"I have a six year old daughter and part of our bedtime routine is story time. Every night we visit the world of many great authors – one of our favourites is Dr Seuss. His weird and wonderful story characters makes for many a exciting adventure before entering into dreamland.
Not only are his stories a great way to get your kids to sleep – the rhythm and rhyme works wonders for those hard-to-get-to-sleep kids but they are full of beautiful life lessons. One of my particular bests is his story called "Oh, the Places You’ll Go!" It is a wonderfully uplifting and motivating story about life and how we all have exactly what we need inside of us to succeed. In the book, besides for ups and downs and the choices the journey of life will bring, Dr Seuss warns against the “waiting place”…a place in life in which most people go into at some point in their lives. He writes…
You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
or a plane to go or the mail to come,
or the rain to go or the phone to ring,
or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
As adults it is easy to get stuck in the “Waiting Place” and in “when this then that” kind of thinking about happiness, success and achieving goals/dreams. While we are in this place we watch the world pass us by and sometimes forget that life is what we make of it and that there is no better time than the present to make the move to whatever it is that we want to achieve. Life is short and hanging around the “Waiting Place” indefinitely is a waste of precious and valuable time in which we could be taking the next steps to living the life we have always wanted.
What I have come to realise is the thing that keeps us stuck in the ”Waiting Place” is fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of getting hurt, fear of change – fear – while it is a necessary emotion, has the power to keep us stuck in the familiar. The holding pattern that we become accustomed to when we enter the “Waiting Place”. The thing about humans is that for the majority of us change is scary so we stay the same even when staying no longer serves us. Even when this means part of us becomes numb and fragmented and we end up feeling dead inside – we stay, we wait….because at least we know what we will get…it is familiar. Marisa Peer says that if our reptilian brains recognise the plot we will play the part because we are wired to stick to what we know. She also says that if we want to change behaviour we need to make the unfamiliar familiar just like once upon a time when we were babies walking was not familiar to us yet most (except those who for some physiological or cognitive reason cannot) learn to walk
The book ends on a positive note. Dr Seuss writes:
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)
Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So get on your way!
So let us take Dr Seuss’ advice and make today the day that we escape the “Waiting Place” and make even just the smallest move towards the life that we dream of or the goals we would like to achieve. After all, life is too short not to live your best life!
Wishing you love and light
Not only are his stories a great way to get your kids to sleep – the rhythm and rhyme works wonders for those hard-to-get-to-sleep kids but they are full of beautiful life lessons. One of my particular bests is his story called "Oh, the Places You’ll Go!" It is a wonderfully uplifting and motivating story about life and how we all have exactly what we need inside of us to succeed. In the book, besides for ups and downs and the choices the journey of life will bring, Dr Seuss warns against the “waiting place”…a place in life in which most people go into at some point in their lives. He writes…
You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
or a plane to go or the mail to come,
or the rain to go or the phone to ring,
or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
As adults it is easy to get stuck in the “Waiting Place” and in “when this then that” kind of thinking about happiness, success and achieving goals/dreams. While we are in this place we watch the world pass us by and sometimes forget that life is what we make of it and that there is no better time than the present to make the move to whatever it is that we want to achieve. Life is short and hanging around the “Waiting Place” indefinitely is a waste of precious and valuable time in which we could be taking the next steps to living the life we have always wanted.
What I have come to realise is the thing that keeps us stuck in the ”Waiting Place” is fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of getting hurt, fear of change – fear – while it is a necessary emotion, has the power to keep us stuck in the familiar. The holding pattern that we become accustomed to when we enter the “Waiting Place”. The thing about humans is that for the majority of us change is scary so we stay the same even when staying no longer serves us. Even when this means part of us becomes numb and fragmented and we end up feeling dead inside – we stay, we wait….because at least we know what we will get…it is familiar. Marisa Peer says that if our reptilian brains recognise the plot we will play the part because we are wired to stick to what we know. She also says that if we want to change behaviour we need to make the unfamiliar familiar just like once upon a time when we were babies walking was not familiar to us yet most (except those who for some physiological or cognitive reason cannot) learn to walk
The book ends on a positive note. Dr Seuss writes:
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)
Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So get on your way!
So let us take Dr Seuss’ advice and make today the day that we escape the “Waiting Place” and make even just the smallest move towards the life that we dream of or the goals we would like to achieve. After all, life is too short not to live your best life!
Wishing you love and light