I'm so excited about The SIMPLE Project that I am embarking on today.
Here's my project:
As a stay at home Mom I am seeking out ways to make money writing articles and other e-text items, so that I can do what I love doing and get paid for it. I will keep you all updated regularly on what has worked for me and hasn't worked for me and we'll see where it leads to. My goal is to leave my day job in 6 months time.
Today I'm thinking about Perseverence...and peanuts come to mind...I'll tell you why.
One morning, when I was about 6, my mom showed me this little jam-sized jar with a handle on the top that you could push down. Inside there was a long prong attached to a cookie-cutter type thing that had 4 pronges. My mom told me that peanut butter came from peanuts and you could use this little hand-operated grinder to smush the peanuts. Well, what my mom didn't tell me is that you also need oil and a lot of peanuts (and a number of other things too). So I collected that little grinder and about 10 peanuts and with my perseverance I set about to make peanut butter. I crushed those little peanuts determinedly all morning, probably a good 3 hours, only to find that they were not turning into peanut butter.
I got them as small as they would go (I now know we call what I made "chopped peanuts" and they go very nicely on sundaes) and then kept chopping and chopping for another hour. I couldn't have been more persistent. Alas those little peanuts became chopped peanuts and they would not become peanut butter. I stared down at that little jar in my hands and the stubborn little nuts in there and I accepted that they would not ever become peanut butter. And I knew that I gave it everything I had in me trying.
What I learned from that little incident is that we can only do so much with what we have. I didn't have the ingredients or tools to make peanut butter and I accepted that. I wanted these little legumes to smoosh and change form and they wouldn't. Sometimes there are people or situations in our life that we would like to change but at some point must accept that they will not. If we practice perseverance and believe in ourselves we will be able to get through any situation and come out the other side with more knowledge and with more skills. Later in life, I learned all about how to make peanut butter and I could put my curious mind to ease. (Curious about how to make it yourself? Check out http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Make_Peanut_Butter -- you'll notice they use a BLENDER instead of a jar with 4 metal cutters)
I think Ghandi said it best when he said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Here's my project:
As a stay at home Mom I am seeking out ways to make money writing articles and other e-text items, so that I can do what I love doing and get paid for it. I will keep you all updated regularly on what has worked for me and hasn't worked for me and we'll see where it leads to. My goal is to leave my day job in 6 months time.
Today I'm thinking about Perseverence...and peanuts come to mind...I'll tell you why.
One morning, when I was about 6, my mom showed me this little jam-sized jar with a handle on the top that you could push down. Inside there was a long prong attached to a cookie-cutter type thing that had 4 pronges. My mom told me that peanut butter came from peanuts and you could use this little hand-operated grinder to smush the peanuts. Well, what my mom didn't tell me is that you also need oil and a lot of peanuts (and a number of other things too). So I collected that little grinder and about 10 peanuts and with my perseverance I set about to make peanut butter. I crushed those little peanuts determinedly all morning, probably a good 3 hours, only to find that they were not turning into peanut butter.
I got them as small as they would go (I now know we call what I made "chopped peanuts" and they go very nicely on sundaes) and then kept chopping and chopping for another hour. I couldn't have been more persistent. Alas those little peanuts became chopped peanuts and they would not become peanut butter. I stared down at that little jar in my hands and the stubborn little nuts in there and I accepted that they would not ever become peanut butter. And I knew that I gave it everything I had in me trying.
What I learned from that little incident is that we can only do so much with what we have. I didn't have the ingredients or tools to make peanut butter and I accepted that. I wanted these little legumes to smoosh and change form and they wouldn't. Sometimes there are people or situations in our life that we would like to change but at some point must accept that they will not. If we practice perseverance and believe in ourselves we will be able to get through any situation and come out the other side with more knowledge and with more skills. Later in life, I learned all about how to make peanut butter and I could put my curious mind to ease. (Curious about how to make it yourself? Check out http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Make_Peanut_Butter -- you'll notice they use a BLENDER instead of a jar with 4 metal cutters)
I think Ghandi said it best when he said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
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