YOUR LINK TO ALL OR NOTHING

This one is another LONG-READ SNACKING BLOG... Grab a snack - This LINKRONICITY example will show you HOW TO TRUST in what you don't yet know... TRUST ME, once you read about WHAT LINKONICITY IS... you'll understand your own entire life through reading about mine.

You hear me say quite frequently, particularly in my social media motivational-driven graphics to be true to your heart.  I don’t deliberately echo the words of the 98 Degrees/Stevie Wonder Disney Mulan tune without walking my talk with the knowing of “Just trust your heart, you’ll see the light,” as Stevie sings.

All decisions are either all or nothing. That sounds like a very 180 degree (ooh happy accident pun tie-in here), difference between euphoria and being frightened by said decision. But in the end you know what will sit RIGHT with you, no matter how much your brain gets in the way of playing a ping-pong tournament back and forth with any crossroads, decisions or dilemma.

When you were a kid, did you do everything with all your might?  If so, this is your ALL or NOTHING LINK. You have used it before.

Were you competitive?

Did you study hard?

Was your ambition to be all that you could be already within your DNA?

On the other hand, did you grow up and grow INTO that with something to prove from a rebellious place?

Do you even remember how you approached school, playtime, or games? 

Were you motivated from a place of working hard? 

Are you still this way?  If so, have you owned this as part of who you are?

Or if you are not this way… why not?  Are you bitter, burned out, or jaded?

Needless to say, this ALL or NOTHING LINK has had its’ place in your life whether you realize it consciously or not.  

I am here to show you MY LINKRONICITY so you can get a feeling for what it really is when you realize your whole life has had its own map.  

Let me start by saying NOTHING in your life is an accident. And your life may not go exactly as you plan, but YOU WILL GET TO YOUR DESTINY... TRUST YOUR JOURNEY.

Here is an example of an ALL OR NOTHING LINK in action, following with conviction what your heart knows it needs to do.  Magically.  My tagline “Where Your Journey & Destiny Link™ is not some willy nilly marketing hype B.S.  I will show you I not only LIVE THIS…  I am PROOF of this and YOUR LIFE, YOUR JOURNEY, and YOUR DESTINY are already unfolding.  Here is more of my story to pick up from my last blog LINKING TO YOUR RAW INDIVIDUALITY.

I had an elementary school teacher who was a very progressive, out-of-the-box free thinker who taught against the grain… in a public school system, which is a very rare thing.  She was a teacher by weekday, a Life Guard by weekend and decided not only was she going to enforce that all of her 1^st and 2^nd grade combination class students were going to learn how to swim or they could not graduate, but it was an imperative life lesson to learn for the big world.

Sink or swim.  All or Nothing.  

This teacher gave us this quote, “One does not drown by falling into the water, they drown by just staying there.”  

At age seven, that was hardcore to hear. Did other seven year olds hear this from their teachers, too?  Probably not. Was this an accident?  NO.  We were all meant to hear this.

Those who actually remember it - probably kept swimming.

No matter how hardcore you think my teacher's wake-up call was, my ALL or NOTHING LIFE LINK was cultivated here as a result.  Thus, I am a Life Coach who walks (and swims) my talk…  I have been living this my whole life. It's as if she predicted that when you go through life, you accumulate your experiences to do WHAT YOU ARE DESTINED TO DO.

That's a wise teacher!

LINKRONICITY was happening in childhood.  I share mine with you right now – because I want you to dig up your childhood to show you how your DESTINY was already taking shape for who you would become --- you just have not seen all the connective links yet.   

Did you have a teacher in school who started you on your journey pathway?  

No?  Perhaps you can look back at your school years and see that everything you were shown is now an exactly in your life chain right now.  When you take a deeper look, you will see how everything is linked together… and find that teacher who even may have suggested one thing that made all the difference. Luckily for me, I had more than one, but for the lack of an editor present, I’ll save those other mentions for another blog.

My second grade teacher, Miss Leavitt showed me my DESTINY in her classroom with her innovative teachings, though I was not aware of it at the time.  Fearful, I would be some wallflower… my parents made me step into the ALL or NOTHING mode of uh… being an overachiever to do it all… by age seven. 

