When you decide to Reset your life to follow your passions, find your joy and exploit your Superpowers, you will have to battle the Storm that forms around you in order to free yourself from your past, your “trusted” guides, your well-intentioned loved ones and your own demons. It’s worth it.
Ned Lips – Author
Listen and watch, including my interview with Genera Moore, Founder and CEO of Motorparts Nation, on my YouTube channel, Resetting Your Life, http://bit.ly/NedLipsAuthorYouTubeChannel or listen wherever you get your podcasts by searching Ned Lips. I’m the only one.
The path to joy is wonderful, as you take each step and feel great about it, but it is also fraught with issues, as others remind you of your inadequacies, failures, weaknesses and of the stupidity of whatever path you are following. These are their opinions and they don’t know you.
As we consider changing our lives to follow our heart of hearts, to live our passions and to find and exploit our superpowers, we often must fight a battle with the Storm of our past emotions, experiences, connections, guilt, fear and anger. This Storm is often fueled by those who love us, advising us to follow the more sensible path they believe is right for us; by those who need us, demanding we stay and perform the services they require; and by those who want to see us fail, who know that if we follow this path we will be wildly successful, making them jealous that they don’t have the will power to do the same.
Sarah’s battle with the Storm that takes everything man-made from the planet is a battle with her own past, fears, failures and weaknesses.
The powerful, alluring energy now turned on her, ripping at her soul, tearing it from the peace. The Storm? The energy was alive, and it wanted her. It had lured her out, out too far, beyond her experience. Beyond her protection. Beyond the temple. Beyond Asha.
Rest pages 8-9.
Alone.
Blood-red evil emerged from her entanglement with the Storm. She could feel it searching her, scouring her senses, memories, fears and desires. She fought back, but this was ethereal, a spiritual, living being of some kind that was invading her mind, her soul. It ripped her worst experiences, visions, images, feelings and fears from her. She watched as they flowed into the darkness before her, almost as if the being in the Storm were playing snippets of them for her, evaluating them, organizing them. Robert. Her parents. Their coffins. Her boss. Robert’s family. Leaving them. Robert hitting her again and again. Gunshots. She was trapped and cold, floating in pure crimson darkness.
They do not understand. They cannot hear the voice in your heart of hearts, the voice of God, however you perceive that concept, guiding you to your joy. They only see the rules of life, of religion, of government, of polite society and the wisdom that they are certain they have for you. ONLY you can know your path.
Your Storm is internal to you. All of those external voices are just that, external. They are influential and hard to “defeat,” but in the end you are battling your own fears, frustrations, self-doubt, losses and inadequacies. This is what Sarah battles and it is what you must battle through in order to become the great superhuman person that you are destined to be.
Battle the Storm!! Fight for your future, your passions, your joy!! Only after defeating this Storm will you find yourself able to move forward and find your ideal place in, and path through, the world.
Sarah battles a different sort of Storm in Entwined as she struggles to deal with the issues facing her.
It was becoming too much. Her mind and her horrid memories, its strong desire to protect herself, battled with her soul, which knew she needed love. What do I feel toward Tom? Of course, I love him, but does he love me? Of course he does, but so did Robert, right? And see where that ended up? And if I do love him, what if that ends? Most relationships end. What would I do? Physical pain I can handle, but can I handle more emotional pain? What if something happens to him? I almost lost him once, and I can’t save him again. He’s a liability to me as a leader, my Achilles’ heel, someone a jerk like Tony can use to defeat me. Can I have that in my life? And Jazz is going to charm poisonous snakes alone, out there beyond my connections. Why did I allow that? If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself. What if one of our workers screws up and Jazz gets bitten? She’ll be dead before I can even get to her. Even if I could, I may not be able to save her life after saving Tom’s. Should I stop her? She’ll be furious.
Entwined page 105.
Everyone thinks I’m a lunatic. Sure, they love my writing. Thank heavens, but making a living writing? You must be nuts. It’s a constant battle. It took years, decades, for me to build up the internal strength to do this, to actually finish a book and get it published, and then work hard to produce more and to market Reset. Then have the faith in myself, in my journey, in my passion, to write First Steps, Entwined and now the final book in the trilogy and two other new, unrelated books, Freed, which will be out this Spring, and Who Would Know due out in the Fall. This was my Storm. The Storm is internal.
My Storm, as are all Storms, are less with others and more with ourselves. In that regard, the Storm in the book is reasonably accurate. Self-doubt, fear, anger, guilt and the like rage within all of us after almost any length of time on this planet. Our pastors fill us with the right thing to do, as they see it. Our families provide their list of right ways to live. Counselors, teachers, friends, mentors, bosses, everyone has their say about how WE should live our lives.
These “lessons” become part of our psyche. When we decide to buck them and do what WE know in OUR heart of hearts is right, it is first and foremost a battle against our own programming that we have to win. That is what Sarah is truly battling. I have a couple of good Facebook friends whose stories I’ve followed. We’ve become friends because I’ve endeavored to help them along the way. Perhaps successfully. The Storms they had to go through to Reset their lives exceed anything presented in Reset.
