What YOU and New Madrid, Missouri have in common?

When I mention the word earthquake, what’s the first thing you think about?
Most think about the State of California or if you recently watched 60 Minutes (April 2010), the San Francisco Oakland Bridge that’s far from being completed. This bridge is the main transportation vein for San Francisco and will generate widespread devastation if it fails to be completed before the next big earthquake.

Let's shift gears and discuss New Madrid. It’s a place many of you haven’t heard of until now. In the winter of 1811-12, the central Mississippi Valley, was struck by three of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. On December 16, 1811, the violent shaking abruptly awakened residents’ of the town of New Madrid, Missouri.

Between Dec 16,1811 and February 7, 1812 the three violent earthquakes registered in at 8.6, 8.4 & 8.7 on the Richter scale. These earthquakes were stronger than the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the Alaskan Good Friday earthquake in 1964.

These quakes were felt from Canada to New Mexico, rang church bells in Boston, cracked log homes walls, which were 3-feet deep in St Louis and damned up the Mississippi River.

The interesting thing…

The earthquakes of that memorable winter were not freak events. On the contrary, scientists have discovered that strong earthquakes in the central Mississippi Valley have occurred on a predictable and frequent basis.

The Central United States is vulnerable to a damaging earthquake. With little or no warning, an earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone will strike seven or more states, causing major physical, social, and economic disruption to a region that is home to forty million people.

The potential losses from future earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater in the New Madrid seismic zone are expected to be significant, for at least three reasons: 1) the population centers, notably Memphis and St. Louis, have thousands of structures that are not designed and constructed to withstand the effects of earthquakes; 2) the region is characterized by poorly consolidated sedimentary rocks, which are poor foundation material; and 3) a New Madrid quake would impact a multi-state region (about 10 times larger than the area impacted by a California earthquake of comparable size).

What New Madrid has to do with you and I?

Your and my life, are a lot like the New Madrid seismic fault. Many pressures have been applied to the fault lines of our lives; several structures have been created in our lives, which cannot be sustained in the wake of the economic downturn. The very things we looked to as a life raft-the perfect home & marriage, the unshakable career, and a secure retirement have disappeared for millions of people. This has left many of us feeling lost, alone, disenchanted, depressed and resentful.

The only questions many are left to wrestle with, like the New Madrid impending earthquake are “when, how powerful and what can be done about it?”

The confusing part is many of us have more questions than answers. Many of us did all the “right things” & are left in the wake of a nightmare. We don’t have the resources at our disposal to create the solutions we are desperately longing for.

Reducing Vulnerability by retrofitting our infrastructure….

You and I will deal with earthquakes in life because it comes with the territory. However these earthquakes needn’t have the devastating results the impending New Madrid quake is forecast to have due to failing to create the necessary structural & transportation changes.

You and I are in the position to change our lives by creating a plan to address personal/professional/emotional/physical challenges and seizing opportunities, which present.

Lets embark on the journey by identifying your top 5 vulnerabilities:
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2)
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4)
5)

**The things that came up for me were 1) perfectionism, 2) depending on my own resourcefulness, 3) pride, 4) insecurity & 5) the past.

Now that you’re aware of what you are up against, identify 5 ways, which you can respond to these vulnerabilities to recover and reclaim you life.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Using the above example, my plan of escape follows. May it serve as an example to get you engaged in the process of permanent change.

To minimize the fault-line of Perfectionism, I will respond to this vulnerability by learning to ask for help. I will more quickly share what’s plaguing me with close confidants who can help shoulder the burdens I’m experiencing.

To minimize the fault-line of depending on my own resourcefulness, I will follow the same advice I’ve given myself regarding perfectionism, do a lot more listening during times of reflection, less speaking & listening for agreement i.e. during prayer, messages I listen to, advice provided from colleagues, friends and associates. I will remember that ‘none of us are as smart as all of us & none of us are islands.’

To minimize the fault-line of pride, insecurity & past regrets, I will work on becoming mindful of the ways I default to being a perfectionist and depending on my own resourcefulness. In doing so, much of the pride, insecurity and the past regrets will significantly minimize or vanish in its ability to control my thought life and behaviors.