My mother enrolled me in ballet, tap, and jazz dancing.  I was also a majorette and twirled the baton for six years, marching in five-mile parades and secured medals at competitions.  However, this was ‘not enough’…  I took charcoal, graphite, ink and oil painting classes, volunteered as a crafts coach in an after school program and by this time not only got straight A’s, but jumped three grades in reading and writing.  Even though I am third-generation Japanese American, somehow this ‘Ichiban’ (number one) overachiever syndrome plague ritual did not satisfy the appetite for hungry parents… literally.

Summers were spent at summer school.  My father stated, “You’re going to learn how to type and you’re going to take cooking classes.  This way you’ll always have a job and when you get paid and buy food, you’ll know what the heck to do with it to feed yourself.”

Again, hardcore for a seven year-old, eh?  Yeah…  I processed this as my father taught me what an 11/16 socket wrench was as I rolled under the car to learn how to change the oil.

I was cooking full holiday meals by this age, inclusive of all the courses.  During the holidays, baking was my sanctuary and I would bake sixteen different kinds of cookies, homemade fudge and four different kinds of quick-breads from scratch (pumpkin-amaretto, lemon-zucchini, banana and apple-cinnamon) and a variety of other sweets.

This was before I had entered this classroom where my teacher taught us how to propagate plants to learn horticulture, encouraged our cooking and baking (and sharing) each week.  We also learned how to do collage pottery to actually have something to plant them in. She had us dance in class – and yes, it was here you will see that Linkronicity back at my other blog,   https://linkronicity.blogspot.com/2017/08/linking-to-your-raw-individuality.html comes forth. She had us dancing to the Osmonds’ “Down By The Lazy River.”  That wasn't an accident, either... it was a sign for what I didn't know was coming. 

In class she had us create this hybrid holiday yarn octopus character.  She had not realized this was mirroring my childhood life journey already.

I HAD BECOME THE OCTOPUS (with rainbow tentacles by now)…and not only was I working in the yard propagating said plants, I was literally planting and rooting a multi-hyphenate career for myself that would unfold.

My teacher Miss Leavitt had just purchased a refrigerator and decided to bring the huge box to school to make a broadcaster’s booth with a vintage mic she picked up at the flea market. Why did she do this? So latch key kids could broadcast their day to someone since there was no one to go home to talk about their day.  This was in-classroom therapy… and it fascinated me (hence Linkronicity unfolding). This alone, inspired me to take on psychology, neuroscience and other holistic therapies – but yeah, being Frasier Crane, that appealed to me even back before this character existed. Later, like a degree of separation from Kevin Bacon, my college classmate's friend worked on the show Frasier.

I grew up as the only Asian kid in my second grade class and ironically, I was not the shortest kid in school. When a new little girl came to the class mid-school year who happened to be Vietnamese, suddenly I, the third-generation Japanese chick was no longer the only Asian in the classroom. She was definitely shorter than me – half my size.  Miss Leavitt saw an opportunity with this and cast us both as Alice In Wonderland much to the dismay of the parents who had blonde/blue-eyed daughters vying for the role.

She did this for reason and purpose, diversity and inclusion, breaking molds and showing that since she saw both of us wanted the role in our heart, there was no reason to dismiss our hearts by letting me be big Alice (the one that grows in the house) and her little Alice who shrinks – to make a statement.  She also did this to show us anything was possible if we dreamed of doing whatever we wanted.

GRATITUDE.  This was important to me once I had realized I had a teacher who planted all the seeds I needed in my life for it to unfold with the intention of inspiration.

Now it was my time to start paying it forward  I had to say thank you to let her know how she made a difference and I felt very blessed..  So I did and wrote her a long letter (I believe longer than this blog).  We had the chance to reunite after my letter which showed her Linkronicity and how it had unfolded. It was important she understood the influence she had with what I already had accomplished by my mid-30s. We went to lunch and spent a long day talking.  So let's look at the LINKS my teacher planted as seeds (the underlined):

Alice  - From the story perspective, I was the Mad Hatter, wearing numerous career hats...on purpose but also by Linkronicity. I owned two rabbits (for real) in my lifetime, who ironically gave me Zen. I'm a prompt person, so I would never have to be like rabbit in the story, but I do worry about being late - though it was that harried vibe that would push my career further.

I worked for Disney in a literal wonderland of being an octopus, working 9 interdepartmental positions, inclusive of VIP Tours, and huge attraction openings with Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones), Francis Ford Coppola (Michael Jackson's Captain EO), George Lucas (Star Tours - which punny name irony, I did), and an International “Children of Peace” event chaser to escalate unity in humanity post Hands Across America. 

