Tag Archives: patience

It’s Your Season, It’s Your Purpose

Point to Ponder:
Do you struggle with defining or finding your purpose, feel confused about your life, or feel fearful that there isn’t enough time left to do what you want to do?

by Neissa Brown Springmann

Since moving to San Diego, my life has drastically changed and taken a 180 degree turn. I do not yet have any friends here, and except for taking Durant and Malaine to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and tending to my iGnite responsibilities and duties from afar, I don’t have any commitments either. I won’t lie, when talking to the iGnite leaders, family, and friends and occasionally peeking at Facebook and Instagram, I experience bittersweet emotions. It stinks to be on the outside looking in, missing out and not able to take part in what I’ve created in iGnite in Austin. I have also experienced extreme withdrawals from my addictions: the “being busy addiction,” “having places to go addiction,” and the “feeling needed and wanted” addiction. There are times when my ego screams so loud that I find myself taken over with feelings of inadequacy and the desire to busy myself just so I can feel important and accomplished again. Then, finally, it dawned on me that not only was my evil ego in my way, but what I was really struggling with the most was my purpose.

With the help of Martha Lynn Mangum, iGnite member and business coach, reminding me that our society inundates women with the destructive message that if we aren’t working 60 hours a week, involved in a million organizations, committed to regularly volunteering, acting as the home-room mom, and only taking two-weeks of maternity leave, or just tending to our own or our family’s and community’s needs, that we aren’t enough. Pu-lease! Don’t get me wrong, I believe in having a passion and purpose outside of our family, but not at the expense of jeopardizing our marriages, not being a present mom to our children and neglecting our relationships. Looking back, while living in Austin I definitely tip-toed into those zones and was drinking the toxic Kool-Aid. This is my destructive tendency, and I have to consistently check myself to make sure I am being counter-culture.

It has been a very long time since I have wondered about my purpose. While living in Austin, my family, friends and iGnite were absolutely my purpose and they kept my heart pumping fast and hard. Originally, I thought starting iGnite in San Diego would be my first purpose-filled project, but now I’m not so sure about that. For now, I’m declaring that I am on a prayerful, peaceful, intentional purpose-finding mission project. I’ve narrowed my purpose down to:

Learning how to become a fully-attentive, loving and supportive wife to Russell (which is hard to admit because of my strong will, pride and independence)
Appreciating this colorful and unique time I have with our preschool-age children and being a fully attentive and fun mother.
Remotely supporting and leading the iGnite team, the iGnite members and our efforts to iGnite Austin and impact, inspire and empower every woman to live a healthy and purpose-filled life.
Taking the time to get on my knees everyday and pray for myself, my family, my friends, iGnite and anyone I know who is in need of prayers or who I told I would pray for them. While I am a faithful person, embarrassingly my prayer life has been pathetic, and I’m tired of being lip-service only. Please let me know if and how I can pray for you. Seriously!
Becoming involved with our church, The Rock, and serving the San Diego community.

I must confess that while I’m feeling content with my new purpose in San Diego, there is sooooo much I want to do in my life! For example, I want to write a book, I want to be on the speaking circuit and I want to grow iGnite so that women all over the world can iGnite in a positive and inspiring community. I wanna, wanna, wanna! And with that said, I get nervous and afraid that I am going to miss my opportunity, run out of time and miss out. But, thankfully, for the first time in my life, I found a Bible translation that I can actually understand called The Voice, and it’s teaching me about patience. Even though Adam, Pharrell, Gwen and Blake aren’t quoted in it, I have learned so much! One of the things that has been glaring is how late in life God uses people. Of course he uses children, like when He used David to defeat Goliath when David was only a teenager, but for example, Noah, Abraham, Sarai (Abraham’s wife) were waaaay past their “prime,” or what we today consider our “prime.” Granted, people back then lived longer, but by human standards, they were still considered old, and they fulfilled God’s purpose for them much later in life.

I recently watched a special on television called Try, Try Again where John Stossell chronicled the lives of great inventors and authors who not only failed before having success, but were also “past their prime” before having any success and fulfilling their purpose. Just to name a couple: Julia Child was 50 before writing her first cookbook, and Harland Sanders (a.k.a Colonel Sanders) franchised his first Kentucky Fried Chicken at age 62.

All in all, I write this journal not to go off about my personal purpose journey, but rather to encourage anyone who is struggling with defining or finding their purpose, feeling confused about their life, or fearful that there isn’t enough time. For sure we all sometimes feel a sense of urgency because we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, but fear cannot be the reason why we do or don’t take action. Instead, remember that there is a season in life for everything and that our purpose can evolve, morph and even change. Sometimes we’re in a season of action, and other times we’re in a season of self-reflection, contemplation and quiet. Regardless of the season you find yourself in now, when you weave in prayer and intention, you will without a doubt be led down the right path and your fruit will be ripe.

Action Item:
Remember there is a season in life for everything and that your purpose can evolve, morph and change over time. Approach your season of life with prayer and intention.

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Trusting the Process

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NatureDoesNotHurry_iGniteYourLife

“You will get there when you are meant to get there and not one moment sooner… so relax, breathe, be patient and trust the process. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
– Mandy Hale/Lao Tzu

Point to Ponder:
Are you consumed with wanting all of your questions answered now?

by Neissa Brown Springmann

Do you ever struggle with taking consistent action and trusting “the plan” in order to see your goals and dreams become reality? And if you don’t wrestle with this issue, would you please join my mentor club and share your wisdom with me?? Because I constantly struggle with it!

