Mondo Beyondo

Where do I start...

Today I was reading this post by Jen Lemen and I was reminded of the Mondo Beyondo concept.  Andrea Scher was the first blogger I ever read and I was a fairly new reader when she posted about her own yearly Mondo Beyondo list.  I remember reading her post and thinking, yeah right, I just can't do that.  And I didn't.  And I never have.  Then this Tuesday I posted my own list of things I'd like to do/accomplish during 2007.  After I wrote the initial list of 2 dozen things I read back over them and thought to myself, I'm playing it safe.  Sure there were some challenging items on the list, things that would push me out of my comfort zone, things that I really, really, really want, but for the most part the items were reasonable.  They were things that I very likely could accomplish.  There wasn't anything really outrageous on the list.  There wasn't anything that didn't scare the shit out of me.  So I added a dozen bigger dreams.  But even after typing them I still new I wasn't being completely honest with myself.  I was doing better but I still wasn't admitting the things I REALLY fantasize about.  After reading about Jen and Andrea's Mondo Beyond list I knew it was time to create my own.

Here's the deal.  As much as I say that I believe writing something down and/or really visualizing it (with all the fine details) helps something manifest itself faster, when it comes right down to it I'm not really sure I actually believe that.  In fact I'm almost afraid to admit what I really want because then I might jinx it.  Writing something on a list and then that thing actually happening is the stuff movies and fairy tales are made of.  It's a romantic notion.  That stuff doesn't really happen.  It's just too ironic.  Or is it?  I mean there is a great deal of evidence out there that suggests that creative visualization and naming our desires is powerful, powerful stuff.  You hear testimonies all the time. 

You wanna know something else?  I have this little problem with God.  Somewhere along the way, in the midst of my religious upbringing, I got the idea that it really didn't matter what I wanted.  God was going to give me what he wanted me to have regardless of what I wanted so why want anything.  (side note: I specifically used the pronoun 'he' because the God of my childhood, the God I'm talking about in this paragraph, was/is a 'he' kinda god.)  I specifically remember having a phone conversation with a friend in which I described the kind of man I wanted to marry and the kind of life work I wanted to do.  She very flatly said, "Now you know you can't decide these things for yourself."  There was an understanding that God decided these things for you and you got what he gave you.  You didn't get to choose your life.  Sadly I believed her and I stopped wanting some things.  I resigned myself to having whatever it was God wanted me to have...even if it wasn't what I wanted.  Of course that doesn't mean I stopped wanting, dreaming, desiring.  It just means I kept it all hidden.  The more outrageous the fantasy the further down I stuffed it...and the more guilty and wrong I felt for having it.

Now you can call these beliefs hogwash if you want.  They are hogwash.  I know that.  But hogwash can still come between you and your dreams.  In fact it's the hogwash, the faulty beliefs, that can destroy a dream quicker than anything.  So please, there is no need to lecture me about how wrong I am.  No need to leave me comments telling me God doesn't work that way.  You don't have to tell me that in fact God wants nothing more than for me to have my deepest desires.  I realize all that.  What I'm trying to work into my brain right now is a little quote from Ms. Louise Haye: It is only a thought and a thought can be changed.  In other words, what I've believed for so long (too long) about wants and God can be changed.  Starting today.  And my first step was pulling out my tiny Molskine (a gift from Meg) and creating my very own Mondo Beyond list.

Let me tell you what happened when I started wanted to write.  How I wish I could say all these fabulous things starting flowing from my brain, to my hand, through my pen and onto the paper.  Nope.  What happened was I panicked.  Suddenly all these things that I've thought about but never admitted, all these fantasies I've had, seemed so large and overwhelming that my brain shut down.  I literally could not figure out how to write these things down.  Seriously.  I had to start with some of the easier ones to verbalize and build up.  And some of them I never could quite verbalize and instead I had to write my vision (i.e.  I see myself.... I am....  Then I am... etc.)  I had to write it almost like a little story because I couldn't actually get it into a goal/wish/dream.

There are two important things I want you to know about Mondo Beyondo lists.  In fact they are so important I will quote them directly from Andrea's post...

1.  This is the list of things that are outrageous, wild, and may not even happen for 5 or 10 years from now. This is the list of things that are SO JUICY and unlikely to happen that you are afraid to even write them down.

2.  The great thing about these lists is that you don't need to believe they will happen as you write them. Simply the act of writing is a show of faith... even if you're thinking "yeah, right" as you jot them down.

You get the picture?....

I'm not going to share my Mondo Beyondo list because, well, it's personal and if I haven't even been ready to write these things down until tonight I'm certainly not ready to share them publicly.  I will give you a little snippet just to wet your appetite though.  It's quite possible that I did include becoming best friends with Salma Hayek on my list.  Hey, she said the list was supposed to be outrageous right?!  I have to confess there were a few items that I thought were so outrageous and unrealistic and almost junior high-ish that I had to write them in a teeny tiny font because I was that embarrassed by them.  I wasn't quite ready to see them in large print.  You know what I mean.

