SOAPBOX® mini-motivation: pageant or poetry

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”       ~ David McCullough, modern-day English teacher

Life is not a pageant.  And yet we  unabashedly tuck this gloriously divine journey and spontaneously shared experience into a flippant 4-letter word and dress it up like a calamatied, desperate, purpose-less reality star who ultimately exploits and extinguishes her own value.  Life is not charading parade of nipped and tucked excuses of beauty…of average activities reupholstered to elicit wooing and swooning in hopes of earning awards no more valuable or necessary  than a 14 carat gold tombstone.  Life is not a calling to exhibit one’s presumed importance for awe’s sake of our 7 billion relatives.  For life is LIFE.  It’s like light and air and thoughts and bodies… it’s just there.  And we all have IT… for some time.  And no one’s is more important.  For we are all but a sum of parts playing on a gameboard on an unpretentious planet… and when one piece gets taken away, the game still goes on.

And so, perhaps life is like a poetry slam, or so I humbly reflect.  A dedicated effort of an affected orator striving to breathe life into the written word with emphatic, emoting performance that eggs both speaker and audience to tug the air for more oxygen and the room for more space and actions for more meaning.  Life is emulated by the aerobic effort required by this act of igniting possibilities into a kinetic energy that spills on and rips through every thread of those in the same circling space.   And yet the expansion of meaning in the mutterings from muted paper are mere reflections of the challenges of the poet himself.  Though he stands upon a stage, he knows his spectators ironically watch themselves shift under influence, and he is without need of approval.  For the poet alone strives to make it to the top of a metaphorical mountain…but for the experience alone of seeing a new view revealed upon his last breath into the last particle of punctuation.  Breath to thoughts to words to actions to breath again… and then another upward hike to enlightenment.  Unstaged life unfolding.   ~ KD

Copyright by Kimberlie Dykeman.

Shop SOAPBOX® products with purpose & SUBSCRIBE to FREE ! “Pure Soapbox” book and audiobook available. A portion of the proceeds of all book sales is donated to charity. Book KIMBERLIE to confetti your company with OPTIMISM! info@puresoapbox.com

SOAPBOX® mini-motivation: grasping simplicity

“Hold on to what is good, even if it’s a handful of earth.  Hold on to what you believe, even if it’s a tree that stands by itself.  Hold on to what you must do, even if it’s a long way from here.  Hold on to your life, even if it’s easier to let go.  Hold on to my hand, even if I’ll be gone away from you.”     ~  Pueblo Indian prayer

Sometimes I catch myself shaking my head in regret, in upset, in despair, in confusion, and in near hopelessness… at both the thought and the sight of just how far we, as a society, have strayed from the simple things life has to offer.  Thankfully, I can bow my head in prayer, full of hope and faith that there is someone else, somewhere else thinking and seeing the same view… just one more person choosing less over more, good over perfect, truth over myth, diligence over idleness, trust over worry, and love over fear.  Choosing a purpose-driven life sustained by simplicity.     ~ KD

Copyright by Kimberlie Dykeman.

Shop SOAPBOX® products with purpose & SUBSCRIBE to FREE ! “Pure Soapbox” book and audiobook available. A portion of the proceeds of all book sales is donated to charity. Book KIMBERLIE to confetti your company with OPTIMISM! info@puresoapbox.com

SOAPBOX® mini-motivation: the Olympic spirit

“The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”     ~ Paul, Galatians 5:18

Step back and consider what I am about to boldly propose:  The Olympic Games Are Not About The Sports.

And if that statement were absolutely true, then what do all these athletes, competitions, awards, presentations, stories and histories represent?  Perhaps, the answer is as simple as one word: SPIRIT

The media mesmerizes with the phrase “Olympic spirit” yet fails to define it …only to don all elite competitors with virtual crowns for us commoners to bow to.  Alas, the media fumbles and fails to truly uplift beyond its prescribed two weeks of showcasing.  And upsettingly does such every four years.  Oh, but not an ounce of hope can be lost!  For all citizens of all nations can pick up the torch and pass it to one another…each and every day, sharing the hope that we all have a spirit alive and glowing within us…driving us to breathe and strive and do and love and try and give and triumph.  Remember that as you gaze in awe of these people we call “athletes”…for they are just like you and me. 

That said, though, in truth I ask you: Do you have the fruit of the  spirit within you?

 …To wear your heart on your sleeve.  To train relentlessly for your lifelong goals.  To compete with every shred of your strength and every drop of your soul.  To stand tall and show utmost respect for those greater than you. To face life’s adversities and obstacle courses with unwavering optimism.  To trust that you indeed have a gift for excellence.  To represent with pride all that your family, friends, and community planted in you.  To triumph over life’s tragedies and agonies.  To join hands and hearts with rivals and friends alike.  To call a truce to your waging battles.  To open your mind to all that is different to you and all who are different from you.  To celebrate your achievements and share the rewards.  To sacrifice whatever it takes for those who cannot.  To walk in faith for faith’s sake.  To love something so much that, without it, breathing would be difficult.  To experience and appreciate the simple yet gloriously powerful feeling of joy that is feverishly spread when people come together for a common cause… that being, to honor the brilliance of the human spirit.  ~ KD

Copyright by Kimberlie Dykeman.

