I’ve never actually formalized my list of “Ways I Don’t Fit In,” but I know what nowadays would be somewhere near the top.
As an artist and entrepreneur, creativity and passionate expansion are intrinsic to not just what I do, but who I am.
Unlike more traditional careers, where folks are often clearly on a trajectory towards retirement, I can’t imagine ever stopping.
In fact, the urge to create doesn’t diminish over time; if anything, it grows stronger as I gain more life experience to draw upon.
I am not alone in this.
Charles Flint founded I.B.M at 61 and Colonel Sanders began Kentucky Fried Chicken in his early 60s.
Michelangelo continued sculpting into his 80s, and Claude Monet painted some of his most famous water lilies series in his 70s.
Remarkably, Georgia O’Keeffe created new work well into her 90s, even as her vision began to fail.
Rather than seeing any end in sight, instead I feel as dramatically alive as Al Pacino exclaiming in Scent of A Woman
“I’m just getting started.”
And apparently, the universe feels exactly the same.
He worked on the design, particularly this dome, until his death at the age of 88.
Contrary to what one might expect, the expansion of the universe isn’t slowing down; it’s actually accelerating.
This 2011 Nobel Prize-winning discovery was based on work from scientists a decade earlier.
In a nutshell, astronomers observed that some distant supernovae (exploding stars) were dimmer than expected, indicating that unlike what scientists had previously thought, the universe was not slowing down.
The mysterious force behind this––dubbed Dark Energy––is still poorly understood, even though it’s calculated to make up an astonishing 68% of the universe.
As I contemplate Expansion this month (Meditation HERE), I’m delighted but not surprised to learn that not only is our universe getting larger, it’s also simultaneously speeding up.
Expansion is one of the key concepts behind The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles’ landmark 1911 New Thought text that’s the subject of my new course HERE.
Wallace wrote that this is true beyond just a material level:
“Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think makes it necessary for us think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding.”
Only in 1929 would Edwin Hubble, by observing that distant galaxies were receding faster away from us than closer ones, prove that the universe was indeed expanding.
Part of Wallace’s genius was that he somehow knew that this was a Universal Law, that Nature is driven towards perpetual increase, and that our job is simply to harmonize with this.
And, I’m thrilled to share that based on popular demand, besides the Early Bird Special, I’ve added a coaching option HERE.
Speaking of expansive waves, I invented something this week (or at least I think I did) regarding affirmations, something I found profoundly helpful.
As I prepare to teach The Science of Getting Rich, I’m voraciously reading other classics from the period.
One of them that I’ve found particularly inspiring is Charles F. Haanel’s The Master Key, written 2 years later in 1912.
Haanel is a big believer in affirmations.
He actually has a favorite one.
The phrase he feels best encapsulates all the qualities one should embody to align with what he calls the Universal Mind is:
“I am whole, perfect, strong,
powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.”
This week, I took this practice for a test drive.
To be honest, I’d started the meditation with a near empty tank, not really feeling at all whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, or happy.
Vlad, however, was as always being helpful.
With one of his paws on me, amused I found myself shifting from “I” to “We” statements.
“We are whole, we are perfect,” etc.
All those positive statements were definitely true about him.
His always aligned energy more than picked up my slack.
Incorporating Vlad into We-statements made them true enough for me to affirm with integrity.
If you have a beloved four-legged creature in your life––and especially if you feel like I have that affirmations often ring hollow––I strongly recommend going from first person singular to plural.
Consider this my––ooops, make that “our”––expansive gift to you.
Often we rebel against expansion for reasons that are, quite frankly, dumb.
Whenever an adult friend asks me to teach them piano, it’s invariably more difficult than teaching someone a fraction of their age.
Used to being good, even great, at many things, there’s often major discomfort about the clumsy rumblings and clunky missteps that come with being an absolute beginner.
A friend sent me a David Goggins compilation video this week, with the caveat that “the dude’s totally insane but there’s one section I think you’ll resonate with.”
He was right on all counts, of course, and in particular another other section, one from his book, also hit home:
“Are you an experienced scuba diver? Great, shed your gear, take a deep breath and become a one-hundred-foot free diver. Are you a badass triathlete? Cool, learn how to rock climb. Are you enjoying a wildly successful career? Wonderful, learn a new language or skill. Get a second degree. Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb fuck in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.”
Say what you might about Goggins’ extremism, he’s on board with Wallace (and the Universe) that at the end of the day, it’s all about expansion.
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was formulated in 1915, revolutionizing our understanding of gravity and space-time.
At the time, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant in his equations to allow for a static universe.
After Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe in 1929, Einstein discarded the constant, calling it his “biggest blunder.”
In a quirky twist of fate, however, the concept of the cosmological constant has experienced a revival in modern cosmology.
It is now associated with the idea of Dark Energy, again that above-mentioned mysterious force that drives the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Please note that it is one possible explanation for dark energy, but it is not the only one.
The nature of dark energy remains an open question in cosmology as do the mysteries behind acceleration and expansion.
The phenomenon, however cannot be denied…speaking of which…
When I first expanded my COVID workouts by adding weighted jumpropes, even when no one was watching, it was painfully embarrassing.
I was quite literally tripping all over myself.
Nonetheless, I persisted through the awkwardness and a new aerobic love affair began.
Perhaps I’m ready for a new awkward adventure.
On a recent walk, Vlad and I have stumbled upon the grand opening of a yarn shop / hipster cafe, complete with the pictured-above pup Rory ⬆, their official resident mascot who fell all over Vlad.
In the spirit of expansion––the same one that encourages me again to check out my new course HERE––Vlad and I plan to soon attend one of the Intro to Knitting workshops they have twice a month.
I’m willing, as David Goggins suggests, to “always embrace ignorance,” even if means the risk of accidentally stabbing myself.
It just makes sense to move beyond your comfort zone and broaden your perspective whenever possible.
After all, science has now proven that our universe is not only expanding, it’s also accelerating.
In fact, everyone from Colonel Sanders to Grandma Moses vividly demonstrates why creativity doesn’t diminish over time, but actually increases.
Even if we still don’t understand the mysterious forces behind these cosmic expansions and accelerations, I invite you to take some bold risks, perhaps even by joining my new adventure HERE.
And remember, to instantaneously ride a bigger cosmic wave, I’ve offered you a new short cut:
Simply shift your affirmations from “I” to “We” whenever you can and watch your universe expand.