I've been so realistic for so long that I've created a lot of noes in my life.  I had all these elaborate fantasies when I was a kid/teen but somewhere along the way I started thinking there was just no way.  It just wasn't realistic.  And another no entered my world.  Why can't the most unrealistic, impossible thing actually happen?  After all isn't Nicholas Cage's current wife a waitress he met at a restaurant or Sushi bar or something.  Nobody saw that one coming.  My point is why limit what is possible?  Why not leave the door open for as many yeses as can pile in.  Maybe one day I WILL run into Johnny Depp at a museum in Santa Fe...and take him to see my own photography exhibit...and then have dinner with him...and then be asked to photograph him...and then my photos of him will appear in some fabulous magazine...and then...

So? How about you?  Is it time you wrote your own Mondo Beyond list?  I don't mean a to do list.  I don't even mean a wish list.  I mean a MONDO BEYOND list.  A list of the things you're afraid to admit you think about because it's just too outrageous, too impossible, too unrealistic.  Is it time you kicked one of the noes out of your world and opened the door (or at least cracked a window) for a yes. 

Comments

[amy]

wow, thank you! what a wonderful, brave and inspiring piece of writing. reading your posts over the past few weeks has been a joy. your willingness to share the questions that you're asking and the insights you discover on your travels is a wonderful gift to us all. i will confess to being a little intimidated by the clarity with which you articulate ideas that are still woolly thoughts in my own head.

amy

[gkgirl]

YES.

this is the way to go.

i'm following you.

(heh...does that sound
just a teensy bit stalker
like? cause i so didn't
mean it that way, haha)

[Kelly]

Thank you for explaining what that term means, ...I'd just seen it on the other blog. Good for you. Baby steps.

What would be hard for me...what I could never let another human see... it that my Mondo Beyondo list would contain something that most people take for granted.

K

[Delia]

Very cool...I loved how you talked about jinxing yourself versus visualizing--this is something I struggle with too. For me it's that old Irish-Italian Catholic upbringing that still gets me knocking on wood and tapping my lips and throwing salt over my shoulder...so the mondo beyondo is very interesting to me AND very "oh my". So I get it. Good luck on yours...if you do stumble onto Johnny Depp, maybe you could send him my way when you were finished with him!
Love,
D.

[Marilyn]

This made me wonder where my Mondo Beyondo list from a year ago is...hmmmm... I totally believe in the whole concept, because it's played out in my life a few times already. The funny thing is (and I don't mean this to rain on your mondo parade in any way)...once that thing comes true...that thing that seemed so impossible at one point...it often isn't accompanied by a feeling of dazzling internal fireworks...at least that's been my experience. Because by the time I'm THERE, I've already been fantasizing about different stuff. That's why timing is such an incredible thing...and why all those manifesting affirmations usually include something like "in its right time." So that by the time Johnny Depp shows up, you won't be flustered or nervous or tongue-tied...because by that time, well of course Johnny Depp showed up...why would he not? ;) I firmly believe our dreams come true when we're ready for them to manifest.

[Jamie]

In the spirit of the "making magic" post on Create a Connection...

As Michelle wishes for herself, so I wish for her also.

The details aren't required for me to throw my loving energy behind them and wish along with you that your Mondo Beyond dreams come true. And I do, along with celebrating your bravery and the reawakening of dreams.

[bb]

i'm with delia with the catholic upbringing so i know ALL about being raised with that kind of 'nay' saying he-god you write about. but i'm going to try this. the wild and the 'only imaginable by me' list. thanks for giving this slant to my up-coming weekend :-)

[Tammy]

Wow - what a great post!! Again! :) I love this idea of a mondo beyondo list - and I can feel - even as I read your post, my resistance to it.

That religious upbringing of MINE continues to get in the way as well... But, thanks for the seed - I'll be interested to see what happens - for you and for myself!!

[Star]

I'm in this same spot, Michelle. I was excited when I saw that SARK's "Make Your Creative Dreams REAL" was in your reading cue because I have just begun it myself. I decided to have an open mind and heart as I began and, so far, I'm having so much fun.

I was always raised to keep my books pristine, no writing or anything in them. Well, I'm having a heyday in SARK's book. I'm doing my work on unlined paper and writing every word with colored markers (a big step outside the box for me).

I think this Mondo Beyondo list is a fabulous idea; putting those dreams out there to see in black and white makes them less scary, less intimidating. It makes me thing I need to add more to the list I've already made.

[josephine]

Thanks, Michelle.

I had not ever had the notion to write down my big crazy dreams until just now.

Light bulb!

Stop by my site if you have time, I've got news to share :)

[La'Saundra]

Andrea's was one of the first blogs that I started reading regularly...but I had forgotten all about the Mondo Beyondo list!

I thought that it was such a great idea. I remember trying to make my own list. If I wasn't playing it safe by listing things that I knew weren't a challenge at all, I was chastising myself for writing down things that will probably never happen in a million years.