As I’ve referenced in the past two journals, during the first three years of iGnite I worked with a business coach, and during all of my ‘intention’ work and goal-setting, I inevitably found myself asking the same overwhelming and reoccurring question: “How and when is this going to happen?”, to which Michelle (my coach) would always respond, “You have to trust the process and keep doing the work. You can’t predict it or plan how it will happen. It will happen how and when it’s supposed to happen.” And it turns out, Michelle was always right and the answers always turned out much better than I could’ve planned or hoped for.

This “process trusting/surrendering practice” is much easier said than done because it requires patience…which is completely counter-intuitive to me. As the majority of us were taught, if we want something badly enough, we must work long and hard to make it happen….and trusting, practicing faith and waiting is not only very challenging, but it opposes the American dream philosophy and culture! However, over time I’ve learned that once we acquire the vision, set the intention, ask for what we want and add diligent hard work, all there is left to do is surrender, trust and have faith in the process. And, it’s in the waiting where the magical and mysterious *refinement process begins.

*Side note: Refinement = the process of removing impurities and unwanted elements from a substance; or, the improvement of something by making the small changes.

This weekend, I had the extraordinary opportunity to attend Oprah’s Live Your Best Life conference in Houston, where pastor and author Rob Bell spoke. Though I had never heard of Rob before, everything he said resonated with me. In regard to practicing patience and trusting the process of life, he reminded us that we are the recipients of a gift, which is life, and while we should always shoot for the moon and strive to become our best by setting goals and pursuing our dreams, the life we want begins by embracing our existing life. By being in constant pursuit of results, we are unable to see and receive the miracles that surround us every second of the day.

Rather than judge our life based on accomplishments or goals attained, how about we strive to simply trust the process and embrace the mystery and miracles that each day brings? As poet Mark Nepo suggests in this week’s video (below), our life isn’t enriched by achievement, accomplishment, or striving to become someone or something, rather the aliveness and refinement process beings when we jump feet-first into doing what we love, with no strings attached. Now that’s what I am talking about!

Action Item:
Watch the video below, and rather than judge your life based on accomplishments or goals attained, strive to trust the process and embrace the mystery and miracles that each day brings.

Exactly Where You Need to Be

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Greatest Blessings come with patience

You will get there when you are meant to get there, and not one moment sooner…..so relax, breathe and be patient.
– Mandy Hale

Point to Ponder:
Do you question why you are where you are in life?

Action Item:
Remain patiently determined while understanding that you are planted where you and others need to grow.

by Neissa Springmann

Despite the fact that we profusely fought as teenagers, my older sister Shonna is my best friend. While our core values and beliefs are identical, we are two very different people. For example, she’s an ER nurse, while hospitals make me queasy. She’s direct and doesn’t mind confrontation, while I’ll do almost anything to smooth over an unpleasant situation. We both believe in the power of goal setting, however Shonna isn’t satisfied until it is accomplished, while I tend to find joy in the journey.

Over the past nine years, Shonna has been working diligently on accomplishing a long-term goal related to her career success. She has remained prayerful, faithful and determined, however she also stays perpetually frustrated and curious, wondering when she will see the fruits of her labor. Then, a few months ago during a bizarre dream (involving, of all weird things, a Rubik’s Cube), she was given the peace of mind she had been searching for. Not only did the dream reveal that she was exactly where she needed to be, but most importantly it showed her that while her time would arrive, she was where she was so that others could get where they needed to go.

We both believe that her dream was divinely inspired and certainly not coincidence. Its message is powerful and one that we all can benefit from, which is:

We all play a significant role in one another’s lives. Never is the meeting of a stranger or where we are at any given point inconsequential to the grand plan. We are planted where we need to grow, and, as frustrating as it can be, we must remember that 99.9% of the time it’s not about us. If looked upon from above, we would resemble an orchestra — everyone playing a different instrument, some well and some not so well, but nonetheless, creating a musical masterpiece together.

In case you feel like Shonna did, wondering when your hard work will pay off, why you are where you are, or when your time will come, just remember you are exactly where others need you to be, and therefore, exactly where you are supposed to be.

What do you think? Join the discussion here

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Creating Your Ripple Effect

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Rain Drop Ripples

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.
– Unknown

Last week I had the fortunate opportunity of having dinner with a very dear friend whom I have tremendous respect for. Unfortunately, we are in different chapters of our lives, making it difficult to connect. However, when we are able to spend time with one another, our conversations are rich, candid and I inevitably leave feeling more centered, wise and filled with an uplifting breath of fresh air.

During dinner, our impromptu topic was energy — about how the energy we give is directly proportional to the energy we receive. Basically, energy out = energy in, and while I know this to be true, it reinforced that having a consistent positive attitude, avoiding gossip, negativity and treating all people with kindness, patience and love has infinite power. In fact, our attitude (positive or negative), thoughts, actions and words have a ripple effect — like the ever expanding ripples across water when an object is dropped into it — that can either add value to or take value away from our lives and each and every life around us. Pastor Charles Swindoll says it best:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.

I believe that creating the healthy and happy life of our dreams is as simple as our attitude and the ripple effect we create. What we all have to determine is whether or not our ripple effect is working for or against us.

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Point To Ponder:
Is your attitude attracting positive relationships and energy or is it creating a perpetual cycle of exhausting drama?

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Action Item:
Determine the areas of your life where you’d like to see improvement, then decide how you can make changes to your attitude so it creates a ripple effect of positive and life-giving energy.

To Your Health,

Neissa