What if you were told that you had no more than 12-18 months to live? You are already disabled from birth and now you have this death sentence looming over you. What would you do?
Many people see the first of January as some magical beginning to a new life and
new goals. Counting each day after the first as some major triumph. Why not do the reverse? Give yourself 12 months, 365 days to accomplish one goal and start counting backwards. By January 3rd you have only 362 days left to reach your objectives.
That would be a new perspective for your resolutions. It doesn’t have to begin on the first of January. It can start tomorrow. Once we change our perspective we can change our actions.
This year will be an extremely special year for me. I will count backwards. I will see time ticking waiting for me to make my move. I will take more risks and not look back.
In fact, this upcoming year 2006 will be my year of passion. Everything I do will be with passion. It is not enough to take action on a crusade or a task but I must also have a passionate attitude about it as well.
My 365 day countdown begins today. Today I signed up to sing with school’s holiday choir. I am not much of a singer but when I was asked to participate I couldn’t find a reason to say no. Of course, I can’t sing. But who cares? Probably everyone in the choir will be as nervous as me. But I will do it. And I will do it with passion.
Audacity Magazine will be in Italy to cover the Paralympics in March. I could very easily excuse myself from such an overwhelming task but why should I? How much opportunities are there in life to cover the Paralympics for my magazine in such a beautiful country?
If I actually stopped to think about the reasons why I shouldn’t I would probably never have hustled to get the paper work done. I don’t even have the ticket or hotel accommodations. I don’t even have the money for the airfare and hotel but I am going to do every passionate action I can to get there.
Life is too short and in March I will be left with less than 200 days. That doesn’t give me much time to get everything else done.
How many of us are wishing about things we would like to do but we are waiting for that right moment or the perfect situation?
Let’s face it, there is no perfect situation if we don’t create it.
So many articles, books, novels, motivational speakers tell us that we need to make a list and take action. In the beginning of this issue, I declared an order to take action so that we are heard as a community and a culture. But what kind of action?
Tiny steps? Do we have time for tiny steps? Should we test the waters first to see if it is ok to swim with the big sharks? No!
I asked numerous people with physical disabilities what is lacking in our movement for equality. Many explained that advocates are busy explaining ideas and situations to the governing bodies. Some say that the disabled population takes one step forward and two steps backward.
After much consideration, I realized that we have the knowledge, we are willing to take the action but like a gun with a whimpy bullet when fired it makes a small pop. So what do you think we need?
You guessed it! Passion.
I will be updating my column, JUST MY BELLYBUTTON, on a frequent basis to inform you of my adventures as I take on a different approach to life. Passion will rule my world.
Life is too short and I have no time for tiny steps.
I would love to take all of you with me on this passionate adventure. Email me nathasha@audacitymagazine.com . Let me know your passionate experiences and the results it has produced.
If my experiment succeeds think about all the people that we as a group will have inspired, educated, motivated, and touched because of our passionate actions.
If my experiment fails think of all the fun we had trying.