Do you have a favorite quote?

I don’t know about you, but I used to hate when editors of yearbooks would ask you to share your favorite quote.

I mean, do kids that age really have a favorite quote? Maybe it’s plausible by the time you graduate high school, even though it wasn’t for me. Was there something wrong with my teenage self because I wasn’t inspired by some random person’s words? I was born in the early sixties so there was no google, heck the only computers that existed back then were huge electronic monsters that took up entire rooms. The word “google” hadn’t yet been invented.

As I got older and my photo was no longer in yearbooks I thought I was safe, but I was wrong. My nightmare continued with the creation of social media. People would include their favorite quote in their profiles. Really? Again with this crap?, I thought. Did people live their lives inspired by these words or was it just for show? I wasn’t going to be a phony baloney! Instead, you would always find quoteless profiles whenever you searched my name..

And then, lightning struck and I finally became a woman with a quote.

Have you ever noticed how once you stop searching in desperation for an answer or an item, it suddenly appears? Life tends to play jokes on us like that. Anyhow, I was sharing the story of my transformational journey and the quote (not exactly verbatim) came tumbling out of my mouth. Where the heck did that come from?, I wondered. Whatever I said sounded good and quite inspiring if I did say so myself. Hmmm, had I made it up or was it an actual quote uttered by another? Now that the dark ages had passed and I had google by my side, I quickly realized that I couldn’t take credit for these words that had literally transformed my life, the credit belonged to another.

Are you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering who it was that uttered the words that changed my life? Are you guessing that it's some inspirational guru? Maya Angelou? Gandhi? Oprah? None of the above. It turns out that it’s a quote I had heard over and over again from the time I was a little girl, but had never paused to truly understand the meaning behind the words. As a matter of fact, it came from a movie that I had liked and hated at the same time. I hated it because so much of the movie had scenes and characters that scared me to death.

It’s a movie whose message I never truly understood until recently. The Wicked Witch and those flying monkeys were enough to make me run out of our den or close my eyes and cover my ears until they were off the screen when I was young. The one scene that gave me nightmares was in the very beginning of the movie when the tornado first hit and the house was spinning and Dorothy sees mean Mrs. Gulch riding her bike and laughing and suddenly she turns into the green faced, cackling Wicked Witch. Terrifying! This is supposed to be a family film? Come on! It’s so ironic how a film that gave me nightmares actually contains the message that would change my life. Ready? Here it is. Glinda the good witch says:.

“You’ve always had the power my dear, You just had to learn it for yourself.”

POW! Why had no one ever told me that I had the power to change and steer the direction of my life? No teacher, professor or parent thought that might be useful information for me to have? I thought I didn’t have any choice or control. I assumed we were all victims of our individual circumstances and our lives played out accordingly. Obviously I knew we each had some choices but not absolute power!  I guess there were signs that revealed themselves along the way but I was wearing blinders just like a racehorse only focused on the finish line. 

But wait, other people seemed to have been taught this secret. Is this something they were taught in school?. If not, maybe their parents taught them or the more likely answer was that they possessed special qualities to be able to rise above us mere mortals.

As I dug a little deeper, it became apparent that they were regular people just like you and me, before they became the inspirational, happy, successful people they are today.

Once the cat was out of the bag, my exciting new life journey began. I started making small changes in my daily routine. I learned that goal setting wasn’t just something you did in school or at work but you could actually apply similar techniques to all areas of your life. I expanded my thinking and became open to many things that I either had poo-pooed or uttered my favorite expression of “I can’t…” 

My life slowly began to change.

Each day I would wake up with a renewed sense of energy and excitement. The same feeling you have when you first fall in love and each day starts with a sense of anticipation. I’ve got to be honest and tell you that my current everyday concerns were still there but they didn’t seem as onerous as they did before. I felt like I was actually moving my life in the direction that I wanted one small step at a time just like Neil Armstrong had done.

With knowledge comes responsibility. I, alone hold the power to create whatever I want in life, regardless of my circumstances. I could no longer blame others or the situations I found myself in. Some things are out of our control, but how we react is ALWAYS in our control. It’s empowering when you realize that you have had the power all along. 

Now that you know, what will you do?

Until next time,
Debbie