Here I hosted the future James Bond, Pierce Brosnan (he was Remington Steele at the time).  Linkronicity?  He had his first wife, the beautiful Cassandra Harris battling cancer with him and his parents (who made their first visit to America), and his three children. I was honored and humbled seeing how strong Cassandra was, she had just gone through chemotherapy... wore her head scarf and showed up in strength with a smile like a warrior through all.  I would not know that not only would she later lose her battle, but their lovely daughter would also later pass from cancer, too.

This Linkronicity thread was like some sort of pre-warning to appreciate life as you have it while you have it. But I'll get into that in a moment.

One day, after a long grueling tour with a tour which came from the Grand Canyon, I was ready for lunch, I met Kenny Loggins on the footsteps of Disneyland City Hall. He picked upon my exhaustion behind my Disney smile and thanked me for what I did to make Disney a 'happy place.'  I realized at that appreciative moment, someone actually 'saw me' from the inside of knowing why I was doing what I was doing.  I was lucky to meet him once again on the set of Dharma & Greg, eleven years later (11 is the number of destiny, BTW) where he was making an appearance for the wedding scene between Abby (my PR client Mimi Kennedy) and Larry (LA Law's Alan Rachins). When you shoot TV, it's a lot of hurry up and wait. In that waiting time Kenny and I talked music for a bit. I told him of my Chromesthesia
seeing colors in music. Even though I do not sing (poorly at that) or play instruments, he encouraged me to buy a keyboard to produce music. That night I bought one before I went home and wrote a few songs, realizing that 'Linkroncity' chance serendipitous encounter would push me further to exploring what I could do (More "LINKS" later..)

At Disney, I also met Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr.  He showed up New Year’s Eve. As he waited for the rest of his party to show, he had observed my octopus multitasking that night and told me that I needed to get into entertainment media. It was the next day I saw an ad for broadcasting school - and when I called to audition, by Linkronicity irony, my Disney supervisor was moonlighting there, answered the phone, screamed when she heard me call, told me to audition and that's what I did.  I got to thank Mr. Gossett twenty years later when I was doing PR for his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival.   

Broadcast booth-  I graduated with my FCC License from the Academy of Radio Broadcasting and had worked alongside at 102.7 KIIS-FM (a Linkronicity blog all by itself - too long to get into here - I'll save this for another blog) Radio God of the WeeklyTop 40, Rick Dees, hosted TV shows, worked at Pat Boone's TV station KDOC-TV.  Our station produced the pre-cursor to Carson Daly's Total Request Live - "Total Request Video." This was my intro.to music - I later would be petitioning to put closed captions on music videos & JumboTrons with my short-lived music non-profit, which ironically was inspired by a Disney deaf tour group feeling the wall at Lincoln theatre to 'hear' the music.  Broadcasting also took me the PR direction when I booked clients on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Oprah, Hollywood Squares (which Whoopi Goldberg executive produced) and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.  

Cooking/baking?  When I graduated high school, I had a choice - go to Le Cordon Bleu or go into Communications. I wrestled with this, as I loved both, but I chose communications. Though later I returned to my other passion. I had seven years in catering and as a pastry chef for network TV shows produced by Disney(!), TNT and Aaron Spelling. I sold baked goods on consignment to coffee shops when my job as a music producer dissolved and that is how I survived until I built my own PR agency after my stint as a music producer disappeared when I moved to L.A.

Dancing-  I accidentally ended up on Solid Gold –literally picked up off the street doing a news story assignment for broadcasting school with my classmate, asked to be a dancer on TV. Later, dancing would chassez back into my life through live events as my coaching thread continued to work with individuals and groups in the arts throughout my production career.

Swimming-  To fill in the feast or famine gaps of the industry, I was a marketing, sales and technical trouble shooter for the Chemfeed Peristaltic and Diaphragm swimming pool injection pumps (on display at the Smithsonian) for the Pool & Spa industry. I even got my hands on the manufacturing of a 45 rpm motor and dealt with the chemical, temperature and pressure (PSI) capabilities of said units. This same company manufactured a much larger capacity sister pump I sold to the Mirage in Las Vegas that helps create that lava spewing volcano show.  You’re welcome. ;)  The LINK does not end here, I find out years later my cousin (who works with sea creatures building aquariums) had a hand in what you see with those lovely aquariums inside.  My LINK to Vegas wasn't done either. A colleague from Disney had me audition for the guys who built that pirate ship at Treasure Island and they ended up putting my face/voice in a theme park ride in Japan through a hologram image in a haunted castle. I was painted blue and I had to do a crash course Berlitz course to learn Japanese (as this language was barely ever spoken in my house growing up).

