KDMiller, Author at Ardent Path

We’re All Time Travelers

You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.
Sammy Davis, Jr.

You’re standing in front of this door. Behind you are all of the places you’ve traveled, the people you’ve met, and the choices that have landed you here.

What do you do?

Do you stay on this side of lucky number 13, or do you open the door?

Do you take a little peek, or do you step through without a glance back?

Stepping into the unknown is a strange combination of trepidation and exhilaration.

Which one tugs at your being the strongest?

Answering this question, gives you tremendous insights into who you are at your core.

It’s neither good nor bad. It simply is. What you do with the knowledge is up to you.

What’s next on your time traveler itinerary?

Go the Distance

by KDMiller | Habit formation, Personal Development

Challenges, especially of the larger variety help us build resilience. In the spirit of helping you (and me, I’m not going to lie) do that, I’ve created four challenges for you to try. I’ve done each one, and have already started a new one — training for a 1/2 marathon.

You can review and accept a challenge here. Be sure to leave a comment introducing yourself!

Good luck! I look forward to helping you meet your goals!

Kori

Stars Can Change

by KDMiller | Happiness and Well-being, Self-Management

In the movie “A Knight’s Tale,” young William queries, “Can a man change his stars?”

Of course this has nothing to do with being male, female, black, white, or all the shades in between.

It’s a question about agency, control, and volition.

Do we have control over our lives and how we choose to live? Most of us can truthfully answer yes.

Do we always act as though we do? Not necessarily.

Radical ownership, which I wrote about here is about agency, control, and volition. At our core, our “heart of hearts,” this is what everyone yearns to experience and possess like a precious gem.

When we have it, it’s something that must be protected, but not hidden.

Once we’ve fought our demons and changed our stars, what’s next? We must pave the way for more to follow.

William kept his gem protected, but then this happened:

And finally, this:

You can change your stars. Go do it.

Make a Decision

by KDMiller | Self-Management

As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.
Buddy Hackett

Here’s the golden ticket from my perspective:

Life comes down to a series of choices, some seemingly insignificant, but do we really ever know which ones?

Take what comes, or toss it to the side. Which choice helps you become a better you?

At the end of the day, this is how you decide.

Impressionable Minds Learn

by KDMiller | Meaning and Purpose

The good, the bad, and everything in between.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl

It was Senior year of high school, if I recall correctly. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but then, no one’s really is. Memory is like a file cabinet with a false bottom. But that’s a discussion for another post.

Back to high school circa 1987-88. The subject? Psychotheology.

Psycho what, now?

I had no idea, but it was an honors-level religion class and sounded a lot more interesting than any of my other options.

There are only three things I remember about the class.

The teacher was new and her enthusiasm for the subject was a bit frightening.
We had to journal every day, and our teacher read the journal.
We read Viktor Frankl’s, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Robert Frost wrote several amazing poems, but in sixth grade I was forced to memorize a stanza.

I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

Not too shabby X number of years later, huh? (No, I didn’t look it up. Sr. Theresa was serious about her poetry lessons.)

Back to Viktor Frankl…

I still have the book. It wasn’t logotherapy that caught my attention; I had no clue what he was talking about back then.

What captured my mind and heart were the words he used to describe his experience and the experience of those around him.

There was hope amidst tremendous tragedy.

Throughout the years, his book has come up in various conversations while I’ve pursued my master’s. And each time I tell myself, “You should read it, again.”

But I don’t.

I don’t think I ever will.

For me the lesson was about hope, resilience, compassion, and understanding who really has the power in a seemingly hopeless situation.

You have more power than you think you do.

Own it.

Revel in it.

Do something positive with it.