Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

September 11, 2007

Change the World: Be Awe-Inspired

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:15 am

Visual Stimulation

Change the World!

Every year in publishing, the push for sales conference was brutal. My birthday was for most of my coworkers a “drop dead date.”

The focus, the hours, the living, breathing attention of an entire company were all centered on a week of product release. If we missed it, an entire year of sales was blown . . . gone . . . forever. The competition was mighty. Our customers were children. The product had to be exemplary.

We were pulled thin like copper wire — dead tired, not pleasant, and out of creativity. I didn’t realize the impact of such a relentless environment until we went to sales conference.

Our plane left through the beautiful skies of Austin, Texas, taking through time to Durango, Colorado. We didn’t interact much on the plane. I worked on my presentation and contemplated Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, thinking it wasn’t really about love.

It’s not like we’d had been working in a sweatshop. It’s not as if we were in a city devoid of beauty. Yet, with one step onto the tarmac — the Durango airport is atop a tiny mountain plateau. The world changed. I was surrounded by the luxury of space and beauty. It was a gift to be inside breathtaking mountain scenery.

The the view, the space, the sense of creation! How could I care about words on a page when THIS is waiting?

Colorado Mountains


My energy, my creativity, my personality showed signs of returning to the living.

So now I know, when I’m “with what I most enjoy content least,” the sky, the lake, a chance to lay back and look up into the leaves of a tree are what I need.

The world is majestic. How can we live here and ignore it? We only have to look a few seconds and we’re wired to be moved by it. It’s our home. It changes us to stop to recognize it. We’re filled up with what we need.

Be awe-inspired. Then show another person how to be.

We can change the world, just like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.





Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog |




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27 Comments to “Change the World: Be Awe-Inspired”

  1. September 11th, 2007 at 8:02 am
    Marti said

    You, my dear, are awe-inspiring. I am trying to put the focus of this day on appreciation of those we love, since we never know how long they’ll be with us. I’m hugging everyone I care about. I’m hugging you.

  2. September 11th, 2007 at 8:25 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    This post makes me want to go solo on a relaxing (and spiritual) get away. Fourteen days with no people, and no conversations other than the ones I have with myself =)

  3. September 11th, 2007 at 9:10 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Marti!
    I’m hugging you too. You’re specials to me.

  4. September 11th, 2007 at 9:11 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Alex!
    A retreat is a important way to refuel the spirit. I’m all for that. :)

  5. September 11th, 2007 at 9:14 am
    Anna said

    Or, we can let the world change us - which may be another way of saying the same thing.

  6. September 11th, 2007 at 9:17 am
    ME Strauss said

    Yeah! Anna,
    I thought the same thing. To be inspired is a gift. :)

  7. September 11th, 2007 at 9:23 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    Maybe there’s a serene spot for two - somewhere in the middle =)

  8. September 11th, 2007 at 9:25 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi!
    I’ll be looking for one . . . :)

  9. September 11th, 2007 at 9:27 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    For now, we settle for the serenity and peace of the comment box!

  10. September 11th, 2007 at 9:29 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey, Alex,
    That’s pretty inspiring in itself. :)

  11. September 11th, 2007 at 9:32 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    I’m honored to have inspired, lol =)

    Liz, I just want to give you a heads up, since I know you are participating. Tomorrow at 10am EST I will be officially announcing my participating in blog action day. Perhaps some more inspiration for you?

  12. September 11th, 2007 at 9:34 am
    ME Strauss said

    HI Alex!
    I’m at the doctor in the morning, but I’m all up for being inspired. :)

  13. September 11th, 2007 at 9:36 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    NOOOOO!! You can’t be sick!! I can’t live without you!

    I’m sure you’ll be fine =)

  14. September 11th, 2007 at 9:38 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey,
    I’m not dying or anything so dramatic . . . yet! :)

  15. September 11th, 2007 at 9:41 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    That makes one of us… yes, it’s true, as each day passes, that’s one day closer I am to meeting my demise. So, in fact, I AM dieing. But at least I’ve learned to accept it ;)

  16. September 11th, 2007 at 9:43 am
    ME Strauss said

    Oh, Alex . . .

    You just demonstrated why I’m never going back to my twenties. :)

  17. September 11th, 2007 at 9:45 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    Lol… you say to be me pretty often. Do I make twenties sound like such a horrible thing? Reliving some trauma through me? =)

  18. September 11th, 2007 at 9:49 am
    Alex Shalman - Personal Development said

    I meant you say that to me pretty often!

  19. September 11th, 2007 at 9:52 am
    ME Strauss said

    Nope, Alex, I wouldn’t want to go back to my terrible twos either . . . just an observation. :)

  20. September 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
    Joanna Young said

    Hello Liz

    Just wanted to say that I love sonnet 29 too :-)

    Joanna

  21. September 11th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Joanna!
    Sonnet 29 is the one that speaks to me. It makes me smile to know you love it too.

  22. September 11th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
    Alvin said

    Beautiful post, Liz. Sometimes I really forget to notice the beauty that’s already around me.

  23. September 11th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi alvin!
    Sometimes we all do. It’s so beautiful. I doubt we could do anything else if we did. :)

  24. September 14th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
    Review « Levite Chronicles said

    [...] Strauss invites us to be awe-inspired, to get perspective by looking around at creation which is bigger than we are. Somehow, getting our [...]

  25. October 6th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
    Links to Success: Week of 7th October 2007 - Life Coaches said

    [...] The world is majestic. How can we live here and ignore it? Liz challenges us to be awe-inspired - and change the world. [...]

  26. October 18th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
    30 Days of Growth | Mom Coming Home | My Journey from the Corporate World to Working at Home said

    [...] again, thanks to Liz Strauss at Successful Blog. She also reminded me to take time out to be Awe Inspired. Her timely post made me close my eyes and remember the beauty and power witnessed on my [...]

  27. March 9th, 2008 at 6:10 am
    Be Awe Inspired Today! - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] awe-inspired. Then show another person how to be. –from Change the World: Be Awe-Inspired Tags: Integrating business and lifeShare [...]

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