I try not to say the F-word too often. The F-word is considered impolite. I know that. Good manners go a long way. (Number 7 of #47ThingsILearned.) But we all have those F-word days. Frustrating.

I see stasis as a symptom of frustration. The world goes wonky. I find myself fixated. Sometimes I will sit, stuck, struggling with “not doing”, in stare down against the object of my irritation.

We’ve all done it. Said over and over: “I’m not going to ‘fill-in-the-blank’”. Eat chips. Worry. Spend too much. Be too alone. Over and over we find ourselves chanting the mantra of what we don’t want, until it becomes a one-way neural path to neurotic disappointment.

When we feel let down we slow down. Set limits. Stasis sets in.

Sometimes, instead of the F-word, I dig a little deeper into my vocabulary for something better.

FLEXIBLITY: The elastic capacity to bounce back, the momentum to move, and newfound FOCUS.

We keep going because we keep going. (Number 39 of #47ThingsILearned.) What we need is a nudge: a shift of focal length, a happy button to punch, and lever to lift us up.

“A Lever of the First Kind is one in which the fulcrum is between the power and the weight… where F represents the fulcrum, P the power, and W the weight.” – Quackenbos 1859

George Payn Quackenbos was a smart cookie.  I commandeered his concept for our community:

“A lever of the Ninja Network Kind… is one in which our lives pivot positively… where F represents a better future, P the people who propel us, and W a world brought back into balance.” – Ebbert 2012

Hang up the hang-ups and hit the happy button, transitioning focus from “not doing fill-in-the-blank” to filling in the blank with wonderful DOING. As in “Watch THIS! I can DO!”

We can do anything good.

Where, you may ask, is this happy button we’re supposed to hit?  Look at the speed dial on your phone. Populate those spaces with the names of the people who propel you, your Ninjas. Punch in their numbers.  You get it, you got it, go get ’em!