But that is the whole point! I don't know why it was/is so frightening for me to write down the things that I truly, truly want. But again, I have been inspired...anything IS possible!

[ceanandjen]

Ever since receiving Jen Lemen's tiny, but POWERFUL zine last week, I have given great thought to this Mondo Beyondo list. There are some things manifesting in my life right now, and I feel this synergy exploding around me...thus the idea of creating a list like this seems a bit more plausible.

I, like you were, am not so sure that I can do it...but then I get a burst of excitement fill me about something new and exciting surrounding me, and my attitude shifts a bit.

And then, well I come and read your words and am inspired all over again.

I am so glad that you did this, and that you are sharing the experience.

xoxoxo

[kodachrome]

As with others, this post resonated with me--especially the idea that one isn't really allowed to wish or dream for what one wants, because either the gods will damn you for your hubris, or because there are so many more "important" and "serious" things happening in the world that one must be really selfish to take the time to dream about such fantasies/goals/aims when suffering and tragedies are unfolding across the globe. So like you, I've often felt guilty and unworthy to really wish or go for my dreams. But now I'm determined to start trying to articulate OUT LOUD! those aspirations, and DARN IT! I'm not going to feel bad about them! Thanks for sharing and inspiring once again; I'm off to give voice to my desires...

[georgia]

Oh dear.... I am scared to even attempt it... There are things i have been trying to change for half my life, and if I were actually to let go and step into the change I am afraid I would not even know who I am anymore... but if I do not do it then I will continue to be stuck, or worse.

Thank you again for this, I have alot to think about today.

~Georgia

[Beth]

Thanks for giving me something to really think about.
I have my list....tucked away where someday my children will find it, when I'm gone...and hopefully they'll think to themselves, "she really was a cool Mom, huh ?" and then they'll roll on the ground laughing and feeling like they knew me a little better then they already did....or maybe a LOT better !!!!

[Samantha]

You know I think about you EVERY TIME I see Salma Hayek, right? You two are practically best friends in my mind, for what it's worth. Your Mondo Beyondo list sounds amazing - and no matter how crazy it sounds, just think: I wonder if Andrea ever thought someone would wear one of her necklaces on the Today show or that Jonatha Brooke would buy them! And be her friend! Anything can happen!

As for God, remember this - "he who gives you the desires of your heart." I do believe that, not in a vending machine sort of way, but that God rejoices when you find your purpose and your passion. Creator begets creation and creating, and I am quite sure it brings God pleasure (and glory, for that matter) when you take an amazing picture, when you write a sentence full of truth and beauty.

[Samantha]

Hope that last bit didn't sound too preachy. Maybe it can help change your thoughts? I've just been reading such great stuff lately that I feel full of wanting to tell people that God is crazy about them.

[DebR]

I go through that inner conflict *all the time* - the one between visualizing what we want to manifest in our lives and being superstitious about jinxing myself by saying what I want out loud or writing it down.

You are inspiring me, Michelle. I'm going to write a Mondo Beyond list in the next week or so. But I'm not going to post mine on the internet either. That's just not something I can do...at least not yet.

[bee]

i just want to say: i love you.

what a fantastic idea.

[megg]

I. LOVE. YOU.

I honour you and believe in you and I HEAR you and if MY mondo beyondo list comes true before yours I'll introduce you to Salma Hayek if you'll do the same with Kate Winslet for me?! Deal?

I'd love to read it if you feel like sharing it with someone.

xoxoxoxoxo

[Elizabeth]

There's a terrific book you might want to look at, "Ask and You Shall Receive" Esther & Jerry Hicks.

Isn't it crazy that something inside you would block you from simply writing down fantasies and asking for them to come real? Why the block? What's the big deal? How do we get so crushed? Because you and I both know any 4-year old can ask for the moon without blinking an eye.

I am living proof of mondo beyondo-- utterly living proof and with each passing day it gets easier and easier to get past my Catholic upbringing which said I was not to ask for anything! Be meek, damn you child.

Make the list-- don't censor yourself. Know that if you are happy and satisfied in life, you can do much much much more for the people around you thank if you are unhappy and feeling like you are not living the life you dream of.

[Rebekah]

I've been disconnected from so many people for a long time; it's made me reluctant to even insert comments. But today, today has been filled with messages and elation and THIS! I am compelled to say YES, and try myself to reconnect with the hilarity of God's delight when we really throw off all the ropes that we have tied ourselves with. Religion is made of people - and some of those people have inflicted such great damage, and that is horribly sad. But I don't believe it is really God. I really, really believe HE is a wild hoot of bigness and broad possibilities for everyone. I'm very happy for you that you have come out of the sad, tight place and let yourself DREAM!

[melba]

i am realizing more and more that sometimes it is not necessary to say "something" to actually share.

[snowsparkle]

your photos of your niece are extraordinary!!! i'm stunned by their beauty and creativity. wow!!! you are so talented.... just had to say that... now i'll go back and read your post. :)

[snowsparkle]

YES!!!! and thank you!