminder for me on occasions when I have been dealing with my own mental fences… those created by self-doubt, uncertainty and fear. Can you relate? Where have you fenced yourself in mentally in recent days or weeks? Perhaps your mental fence is procrastination, a deadening habit keeping you stuck. Maybe yours is related to self-doubt and the on-going internal noise it produces keeping you immobilized. Perhaps you believe you do not deserve success, so you sabotage yourself to avoid having to find out how successful you could be. There are a million variations of the theme, but the result is still the same: we stay stuck like the chickens in the movie. A good question to ask yourself is, “How do I limit myself and how can I stop?” Those limitations are never external. They always live inside us. The antidote to being trapped by our mental fences is to create a compelling enough vision to resort to amazing measures to break out. The formula: VISIOSN + CONSISTENT ACTION = FREDOM I challenge you to take some bold, even outrageous steps to break free of your mental fences. If it is procrastination, declare a freedom day and take action on everything you have been putting off: from cleaning your office, to making telephone calls, to responding to emails you have avoided. If it is self-doubt, sit down and write out everything you value and why it is important. Then challenge yourself to eliminate anything that does not absolutely reflect your values, or add something that profoundly reflects who you are. Freedom is just the other side of action. Recognize that your mental fences can only keep you stuck as long as you are looking at them. They can only contain you as long as you are not taking actions consistent with your vision. Go ahead, take the action you have avoided and leap into a future with possibilities. Remember, the fences are all in your mind!
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AuthorMusings from Gammon Irons. To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for us all; and surely a good haven to sail. Archives
February 2020
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