Remember, learning without application is entertainment. Take the time to ask yourself the difficult questions and create your plan of action.

I guarantee the next time an aftershock or full on earthquake hits, you’ll be glad that you did.

To your greatness

Got Morpha?

Morpha is the Greek word, which means “something that doesn’t change. It’s a solid form. It’s always the same.”

This word got me thinking about the things in my life that I could actually say have been morpha-fied. As I wrecked my mind the only two things I identified was my love for learning & my desire to witness others change the course of their life. My love for my husband has to change and deepen DAILY, or our relationship couldn't endure the test of time & life circumstances. My work ethic would always have to be tweaked to remain ahead of my counterparts & competitive.
My relationship with my bonus children would always have to be updated so that they knew I listened & cared about what matters most to them.

The thing is many things in life rarely remain the same. We are a trophy on display in need of inner GPS tracking systems. Although this sounds weird, it’s an accurate approach to track the course of our lives. Without regular updates, our trophies will look dated, listless & pretty flabby.

We cannot ever stop getting ourselves together. We cannot ever stop learning and applying what we learn. Without being sober, alert & intimate about every aspect of our lives, we are destined to failure at best & life without meaning at the very worst.

If you’re like me, there are areas of your lives that seem perfect & other areas that seem to tear at the seams due to life’s circumstances. Most of these circumstances you find yourself in began with “I’ll never….,” "Oh I don't have to worry about _____ because I did _____ or planned...," or “I don’t understand how …..found themselves in this circumstance.”
The reality is that life always places us in unique situations, especially those which DURING THE ORDEAL feel eternal, yet are really “schemas.”

Schema means a temporary image. It’s these temporary circumstances, left unchallenged which become the permanent stories, which shape our lives. These temporary situations tend to color every aspect of our lives in the same way a horror flick seems to terrify the entire unsuspecting town.

Once something so horrific overtakes our lives, how can we change?

We need to prepare for WAR in times of peace. We need to strategize our way of escape so we can lessen the blow to our lives. There’s something about each of us that’s rare. It’s that rare commodity which we WILL need to use to change the prognosis of our life CIRCUMSTANCE or at the very least ourselves while dealing with whatever occurs.

I so desperately wanted to believe everything I typed to share in this blog….however the harassment of the IRS, mounting student loans, & relationship trouble were all SMACK DAB in my face.

So after some reflection, prayer & exercise, I renewed my mind and started crafting my YADA solution.

“This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question.” ~ Orson Scott Card

Yada means a very intimate experience.

I knew I needed this experience, because all of the things facing me were zapping my power to think strategically & behave in alignment with my desired goal: to have peace in the midst of ALL this life transition.
This shift in mindset was IMPERATIVE because, neither I, nor you will EVER experience power in our lives without intimacy with life purpose itself.

The marching orders of my plan....

1. Establish boundaries for myself. This included my staying away (or at least significantly minimizing my contact) from people, places, circumstances that tempt me to sabotage my goal(s).
2. When I began thinking about what I didn’t want, I immediately thought about something else. I literally stopped spending endless hours re-living what had already happened, what I didn’t want anymore of & beating myself up.
3. Daily, I would think about my current life circumstance & keep factoring in future plans. I make future planning a top priority. When I get tempted to give up I ponder motivational speaker/trainer John Maxwell’s famous words “ if you want to change something in your life, you have to change something daily.”
4. I practice strict adherence. I make it my priority to remain disciplined. By pre-planning many of my moments, reactions & outline for my intended goals, I more easily remain self-motivated.
5. I regularly listen to encouraging things i.e. cd’s, radio, et al.
6. I regularly declare under my voice the desired result. For instance, when I start feeling like things will never change I might tell myself “Thanks for sharing. Things will change. In fact they already are because I’m thinking about my life differently. The perfect solution is en route to me as I speak;” “God thank you for the promise that you will fulfill all of my plans and inmost hearts desires.”

So now that you get the picture, it’s your turn to create your method of escape. You can do anything that you set your mind, will and emotions to.

To your best life,

Tatum