I went to college in beautiful Maine, at Bowdoin. I studied music there and in many ways it shaped me for my future life.
While I was there, I had many inspirational and transformational experiences, one of which I was reminiscing about just this morning.
One afternoon in class, my professor handed me back an exam that I had taken a few days prior.
I looked down at the page and my grade was significantly lower than I had expected. I walked up to him after class and asked him why. He responded… “you never get anywhere playing it safe.”
He went on… “Sure, your answers were correct, but I couldn’t feel ‘you’ in them. Rather I felt that you were trying to please me for a grade.”
He continued “there’s nothing safe about life and those who cling to the surface out of fear or even narrow their scope for a specific result, never achieve anything truly meaningful.”
He told me “to tap into my passion, and express myself courageously without fear of failure next time around. Further, that the only way that I was going to do that was to be fully present without letting my mind and thoughts obscure my creativity.”
His final words to me were, “those who cruise, lose!”
In retrospect, I’ve always seen this as a pivotal moment for me. It was one of those instances where the universe spoke to me through my professor and in a way laid the groundwork for the life I would lead and the path that I would ultimately find.
Over the years, I have learned to stay open, listen and watch for the signs. We never know where and through whom the next life changing message will come!
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