Ralph Waldo Emerson Trust 30 Challenge: Me and My Intuition.

I love this Trust 30 prompt from Susan Piver. The challenge is to describe my intuition as we share a meal. What would my intuition say?

Me: "Thanks for joining me."
        MI (My intuition): "Hey, if you're buying I'm there. How did you know this was my favorite place?"
Me: "I had a premonition. Any thoughts on beer, wine or an appetizer?"
        MI: "I'll have a Sam with dinner. No thanks on the appetizers. I'm trying to make better choices."
Me: "It must be working, you look great. You look like a younger, thinner me with a full head of hair. There's something about your eyes. Your eyes are a combination of a bright eyed youth and a wise old owl. What am I to make of that?"
        MI: "Make of it as you wish, after all I'm your intuition.What do you think?"
Me: "Well, I feel good about the future. I've got some irons in the fire. I wish I could progress faster but I do feel like I'm moving ahead each week. I can almost feel success knocking on the door."
        MI: "Don't worry about success. Success can be fickle and has so many definitions. Concentrate on consistency and effort.  You control consistency and effort and boring as the both may be, effort and consistency are the advance team for success."
Me: "So, I'm on the right path?"
        MI: "Are you?"
Me: "Knock it off, you're not my shrink."
        MI: "You're right, I'm not your shrink but I'm not a clairvoyant, either. I'm how you view the future."
Me: "Thanks. I had a feeling you would say that."
         MI: "So maybe you're a clairvoyant?"
Me: "Well played. Can you answer this question? When we got together before you rarely looked this good. At times you looked frail, brittle and old. Occasionally, you sat in front and cowered. I couldn't even get you to a table."
         MI: "When I looked like crap or couldn't even walk in, how were you doing then?"
Me: "For me it was tough accomplishing much. Meeting new people was uncomfortable. I had a lot of headaches, too."
         MI: "No wonder I didn't look good. There wasn't much that looked good to you."
Me: "I get it. You're just a reflection of me."
               Waiter: "May, I take your order?"
         MI: "Give us a few minutes. He didn't expect you yet."
Me: "I don't want to overload dinner with shop talk. Any advice before we order?"
         MI: "Sure. At times, I may be right on and other times I may be very wrong. Either way, you're stuck with me. You have to trust me. I am uniquely you and there isn't much else you have that's only you. Oh and have the chef's special. I'm sure you'll love it."

TO BE CONTINUED. 

MAYBE.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Trust 30 Challenge: Speak Less (or at least softer).

This trust 30 prompt from Laura Kimball is about speaking less in order to do more. The Emerson text she utilizes is about trusting an inner voice no matter what the rest of the world says or thinks. As support, Ms. Kimball uses a cookie fortune "Speak less of your plans, you'll get more done". Emerson and Cookie go well together. Thanks, Laura.

This two pronged idea for producing results is expressed over and over.

• A picture is worth a thousand words. 
• Put up or shut up. 
• Don't tell me, show me. 
• More eloquently stated by Theodore Roosevelt, "Speak softly and carry a big stick".
• Most eloquently written by Master Emerson, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

Simply put, follow your own voice. Screw common wisdom. Ignore the whispers and forge ahead. If you spend your life doing as others suggest, you'll be living someone else's life. I realize this is easier said than done, but there is one sure fire way to set a successful course for your internal compass.

Don't talk about what you are going to do. DO what you are going to do. As Cookie said so very nicely, "you'll get more done". Doing instead of talking doesn't provide fodder for Master Emerson's little minds. Even if those little minds want to give you a piece of their mind (not like they have mind to spare) you'll be too busy doing to engage in conversation. Yes, Virginia, doing instead of talking is the ultimate flip-off.

Needless to say, the prompt reflects back at me. Family and friends consider my dabbling in blogging and other such social media falderal inconsequential. Plus, I talk about needing to spend more time trolling for readers for this blog. So less talking, more marketing and shove the results in the face of naysayers.