All About Women | Women

This past week, I had an executive board meeting for the Pink Collar Club. As part of the opening, our wonderful servant leader, Randee Krumwiede, asked each of us to name one pet peeve we were dealing with. Now, if you have been reading my blogs, you know that I don’t have just one, though they all amount to the same thing – fear.

So, I shared that what gets me is when folks are wanting to make changes in their lives, they say that they want change in their lives, yet, are unwilling to take the action to make the change happen. Randee quipped, “Spoken like a true coach!” Well, it’s true! People want the results, yet are not willing to do what it takes to get those results.

I have been really meditating over this because I want to get to the root cause of this. I want to unlock the block with folks. I know the block is fear. This morning I opened my email and received my ipopin, my daily, one minute affirmation from my blog sister, Kirsten Harrell. Today’s affirmation is “I create my own reality.” I must find out if Kirsten is bugging my brain because her daily affirmations are just what I am working on, either in my own life or with clients.

This all reminds me of the Tea Cup Story. If I want my life to be filled with passion and purpose and surrounded by peace, then I must do what I can to make that a reality. I have the power of choice – I must first choose to want to change. This story tells is all.

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup.

There was a time when I was brown and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'let me alone', but he only smiled, 'Not yet.'

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy! I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.'

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head, 'Not yet.'

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better,' I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.'

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself. And I did.

I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.'

'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you'd have dried up.

I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life.

And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.

As Kirsten says, “I create my own reality.” Your first step? Being willing to create your own reality. So I invite you to stop... sit and have a cup of tea... and think about the changes the teacup went through to be the beautiful teacup you hold right now... then make the choice to create your own reality.

Create your reality passionately!
Coach Carolyn