I stole that title directly from Chel. She said this in her companion post to the Bliss Habits post she shared yesterday. (She does that by the way, usually has more to say on her topic over on her own blog. If you haven’t been following her over there, you might want to!) I swiped this title from her because I have always believed the same thing.
As each Moxie week comes around I wonder what intention can I set that will have the moxie flow. I am certain that if I can just pull up my bootstraps and think moxie-full thoughts I can wield the super- power (Ha ! Took that one from her too!) The problem that arises however, is that once I start trying to have moxie it doesn’t really feel like I really do. I start over analyzing and begin to trivialize my efforts.
Take today, for instance. I engaged in a little, and I do mean very little, argument over on Twitter today. Actually it was more of a sharing of a dissenting opinion with someone I had never interacted with before. @SelfishMom was looking for folks who took an opposing view to her stance on Triberr (a service with which people form tribes and tweet stuff for each other, if you are a blogger this may be interesting to you and I’d be happy to chat with you about it, if you are not a blogger, don’t worry it is not the focus of my story!) I had this differing opinion and I began tweeting with her. It turns out she even wrote a post about the whole thing so I went there and commented on her blog post.
I found the whole interaction positively exhilarating! You see I had made a moxie resolution this week that entailed putting myself “out there” in a way I haven’t normally done. I almost never rock the boat. I don’t consider myself a wimp but generally I would rather just be liked. This translates to me not being very controversial and interacting in an often measured and nondescript way. Today I didn’t do that. Today I actually spoke my mind and didn’t worry about what anyone may think of my particular stance.
Funny thing happened though. The moment I owned the exhilaration, and even told a friend that my experience had evoked it, it felt ridiculous to call it Moxie. I mean, I began to tell myself, the whole exchange was positively civilized. You even ended up liking each other and are now new twitter friends. That can hardly be called Moxie. People with real Moxie are out there on the front lines of opinion everyday speaking their mind and actually taking risks!
Like this solider, who in the dawn of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell finally being repealed, calls to tell his father that he is gay.
That guy has Moxie!
My interaction could hardly be called moxie!
And then I go down the slope of comparing my rather comfortable, pleasant life with those folks who I am certain have Moxie and I realize that I’ve assigned a rather larger then life personae to moxie. People like Amelia Earhart, Richard Branson, and Dolly Parton, certainly have Moxie but what I haven’t given due consideration to is the fact that these folks probably don’t (or didn’t) sit around thinking “what can I do that has Moxie.” The PURPOSE, ENERGY and INTENTION in which Moxie rises doesn’t necessarily come from a decision to employ Moxie but it does rise when one is living with those traits.
If I live, with the intention to share my opinions and actually devote energy to doing so then Moxie can rise in this environment. IF I am living “on purpose” and not aimlessly drifting about, MOXIE will find its voice in me. Suddenly it is clear that even the tiniest of moments can lead to a path of moxie and it is not necessary to put my life on the line to experience it. Certainly living with purpose and intention to stop a war, fly around the world, and end hunger can create many Moxieful moments but even simpler intentions can lead to Moxie.
Committing to being a good parent can take us there, as we learned in this guest post from last Moxie Week. Putting energy and intention toward being a good steward of our environment can ripple out to future generations. Having an intention, really any intention, puts us in the unique situation of championing our interests. It requires that we choose, in the face of dissent or lack of interest, to put ourselves out there and over time this can make a huge difference.
Amelia Earhart had an intention to do something no woman of her time had ever done. It was her day to day choices not give up and continue to go forward that ultimately defined her as having Moxie. She didn’t wake up one morning deciding to have moxie. She woke up every morning with the intention and purpose of mind to follow through on her dreams.
This is something we all can do!
My intention to “put myself out there” allowed me to feel exhilaration and the wisps of my own Moxie rising. Keeping my energy and purpose focused will allow it to grow.
So the questions I leave you with are: Where will you put your intention? In what places will you concentrate energy? In which purpose can you allow your moxie to rise in?
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If you too have a story of Moxie you would like to share, please consider linking it up to our
“Speaking of Moxie” party or contacting me to guest post here on Bliss Habits.
Rocking the boat is good. I grew up in a household that didn’t argue. I don’t think I ever heard my parents fight, ever. They ended up divorced. It wasn’t until I met my husband, who is a very skilled debater, that I learned that it wasn’t rude to disagree with someone. That you could have opposing opinions about something without making it personal. It was a revelation to me.
I couldn’t agree more! The current state of American Politics, I believe is a direct result of regular people being afraid to rock the boat with their friends and family. I have a friend from Germany who tells me it is quite common there for people to disagree about all sorts of political topics without taking it personally. Until all, or at least more if not most, Americans can have the Moxie enough to say what we really feel, a few loud mouths are going to be the ones running the show.
Having an opposing opinion really doesn’t have to be personal! Thank you for also for making it enjoyable!
I really love this.
Like you, I’m a little *too* considerate of what’s going on in other people’s head, so much so that I often start second-guessing what’s in my own. I want to stop doing that.
From reading this, I’m starting to realize that Moxie is nothing more or less than the absolute TRUTH of who we are. It’s not aggressive, it’s not sugar-coated, it’s just being absolutely true to ourselves as often as possible.