Shop SOAPBOX® products with purpose & SUBSCRIBE to FREE ! “Pure Soapbox” book and audiobook available. A portion of the proceeds of all book sales is donated to charity. Book KIMBERLIE to confetti your company with OPTIMISM! info@puresoapbox.com 

Successories Launches New Products Featuring Kimberlie Dykeman’s Stamp of Approval!

Just this past March Kimberlie Dykeman   teamed up with the marketplace motivational giant Successories to inspire the masses.  Showcasing Kimberlie’s gift for infusing vignettes with jolts of poignant wisdom, Successories began adding another layer to its offerings of bringing perspective, optimism and purpose to each company’s work environment and to each employee’s individual home life.   To date, Successories has incorporated Dykeman’s SOAPBOX® mini-motivations into its monthly newsletter, YouTube channel and Pinterest page.   The latest development with Kimberlie Dykeman Enterprises is a website section showcasing “Kimberlie Dykeman Approved” products.  This new feature launches with brand new posters that were actually inspired by Successories subscribers!

 About Successories:   Successories is a multi-faceted brand with over 10 million business and consumer customers.  Successories is uniquely positioned as the leading source of motivational media.  Successories products are designed specifically to promote important organizational values that recognize and inspire the people who make a difference, and to encourage excellence in every endeavor.

About Kimberlie Dykeman:  Kimberlie Dykeman is a TV Host, International Spokesperson, Producer, Published Author, Entrepreneur for OPTIMISM!   KD Video Channel  PureSoapbox Site  Personal Blog

SOAPBOX® mini-motivation: one man’s perspective

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.”      ~ Stephen Covey, author & worldwide motivator

Spoken by a man who indeed was a motivator, mentor and guiding beacon to the masses.  A man who transformed the mystery of life and success of its challenges to layman basics.  A man who empowered us to understand ourselves, change our habits and live with newfound perspective, dynamic purpose and unwavering optimism.  In his living, he stood for that which many of us aspire to be.  Knowing him and of him, may we continue to try more, do more, become more, love more and LIVE more.     ~ KD

 

Copyright 2000-2012 by Kimberlie Dykeman.

Shop SOAPBOX® products with purpose & SUBSCRIBE to FREE ! “Pure Soapbox” book and audiobook available. A portion of the proceeds of all book sales is donated to charity. Book KIMBERLIE to confetti your company with OPTIMISM! info@puresoapbox.com

SOAPBOX® mini-motivation: are you in the weeds?

“But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else.  In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit.  Weeds are people’s idea, not nature’s.”     ~ Anonymous

WEEDS…  Some folks have quipped they are but unloved flowers, sins of the earth, plants with undiscovered virtues.  Whatever eloquence you elect, they are the bastardly, unforgiving THINGS that get in the way of blooms of our most precious prayers and wishes… flowers and fruits of our labors that bring priceless joy.  Joy from a gorgeous front yard of fragrance, a harvest-filled garden or orchard, a kitchen table of decorations and delicacies.

In brass tacks, weeds are ultimately what get in the way of our JOY.   Weeds are the vicious little evils that crowd, choke out, and suffocate all that our hearts desire… that which we expect from all the seeds we tossed into the ground.  Weeds…be they proverbial, metaphorical or literal… are the relentless, twisted side-effects of both crappy planting and crappy prepping.  Period.

See, so many of us claim to want everlasting blossoms of the ethereal joys of life, like unconditional love, excitement for life, feelings of success, peace, equality, unshakable optimism,    newfound perspective, contentment, dynamic purpose… you know your list.  Yet none of those vines truly burst through the ground with such offerings.  The main reason?  We plant, water and sun our seeds in the topsoil of our old foundations… the wrecked, rocky, perhaps even rancid earth that is full of childhood fears, unmovable judgments, unanswered hopes, decaying values, and old paradigms.   Both man-made and MIND-made, our weeds strive to see the light yet again.  So it only makes sense that when we try to nurture the seeds of our dreams… we are also encouraging the deep-rooted, hidden creepers to sprout and grow yet again.

Folks, if we truly want joy, if we want to LIVE, we’ve got to get on our knees and weed out the weeds.  We’ve got to be willing to do the work, till the soil, prepare for a healthy planting of our dreams and goals.  We’ve got to be willing to get dirty cultivating the crap hidden in our histories to have our gardens of the future be overgrown with love, peace, perspective, optimism and purpose.   I pray for you that you all find the strength, humility and faith to grow your lives with joy, joy, joy.  And there is no time like the present to start weeding, my friends.

Copyright 2000-2012 by Kimberlie Dykeman.

Shop SOAPBOX® products with purpose & SUBSCRIBE to FREE ! “Pure Soapbox” book and audiobook available. A portion of the proceeds of all book sales is donated to charity. Book KIMBERLIE to confetti your company with OPTIMISM! info@puresoapbox.com