What do you people
WANT?!? ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

A couple months
ago I organized an event on Vashon Island, to serve a small group there.  I
was excited because I was bringing people from Seattle to help and I felt it
would be a big support for the islanders.

Everyone had agreed
on the day, and I had to jump through a few hoops to reach out to the Seattle
folks, who essentially had to take 6 hours out of their day, plus ferry fares,
to do 2 hours of community outreach. I do this nearly every Saturday, coming
from Tacoma, but I lived on Vashon for nearly 30 years, so it's a different
experience for me.

It turned out to
be a wonderful experience, the Seattle folks were enchanted by the island, which
was lovely to see.

However, half the
folks on the island didn't show up. One person, eager for the support, came
from Gig Harbor, to receive the information.

What happened?

Maybe they didn't
want it? Maybe they didn't know what they were missing. Clearly, it was my idea
(but not their idea) to help move them forward.

One of the Seattleites
said, "Maybe they don't know what they're missing. Maybe when they want it bad
enough, they'll come to Seattle for it."

Yeah, maybe. I
was trying to establish a support group on Vashon, so I felt the event needed
to happen on Vashon. Which was entirely my agenda.

Maybe the folks
on Vashon need to learn to go to Seattle (or Tacoma) for support; it's what
I had to do when I got started.

But here's the
bigger picture: when you are trying to achieve your goals, when you are going
for what you really want, shit comes up.

You get scared,
you get mad, you get resistant, you get judgemental, you get critical. You hide,
you space it out, you oversleep, you overschedule. You tell yourself stories
about what's going on, about yourself, about others.  You ______ (Fill
in the blank).

In short, everything
that's keeping you from getting what you want.

You
may be so overwhelmed, you don't even *know* what you really need. If you are
struggling with basic life issues, you may not have enough clarity to have a
clear picture of what you truly want.

When you're stuck
on the hamster wheel, all you can think about is getting off the wheel. You
can't imagine what's possible for you.

Of course, you
may want to get off the hamster wheel and rest!  But the hamster wheel
has exercised your muscles to take you forward on your life (it just won't require
as much effort).

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