We all remember the Wizard Of OZ. You know with the Cowardly Lion and the brainless Scarecrow and the Heartless Tin Man. Well, what if I told you that the story of their journey parallels the world in which we live in? Just think, for you to be whole we need all 4 characters including Dorothy.

The path to fulfillment and happiness is a long and challenging road. There are so many plot twists and turns and dead ends and rewrites. From the time we are born, we are told what to do and how to do it. We go through grade school being pushed to the next class when the bell rings, sit in a specified seat, and are told to open to page 212 in chapter 17. If we make it through all of that you may have taken your story to college and gave that a try. But once those big phases are complete, most likely the first 22-24 years, then the real challenge begins. LIFE.

I mean a life where you have to find a job and support yourself. Maybe you earned that signed degree from your school telling you which road to take. You go to apply to some teaching positions or maybe you have been preparing for medicine or even passed the bar and a courtroom will be your battleground. Anyway you slice it, it’s time to move on to the next big chapter.

Now at this point, you probably have told yourself you’ve made it through the tough stuff. All the schooling is done or maybe you pick the route of a trade or join the workforce. But this is where the real work begins.

But wait! You have to balance a bank account and pay taxes. You have to rent a home or apartment, get transportation, fill your pantries, and even cook for yourself…

But that wasn’t a class at school. College or high school! But wait there’s more. You have obligations to friends and family and hopefully, if you see life in an “I’m going to leave it better than I found it” kind of way then you also realize you need to contribute something to society.

So starts the uphill climb of trying to adult. And then there is mental and physical health to battle with. So how does all of this work in with the world of OZ? Great question!

It goes like this. Now that we’ve taken the training wheels off, we are about to encounter a world of denial, resentment, strife, unfairness, rejection, and cynicism. To understand that life is suffering as Dr. Jordan Peterson’s claim, which in my assessment is true, is to then also be given the key to it all.

Dorothy realizes there’s got to be more to life (don’t we all!). She gets sucked into this world of magic and imagination. This is really how we are supposed to see the world in my opinion. Full of opportunity and color. Even when the Wicked Witch Of The West proves that oppression is real, and that there will always be someone or something to challenge you at every turn, Dorothy comes along and proves that when there is a will there’s a way.

But we can’t do it alone. She meets these unexpected companions that prove to be paramount in the success of getting back home. Through these challenges presented to the team, the Scarecrow uncovers his ability to think and problem solve, the Lion gets confronted with an opportunity to fight back with his “newly” found courage and the Tinman feels that beating heart pumping away.

But how did all of these characters find these answers? How did they each get what they NEEDED? They were so lost and felt so broken.

They each were faced with opportunities to help them see their own potential and to prove they had what they were searching for all along. It was already inside them.

See Dorothy is the catalyst. Let’s call her our motivation. When she shows up everything changes. She physically takes steps in a new direction. She leads the charge but motivation alone won’t do the trick. If Dorothy didn’t have the team of the Scarecrow (our intellect and logical side), the Lion (Our own willingness to battle and fight against adversity), and the Tinman (our consciousness and desire to connect and find fulfillment) she would have failed the mission. She would have been taken by the monkeys and the Wicked Witch would have lived on and terrorized the land of OZ forever.

The Wicked Witch and the tainted land in the story resemble the things about our life and the challenges that we feel hold us back. Our trek through those moments is like Dorothy’s fight to make it through. Every day we wake up we have the power of motivation. It’s a new day, the sun rose up and we took a breath. We have the opportunity to jump back into the story and fight the good fight. Are you willing to? That is the question. Will you go find your friends and win the day? Will you take these chances to sharpen the sword through the friction of grinding rocks to make yourself better? Better for yourself, your family, your spouse, and your community. Will you take an active role in writing the next page with a tone of bravery, heart, and brain power or will you fall victim to the world and its seemingly ever-growing despair? The hatred-filled monkeys that are obeying every command from the top-down leader? Do you want to lose to them? Or do you want to prove you have what it takes to change your world and the world of those around you?

So what’s the one thing? I mean the title of the piece is “The ONE Thing” right?

The one thing is you……….. A TEAM!

You need to bolster your characters. Grow the intelligence of your scarecrow through challenges that need mental energy and creative thinking. You need to build the courage of a powerful Lion through experiences that will put you at a crossroads of bravery to the left and comfort to the right and take that left path. You need to seek out ways to make that heart of the Tinman beat with palpable chest-thumping beats. Put yourself in situations to care for others and to make real human connections. Ones that truly matter. And lastly, you need the Dorothy in you to be so full of wonder and inspiration. What could happen? Where can I go? What’s even possible?

That team will, when given the proper tender love and care, will change your life. Those around you will begin to notice how much you’ve changed. People you don’t even know will be inspired by your actions and leadership by living a life that’s built around accepting and inviting challenges and learning and growing from them. YOU will start to notice small things and then HUGE things happening to you and around you.

Remember, Being brave, using your mind, and feeling with your heart, those things are hard to do. They take a lifetime of practice. We will still fall down and get knocked down. We will work hard to get back up. We will still get told we aren’t good enough. We will still be treated unfairly and unjustly. We will still be taken advantage of but all of those happenings are EXACTLY why we need to build this version of ourselves, so full of inspiration for a new life, brave enough to fight through the hard times, Intelligent enough to learn from these challenges and turn those lessons into wisdom and then to remember to never let the heart callus. The world needs more connection, it needs more people that care about more people.

So now that we understand what the NUMBER 1 most important factor to success in any phase of life is, let’s go out and start figuring out how to grow ourselves into this storybook hero! Seeking out challenges is the only way to do this. Put yourself out there, learn something new, and don’t be scared to suck at it as well. You as the story says “Toto I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore”. School is over, all the fingers pointing in the direction to go have been retired. YOU are making these decisions now, YOU can choose where to go and how to get there. YOU are in charge of your own destiny!