(this is the view from the Haiku Stairs in Hawaii… nearly 4000 steps up to massive heights!)

Last weekend, I got myself involved in a hike that brought me to tears. That is, before I made it through to the top… and found myself in exhilaration.  I needed my hand held. I needed to know I was not alone.  I needed to scream for a minute (!) and sort of stop and pout.

And then, I needed to keep going.

If you find yourself having tearful outbursts, bemoaning your fate, unsure of how to get around the roadblocks being thrown in your way, you are not alone. And, you are quite fortunate to be so challenged.

You are being given a huge opportunity to succeed and make your life much larger.

In fact, if you can embrace the conditions that are challenging, you might just have the biggest breakthrough of your life.

If you have no obstacles in your life, you may be playing things a bit too safe and small.

If you feel like a victim of your life, you are missing out on the greatness that challenge serves up to all of us.

I know. I have done it. A whole lot. We’ve all done it.

Let’s not do it any more!

You are never in over your head.

Really.

You might need some help.  But… everything can be overcome.

Everything.

Even if you have to take a break, a vacation, a hiatus… you are not going to be crushed by anything. You can make it through every challenge you meet.

I didn’t really want to become a “Master of Crisis”, but it seems that ten years of my life- when my friends were off doing things like having kids and working on solid corporate paths- that  my main job was to overcome a string of crisis– deaths, illness, explosive family matters, spiritual explosions.  You name it, I sat in it, trying to avoid being consumed by the challenge.

But… as I pulled myself though each one… I became more “me.”

Lighter, brighter, more excited, more confident… even smarter.

It wasn’t  accomplished without feeling like a victim. It wasn’t heroic. It wasn’t pretty.  But… it was my own School of Life.

Years later,  I fell in love with challenge to the point where now a crave it-  the rush that comes from rising to the occasion.  Everything from love to money to home to health to family expanded so quickly that the expansion itself was a big challenge!

These are the problems you probably also dream about.  And to handle them with grace, meet the challenges with open arms.

Obstacles can make you a better person.

While I don’t chase down difficulty (!), if it arrives I know that I need to dig in and find something of value in the moment.  In Buddhism, you are fortunate to have obstacles as they provide you with an opportunity to rid yourself of bad karma from your past. In fact, great bad is the opportunity for great good.

Again, this isn’t encouragement to seek out demise.  But, it is a whole lot of freedom to move through life without fear.

Obstacles can be a way to refine your life and your business.

Ryan Holiday writes very smartly about the opportunity found in obstacles and failure in Psychology Today’s article “Why you Should Embrace Failure.” 

“In Silicon Valley, start-ups don’t launch as polished, finished businesses. Instead, they release their “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP)—the most basic version of their core idea with only one or two essential features.

The point is to immediately see how customers respond—and, if that response is poor, to be able to fail cheaply and quickly. The goal is to avoid making or investing in a product customers do not want. Gmail, which is now a nearly universal email client, was initially only used internally by Google employees. It wasn’t made publicly available until 2007 and didn’t even come out of beta until 2009. Instagram started out as the failed social networking app Burbn before the founders realized their customers were using their photo feature more than anything else. They then pivoted the product to the app we now know and sold it to Facebook roughly a year later for $1 billion.”

So… test out your ideas and be willing to be met with failure, obstacles and less-than-awesome feedback… and you will expand your life.

Fearing challenge will keep your life feeling smushed, flat and dull.

I made this little video a while back for all of you who want to avoid all bad things from happening.

Ready to get excited to shake things up a whole lot more?

Clean your house today.  Dump some old junk. Decide you are ready for the kind of challenges that are going to bring your dreams to reality.  After all, you are as ready as you’ll ever be!  xoxo Dana

P.S.: The Cash Camp is coming soon, and the FREE 3-video intro series is all about wealth-building in profound and amazing ways.  It’s nearly an hour of exercises to shore up your energy, focus and presence to start building more abundance in every way…!

You can sign to the free video series right HERE!

I’m so excited to share this with you!!!

***************

If you want to learn how to transform the place you live into the home you love in full, grab yourself a copy of Feng Shui 101. Its the unique guide I made for you to create your own personalized feng shui at home, in the office, wherever you may be… in 8 weeks! It’s not filled with strict rules or what you “must” do. Its filled with information, questions, exercises and even videos and classes to help you confidently create amazing spaces with killer feng shui and live with more flow! Learn more about the 8-week feng shui adventure & grab your copy to get started right HERE!!!