Swimming emotionally… I chose to swim rather than sink after my father was told he had two weeks to live on the day my mother was having a mastectomy from breast cancer while still dealing with her Alzheimer’s journey. I had buried my father, my mother was in a facility, I was still grieving the death of my aunt and grandmother who only just died two years prior. After my arms got tired of swimming in my tears, I remembered my teacher's words from when she taught me swimming to ‘just tread water or float… you’ll be okay.’ 

Propagation - Aside from working with the 32^nd Agricultural District in California, I was also working in Media Relations at the Southern California Home & Garden Show, largest show of its kind in the State of California and in both places, I was THAT octopus….literally. I worked with every aspect of plant life, crops, topiaries, organic produce, and more.

From doing announcements, voiceover commercials, hosting contests, writing press releases, photo captions, booking Captain Planet for the eco room, dealing with Englebert Humperdinck and his sweaty swooning groupies for the music room, booking the kid actors from the new Little Rascal’s movie for the kids room and more. I wrangled media for chefs like Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook), and the Clever Cleaver Brothers for the kitchen demo cooking appearances, and yes, even pool and spa stuff here, too – so swimming showed up  as did cooking as a Linkronicity LINK here, too. 

ALL OR NOTHING?  Yeah, you could say I was ALL IN. Everything my elementary school teacher planted seeds for erupted in growth that I could not predict.

THEN… Life threw me a curve ball.  While I was doing all of the above, my talent agent had sent me to a casting call for some TV pilot. They wanted someone who could physically jump and leap.  Well, this dancer/cheerleader had her share of that, so I did my best and did a two hour commute and never thought twice about it.

I received a phone call saying I was cast as the Yellow Power Ranger (NO… don’t worry, this was not racist/stereotype typecasting) for the Power Rangers pilot. I got the part and they were shooting the pilot in a few days.  

My immediate beaming smile was now stuck in an ALL OR NOTHING dilemma….I was already on contract committed to hold the press conference for Habitat For Humanity’s unveiling of the Straw Bale Eco Home.  This was a big deal.  Many media outlets I had pitched for weeks were coming to this. 

I had to BE TRUE TO MY HEART at this juncture, decline the TV pilot and give the role away to another actress. Did I want to be an actress?  No. I didn't want that for my hand.  I had no intention of it, I just accidentally got into it through broadcasting.  My agent sent me to an audition on a gamble, the way you go all-in at a poker game bluffing, knowing darn well you didn’t have the flush. No one actually expected me to land the pilot.

My friends thought I was stupid for giving up such a big break, when prior I had only been cast a as the elevator girl in ABC-TV’s Hotel with James Brolin, stuck in the elevator with Dirk Benedict (whom I met at Disney, too when he appeared for Michael Jackson’s Captain EO grand opening).

Habitat for Humanity… I went ALL IN and chose to give NOTHING to the other opportunity.

Later in my PR career when Hurricane Katrina hit, a couple of my clients would turn to the very organization I stood by.

Accident? No. For purpose bigger than me.  Bigger message?  Yes.

ALL OR NOTHING --- BE TRUE TO YOUR HEART NO MATTER - YOUR LIFE IS LINKED TOGETHER or an EPIC JOURNEY that you don't realize even when you're in it, until you are on the other side of it.

This was just one example. I had many more opportunities where I was TESTED in the arena of ALL IN or NOTHING.  None of what I learned from my parents went to waste either. All of those skills have been applied in everything I have done, from billboard painting at age fifteen to choreographing runway dance fashion shows.  Typing on that rickety old IBM typewriter where my finger muscles developed has helped me type five full-length novels, sixty children’s books and more than thirty years of marketing plans, press releases and biographies. 

My LINK always had me contemplating my TRUTH, MY HEART and what RESONATED.

Then I had my numerology done and when I found out my life path was a 9 and that my purpose is to better humanity through work for the greater good, and every single thing I already had done tied to a charitable cause – (Second Harvest Food Bank, Susan G. Komen, Alzheimer’s Association, Make-A-Wish, Children’s Hospital, Boys & Girls Club, Amnesty International, ACLU, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric A.I.D.S. Foundation and the list goes on). I realized I had made the right decision. I ultimately became a real life different kind of power ranger- my way. 

