What I Found Behind the Wizard’s Curtain

{photo source}

I haven’t been here for the last few weeks. And I’m still recovering from the effects.

Want to know where I’ve been?

I just returned from an adventurous few weeks in London and Paris. Two very glamorous cities. The trip itself was a lot more than I bargained for. But it wasn’t the oohs and aahs of big, beautiful Parisian architecture, the mystical stonehenge or the captivating Windsor castle that got to me.

Surprisingly, it was the big, unexpected lessons that sprouted out from disappointments, illness, and the hard to swallow violent past of the world’s history that made me feel like Buddha.{I suddenly felt like I was seeing the world and my life for the first time.}

Here’s what I learned:

You may be reading this and feeling as I did before I left on my trip.

I was tired. Overworked. Obsessed with being a success. And following any type of guru out there promising an easy cure for the common fear of failure.

And our two week Europe trip? Well it inspired a much needed change.

As I peered into medieval castles and set my eyes upon the quite captivating, “Mona Lisa” I suddenly felt like I was seeing behind the wizard’s curtain.

The fancy lights, amazing deals and catchy titles I was all enmeshed with a few weeks before, suddenly seemed to fall short of reality. I was smack in the middle of thousands of years of creating and I got it. This was the real thing.

1. I realized then, that to create something inspiring, you need to be inspired.

2. You need to stop promising things you can’t deliver.

3. And work on building your product.

4. Focus on what you can do to be better in the moment instead of trying to wow others with who you want to become.

5. Most importantly, I learned the importance of taking it easy. That part of the journey is to learn patience and faith. But that to keep going, we need to do like the Parisians do-sit back, take a sip of something warm and inviting, and watch the world go by.