We are all one

We are all one
Jennifer Varenchik

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Oak-La-Home-Ahhhhhhhhh!


I’m in Oklahoma City- boy, it’s humid and hot! I’m here with UNITY (United National Indian Tribal Youth) UNITY website doing a Preparing Native Youth for Life’s Journey training. It’s going great- yesterday we did community assessment and action planning, today we’re going to cover personal mission statements. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I want for my personal mission statement. I had one that I carried with me for quite some time, but recently have forgotten about it (I still remember comparing lists with JL in Pasadena- back a few years).

OK, I’m back. I just took a break and did a personal Mind Map Mind map site for what I want to accomplishment in my life. I was projecting myself into the future and thinking about once my life is over, what are the things that I want to say I’ve accomplished….?

I thought about several things, one of them being raising a healthy family with a strong “prayer partner”, a traditional, spiritual, healthy, educated, self sufficient, happy Native American man….many have remarked that’s a tall order- but I’m not worried, he’s out there somewhere.

Another thing that I want in my lifetime accomplishments is to establish a media empire- publishing and producing. I want to publish books on the history of the Los Angeles Urban Indians, the Native Youth Wellness Movement, and other inspirational/ informational Native subjects. I also want to produce a daily talk show and few motion pictures. So already that’s a lot, but it’s what I’m striving for in my life.

After my mind map, I talked with my mentor- looking at the things that I want compared to how I’m currently spending my time- there is a big discrepancy. I’m spending most of my time in projects that aren’t leading me to accomplishing my long term goals. It’s not that I’m not passionate about how I’m spending my time now- it’s just that nothing that I’m currently doing is what my heart truly wants. And I don’t think that this is just a fleeting desire, every time I do these types of exercises, it’s the same thing- I get the same results.

So I’m at a crossroads- with the limited time that I have, how do I start moving towards my heart’s desire? Did I mention that fear has a lot to do with what’s stopping me? Man, and this is what I do for a living. I help people identify what they really want to do with their lives, and then help them set up a plan to achieve it. So now I’m my own client. I’ve decided to take action now. I’m going to publish the LA community newsletter that I had going earlier in the year. I started last summer, and then kinda put it aside to tackle other things (distractions?). Facing a long flight back home, I think I’ll spend it working towards building my media empire, rather that checking out a movie.

Thanks for reading, just writing this out has helped me become closer to my dreams.
~J

1 comment:

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