Over-The-Top -- It's Not Bragging. It's Inspiring.

Welcome Dear Readers led here from Napoleon Hill Yesterday and Today, Dale Carnegie, Microskills, and other places of inspiration:

I'm inviting everyone to write in the most over-the-top thing that has happened to you or to someone you know. Even better, write about the most over-the-top thing you dream of doing. We can all aim together to inspire and motivate each other to strike the abundance we deserve. It's gotta feel better to be over-the-top than to be toned down. Let's all step out of our comfort zones together and feel how it feels. It will be exhilarating. My husband called me over-the-top one time. I need to thank him for setting a high standard to live up to when he laid down that challenge. One last word of caution for us all to share. Be careful not to protect yourself and others from the opportunity to do greater things!

While I was doing the dishes with my Mum one day after a family dinner, she said she had one recommendation for this blog she dutifully reads from time to time. Mum thought I should tone it down a bit. With the greatest of intention to offer helpful advice, Mum said, "It's a little hard to read much of it for too long." We talked about it for a bit, trying to pinpoint what exactly she was recommending, while treading carefully to avoid hurting any feelings. "Maybe it's a little too optimistic could be what you mean" I offered, or maybe even "A little Pollyanna’ish?" "No," we decided that was not quite it and we got sidetracked before we finished our discussion.

I think I figured it out as I thought about it more afterward. I think we were looking for "over-the-top." Maybe it's all a little too over-the-top. Thinking more about my mother's advice, I agreed that maybe I should tone it down a bit to strike a balance that might make it a little easier to read more of it. That was right before the thought burst to mind that what would be even better than toning it down a bit would be taking it up a notch.

There’s plenty going on out there in the world to tone it down and strike a balance so that we can maintain our middle-of-the-packth place or maybe even finish in also-ranth. Mum’s caution to me serves as a great example of the well-intended advice that we give as parents to protect our children from doing something where there is a risk of getting hurt or of being criticized. Those of us who are lucky enough to have parents who say and do things to protect us are secure in the sense that our mothers and fathers care so much about us they cannot bear to see or feel our hurt.

Fortunately, from this sense of security, we can decide to draw the strength of self-confidence. We can listen to what our parents say and do to help us feel secure and loved and we can watch what they and others who influence us positively do to set a good example for us to follow, at any age, to develop the confidence we need to lead the way and then invite others from the middle of the pack to join us as we go over the top. Come to think of it, my mother’s a little over-the–top.

Thank you Mum for your made-with-love words of caution that give me a sense of security and thank you too for showing me how to stay grounded while going over the top! With a healthy sense of security bestowed upon us with love from our parents, and the confidence we need to take the risk to step out of our comfort zone in the middle of the pack, we can aim for and achieve success to the nth degree and strike abundance instead of striking the status quo balance we’ve worked so hard to maintain for as long we have.

In the human race, keeping up with the middle of the pack has its merit. Just imagine though how you can rejoice and be glad in it when you make your breakaway or make your splash. Instead of striking a balance, we could strive, along side our parents and our children, to strike abundance. With all the toning it down that's already going on out there, we're well equipped to keep the balance we've all been living and to keep ourselves at the same level or lower, without me or anybody else jumping onto that band wagon. To strike abundance, to make our dreams come true, exactly what we need to do is to take it up a notch from where we are toward where we want to be.

Over The Top To You,



Kathleen