THIS WAS NOT AN ACCIDENT. Again… everything has unfolded as it was meant to do.
I would go on to take it head on.

All along YOUR PATHWAY – you have the same choices.  You’ll begin to see, that once you are in this position of choosing ALL OR NOTHING… suddenly all your own LINKS begin to LINK UP. 

How we look at life, live life, and approach daily life comes from a place of either ALL or NOTHING.

Now some of you may be shaking your head at me right about now and say, “But what about the in-between folks?” 

Well, this ALL OR NOTHING blog is aimed at you the most!  

 FIRST, for review, let’s go here:

NOW after you’ve watched this video,  I have to ask you … (I’ll do this with a cute Southern drawl for effect) … 

“Darlin’, aren’t you dog-tired of sittin’ on the ‘ol fence fer so long?  Are ya gonna play yer hand of cards in this game called liiiife or not?

YOU - the middle-of-the-roadsters … Yes, I see you.  Don't be paralyzed by fear, don't doubt your existence. YOU ARE HERE FOR PURPOSE greater than you even know.  No one's path is the same. I certainly didn't plan for mine. I had to allow my INNER GPS to guide me, even if at the time I wasn't sure where it was leading.  You never know what you're made of until you walk through doors, say YES OR NO, choose ALL OR NOTHING.

THAT is the very LINK you need to pay attention to - but if it is linked to your heart, it will never be wrong.  You have to STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF.

You’re the ones who are doing the constant limbo dance, because you’re in limbo. 

Now, let us talk about your hand.  No, palm readings here – you’ll have to go to someone else for that.  I’m talking about your hand you’ve been dealt vs. the cards you play. 

While life is about choices, I won’t kid you when I say sometimes you don’t have choices… sometimes YOUR LIFE CHOOSES YOU.  My life chose me… seriously, at every turn.  One does not wake up and say, “I want to work in thirty-three industries so I can be the best life, personal and career coach knowing of which I speak and coach.” 

Let’s go back to the idea of the power of positive thinking, which can get you through any hand you are dealt. 

You can take your entire life……ENTIRE LIFE(!) and go back as far as you can go to uncover that nothing you did as a child was an accident.  From the subjects you excelled in, to the subjects, hobbies, sports, activities and events you were PUSHED and encouraged to do were not an accident either.  At every juncture, you had an ALL OR NOTHING choice.  You either jumped in with both feet or you didn’t.

Therefore, there should be no woulda, shoulda, couldas….rather YOUR REALIZATION that everything lead to where you are now.  This is not an accident either.

Every task you did somehow has a purpose in your life now. Every lesson you were taught by a teacher, a parent, on the job and even through massive hardships, all for purpose and reason.

The choices we DO NOT make also are purposeful.  Saying NO to being a Power Ranger allowed for me to become a real life one.  

BUT ARE YOU SCARED OF THE UNKNOWN?  Hey, I'm human - and I feel ya...WATCH THIS AND YOU WILL SEE: 

KNOW that every card in your deck is actually for purpose and the greater good.

NOTHING is an accident.  Even your largest life challenges (I’ve had more than three lifetimes full of them in this lifetime) – you learn what you are made of and those are not actually to torture you, but make you stronger to see what you are made of. Those lessons you learn are part of your destiny as well – for without those experiences you wouldn’t be where you are now.

Look to your teachers, your mentors, your childhood, your parents, your early life… your journey was being put in motion so your destiny could be realized.

SO… ALL OR NOTHING… make your choices, play your hand and know what is in the cards for you is meant to be.  Sure, you’ll meet a series of Jokers, you may get clubbed one day with disappointment and failure, and shine bright like a diamond the next.   

One day, maybe your Ace comes through and you may meet your King or Queen. You find that life is amazing and somehow, serendipitous.   

You’ll know that in your heart of hearts, it was all worth the 52 cards and years-worth of 52 weeks to LOVE YOUR LIFE AND LOVE ALL THE LINKS IN YOUR LIFE.  Yes, ALL of it and you really had NOTHING to lose by staying in the game.

AND WHEN YOUR LIFE UNFOLDS - YOUR DREAMS WILL SING YOU THIS SONG: 

Namaste.

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