Boredom is your sneaky little BFF.

Four days ago, I stumbled across a book that has already begun to change my life.

Granted, the book’s primary effect has been of re-igniting within me what I have always known to have been there; I just needed a boost-up to believe in the spark again.

I spent last weekend visiting with my parents at their home in central Florida. My Shabbat ritual is to wake up with an entirely clean slate—no plans, no specific chores (if I can help it), just the day in all its completeness for opening up to receive from the Creator. Admittedly, this approach to one’s day can sometimes inspire boredom, which, if left to exist in your consciousness and not squashed down or muffled by tv or social media, boredom can be an incredible gateway for curiosity and inspired discovery. The dogs were asleep on the couch, and their gentle mood made me ponder the stacks of books that my parents keep beside the fireplace. Perusing the titles (mostly health-related books), I didn’t see anything that captured my attention and almost turned away before noticing a skinny little book hidden under all the rest.

The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles.

I had purchased this book for my father a few years back and, though it had been some time, I was familiar with the cover and the book’s contents. This time, however, I noticed something I had never noticed before. In the back of the book there was a bonus essay written by Wattles, entitled, How to Get What You Want. Being that the essay was short, the title deeply compelling, and because I had been looking for something to do, I sat down on the couch and read the essay in one go.

I am the type of person who tries to take action as soon as I know the way. Because Wattles’ work is so much about consciousness training, I knew I would have to start there, especially because checking in with my subconscious mind revealed to me some personal resistance around this idea of being successful, the state of being to which the book speaks.

However, shutting the book then taking a breath, I felt I had come to one of those subtle yet pivotal crossroads:

Take a step forward, or stay in one spot.

I have been nudged recently to make some changes in my life—some changes I have even been avoiding for a year or longer. Yet as soon as I made up my mind to do things differently,

circumstances immediately began to rally around that decision. I suddenly had the energy in my body to go upstairs and start to clear out all of my own belongings that I have kept stashed in my parents’ closets for way too long. My little car was filled to the brim with furniture, fabric bolts, sacks of clothes and shoes and heavy bags of books.

Consciously and subconsciously, I have been keeping “My Life” (the shiny and exciting version of my life that I am always striving toward, like a dangling carrot) in boxes, stashed away for that better timeline, when my life calls for things like handmade pillows and fancy shoes. I have been keeping things small and extremely tidy because I literally have been trying to shrink myself into a better circumstance…It’s funny to write it out like that, because it’s nonsensical. And yet, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

I had to ask myself, Doesn’t it make more sense to grow so large that your environment must also grow to accommodate you? This Truth was brought back to me by Wattles’ pen.

I can finally see now that living small has inflicted a far greater cost upon my life than the accumulation of items I might not need in 4 months’ time. Living small has kept my capacity for change small. Interior design and the domestic arts are two of my most fervent passions, and yet I’ve kept them both under wraps for the last year, because this was never a place I planned to “make a home” in. 

But that is not the point, ladies and gentlemen.

The point is to GO for it!

What I learned from Wattles’ essay (which I highly recommend) is that you must breathe Life into everything you do! You must do all things with the fervor and the sense of power behind the same actions you will take when you are living a “successful” life.

This excites me because it’s such a juicy challenge! Can I be on my hands and knees, searching through towering, wobbling boxes of shoes for a potentially impatient and possibly demanding customer, yet exercise the same vivacity and sense of presence that I feel when I picture myself living my best writer’s life in Tel Aviv??

YES! 

I tried this today, in fact. And you know what? Today has been a pretty excellent day. Even though not very much about my life has changed on the outside, it’s the way I experience my life which I have absolute certainty will start to move the needle again.

Food for thought on this anything-but-humdrum Wednesday.