Fortunately, their parents had taken the time to plant their feet on the ground and aim their eyes toward the sky.\u00a0 It never occurred to them to do anything BUT to figure out how to create the best possible family they could. They were blessed with the examples of hard work, goal setting and \u2018stick-to-it-ive-ness.\u2019 It took \u2018early parenthood\u2019 to bring these skills and attitudes into focus.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”Circumstances \u2013 often unpleasant ones \u2013 help them catch fire, get to work and accomplish the things that matters to them.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the point.\u00a0 Everyone starts somewhere. People are born with unlimited amounts of potential, most of which never gets tapped. Early in their lives, something or someone creates a spark. Circumstances \u2013 often unpleasant ones \u2013 help them catch fire, get to work and accomplish the things that matters to them.<\/p>\n

Commercials Pay the Bills<\/h3>\n

Are the tough times in your life fanning a spark that will grow into a flame? So many ways to get unstuck! Tell us about some of your favorites in the comments. I know I\u2019d love to hear them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this something, at whatever cost, must be attained.” ~<\/em>\u00a0Marie Curie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humans don\u2019t fly, right? Sure they do. Who remembers learning how to ride a bike? Didn\u2019t it feel like flying? All of a sudden, we were able to move at a formerly incomprehensible speed, leaving ordinarily life a dot disappearing in our wake. These days, biking is more like a cruise through nearby neighborhoods at a speed that lets me notice. And today\u2019s ride was literally for the birds. Moving the bike from the garage was halted by the presence of a hawk on the wire. And one on the small palm. And another from the side fence and one from the feeder. As one of the neighborhood squirrels soon discovered it was a hunting party. Fortunately for the squirrel, they\u2019re young and not very good at it. I guess if you wanna soar, first you’ve gotta grow, then you need to get unstuck. [bctt tweet=”I remembered to be grateful. Let\u2019s get back to the humans who want to fly.” username=”AndreaPatten”] Not far into the ride I happened upon a large family (or two) of geese waddling along the hell-strip, feasting on grass and weeds. It\u2019s the time of year they can\u2019t fly: the new flight feathers are still maturing. So they walk. Or waddle. Sweet, soft little grunting noises and the sound of ripping grass stayed with me as I pedalled \u00a0slowly through a cool, shady neighborhood. I remembered to be grateful to the planners and developers who work around beautiful, mature trees. Another mile or so down the road a mature tree on the edge of a large pond looked like a well-decorated Christmas tree \u2014 only the dozens of \u201cornaments\u201d were delicate white egrets. Not Everyone Enjoys Using a Bike to Fly Let\u2019s get back to the humans who want to fly. Not everyone enjoys a bike. What does flying look like for you? How about soaring? “Before I can fly, I’ve gotta _______.” How are we going to fill in that blank for\u00a0you???\u00a0And what\u2019s up with the ugly little bird? I took this picture at my home in New Hampshire where I\u2019d been watching a mother bird feed her little ones.\u00a0She decided it was time for them to fly.\u00a0 Only this little baby wasn\u2019t convinced. I\u2019ll never know whether he didn\u2019t want to fly or he just wasn\u2019t physically ready.\u00a0 It probably doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Somebody else set a goal for him and he didn\u2019t achieve it.\u00a0Well… actually….\u00a0 That\u2019s not 100% accurate.\u00a0 He and his sibs \u201cflew.\u201d Straight to the ground.\u00a0 The other little bird-os made it to the top of the garden fence.\u00a0 And then higher up into a tree.\u00a0 And on to the roof of the barn.\u00a0Except for this one.\u00a0 He was on the ground and going nowhere fast. And not at all happy about it. [bctt tweet=”I have made myself miserable by comparing my insides to others\u2019 outsides \u2014 and by spending energy pursuing goals I didn\u2019t set.” username=”AndreaPatten”] I can relate.\u00a0 I have (at least once in my life) managed to make myself miserable by comparing my insides to what I see others doing. It\u2019s \u00a0just not good for my attitude or outlook on life. Even worse is when I expend energy trying to achieve goals I didn’t set. \u00a0I can\u2019t think of a better way to stay grounded. Stuck. Unable to fly. It\u2019s a Combination of Science and Art Whether writer, visual artist, direct seller, or parent… living up to our potential requires a combination of science (skills and information) and art (choosing the right combination and making them a part of what we do). \u00a0And as much as we\u2019d sometimes like to pretend otherwise, there\u2019s no magic bullet. When it comes to getting unstuck there is no ‘one size fits all.’ Some days my gratitude list includes that fact that my parents were busy and overwhelmed learning how to take care of me \u2013 otherwise, they might have had time to learn that teen parents are destined to poverty and failure. Fortunately they didn\u2019t know that. At the age of nineteen, they were married, full time university students and parents. Whatever their plans had been until then, they now had responsibilities to take care of. Fortunately, their parents had taken the time to plant their feet on the ground and aim their eyes toward the sky.\u00a0 It never occurred to them to do anything BUT to figure out how to create the best possible family they could. They were blessed with the examples of hard work, goal setting and \u2018stick-to-it-ive-ness.\u2019 It took \u2018early parenthood\u2019 to bring these skills and attitudes into focus. [bctt tweet=”Circumstances \u2013 often unpleasant ones \u2013 help them catch fire, get to work and accomplish the things that matters to them.” username=”AndreaPatten”] That\u2019s the point.\u00a0 Everyone starts somewhere. People are born with unlimited amounts of potential, most of which never gets tapped. Early in their lives, something or someone creates a spark. Circumstances \u2013 often unpleasant ones \u2013 help them catch fire, get to work and accomplish the things that matters to them. Commercials Pay the Bills Are the tough times in your life fanning a spark that will grow into a flame? So many ways to get unstuck! Tell us about some of your favorites in the comments. I know I\u2019d love to hear them. “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this something, at whatever cost, must be attained.” ~\u00a0Marie Curie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,5,9],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fun-inspiration","category-parenting","category-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14718,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086\/revisions\/14718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14086"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}