One of the things I talk with my clients about during coaching is fantasies. Many of us seem to have some unconscious belief, or fantasy, that if we just wait long enough, the problems of our lives will resolve themselves or somebody will come and rescue us from them. But the truth is, nobody's coming.
Oftentimes we don't even recognize that we'd really like to be taken care of and have the problem or uncomfortable situation dealt with by somebody else. So, over time without us really being aware of it, things slowly get more and more out of control or further away from our version of ideal. Now, here we are in a situation we really don't want to be in, unsure of how we got here in the first place and clueless about what to do.
Lou Tice, the motivational speaker, always said, "If it's to be, it's up to me." I believe he's right. Nobody is coming to fix or change whatever you want fixed or changed in your life. It's up to you. Now is the time to quit waiting and recognize this fantasy for what it is.
Is it uncomfortable to step outside your daily routine and take new actions? You bet! But which is worse, to be uncomfortable initially while you take actions outside your comfort zone or to end up 10 years down the road with the same problems and complaints?
No one else is coming to change your life for you. Even if they came and wanted to change your life, they couldn't take the actions necessary to make it happen. It always has been and always will be up to you. You're the only one who can do what you need to do to experience greater peace, happiness and love. If you're ready for help determining what actions you need to take and being held accountable for taking them, contact me. My first coaching session is always complimentary.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
More Smiles ~ February 2009
Becoming The Greatest Expression Of Yourself
In late March of 2005, I went out and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail to learn one simple truth: Pay attention to your intuition. (Or at least when I finished my thru-hike in mid-October of 2005, that’s what I thought my purpose had been. It turns out that as time passes and I come to know myself more and more, I recognize so many additional learnings spawned by my trail experience.) But what I understood right at the ‘end’ of my adventure was that intuition is the voice of my highest self and will never steer me wrong. On some level, I understood that before I even went out there. But it’s not about understanding it. It’s about living it.
Over and over again, I was tested in this. Many times I listened to and heeded my intuition. When I did, everything was golden. And I mean Golden. I could do no wrong. Everything worked better than I could have possibly dreamt or imagined. Even when things went ‘wrong’, I was unperturbed by them. I was in the flow. I was where I belonged, doing what I was supposed to do. Life was good and I felt great.
Unfortunately, more often than not, I disregarded my intuition. So often, I wouldn’t even bother to check in with it. Or, if I did check in, I wouldn’t like what it was saying, so I would ignore it. When this happened, I was miserable. Nothing went right. I had to struggle and fight to make things happen. Life was a chore and I wished to be anyplace besides where I was.
We’ve all had these experiences and know just how great or horrible they can make us feel. Before knowing about and living by my intuition, I would have just chalked them up to having a ‘good day’ or a ‘bad day’. Now I know that my days go the way they do because of what I choose to listen to.
Usually, I operate on default, like most of us do, and listen to that non-stop chattering voice in my head. That is not the voice of intuition. That is the voice of fear. Fear is what we have been taught our entire lives. It is modus operandi. We have approached life from a place of fear for so long, that it now feels comfortable to us. So comfortable in fact, that when our intuition does finally make itself heard, we frequently resist it for all we’re worth. Our fear starts ranting inside our heads, telling us how wrong we’d be to listen to that niggling feeling, that instinct, that gut reaction, that advises a different course.
Because we’re so comfortable with our fear, we do recognize that doing as suggested by that intuitive feeling would create discomfort on some level. Often we attribute that discomfort to the intuitive act itself instead of to our easy acceptance of our fear as our constant companion. We decide, therefore, to keep doing as we have been doing and ignore our intuition. It is to our detriment. Luckily though, intuition will attempt to guide us over and over again to that place where we just know our right course of action. Each time, the decision is ours. We can listen to our intuition or we can continue to heed our fear. One path leads us to be the best or highest expression of ourselves that we can be. The other holds us in our current place, never to see who we might have become.
I don’t consistently choose my intuition over my fear, but at least now I’m conscious that I even have a choice. I’m grateful to the Trail for that.
Call to action: Take a few minutes to get quiet and ask yourself what self-loving thing you know you’d like to do (what your intuition has been guiding you to do), but you have been unwilling to do up to this point. In what direction are you being guided to move and resisting doing so? Does it have to do with your family, career, health, finances, home, primary relationship, spirituality, or your leisure time? What’s one action that you can take this week to start listening to your own internal guidance?
Remember: Planning to take an action isn’t taking an action. So, go do it and remember to have fun!
In late March of 2005, I went out and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail to learn one simple truth: Pay attention to your intuition. (Or at least when I finished my thru-hike in mid-October of 2005, that’s what I thought my purpose had been. It turns out that as time passes and I come to know myself more and more, I recognize so many additional learnings spawned by my trail experience.) But what I understood right at the ‘end’ of my adventure was that intuition is the voice of my highest self and will never steer me wrong. On some level, I understood that before I even went out there. But it’s not about understanding it. It’s about living it.
Over and over again, I was tested in this. Many times I listened to and heeded my intuition. When I did, everything was golden. And I mean Golden. I could do no wrong. Everything worked better than I could have possibly dreamt or imagined. Even when things went ‘wrong’, I was unperturbed by them. I was in the flow. I was where I belonged, doing what I was supposed to do. Life was good and I felt great.
Unfortunately, more often than not, I disregarded my intuition. So often, I wouldn’t even bother to check in with it. Or, if I did check in, I wouldn’t like what it was saying, so I would ignore it. When this happened, I was miserable. Nothing went right. I had to struggle and fight to make things happen. Life was a chore and I wished to be anyplace besides where I was.
We’ve all had these experiences and know just how great or horrible they can make us feel. Before knowing about and living by my intuition, I would have just chalked them up to having a ‘good day’ or a ‘bad day’. Now I know that my days go the way they do because of what I choose to listen to.
Usually, I operate on default, like most of us do, and listen to that non-stop chattering voice in my head. That is not the voice of intuition. That is the voice of fear. Fear is what we have been taught our entire lives. It is modus operandi. We have approached life from a place of fear for so long, that it now feels comfortable to us. So comfortable in fact, that when our intuition does finally make itself heard, we frequently resist it for all we’re worth. Our fear starts ranting inside our heads, telling us how wrong we’d be to listen to that niggling feeling, that instinct, that gut reaction, that advises a different course.
Because we’re so comfortable with our fear, we do recognize that doing as suggested by that intuitive feeling would create discomfort on some level. Often we attribute that discomfort to the intuitive act itself instead of to our easy acceptance of our fear as our constant companion. We decide, therefore, to keep doing as we have been doing and ignore our intuition. It is to our detriment. Luckily though, intuition will attempt to guide us over and over again to that place where we just know our right course of action. Each time, the decision is ours. We can listen to our intuition or we can continue to heed our fear. One path leads us to be the best or highest expression of ourselves that we can be. The other holds us in our current place, never to see who we might have become.
I don’t consistently choose my intuition over my fear, but at least now I’m conscious that I even have a choice. I’m grateful to the Trail for that.
Call to action: Take a few minutes to get quiet and ask yourself what self-loving thing you know you’d like to do (what your intuition has been guiding you to do), but you have been unwilling to do up to this point. In what direction are you being guided to move and resisting doing so? Does it have to do with your family, career, health, finances, home, primary relationship, spirituality, or your leisure time? What’s one action that you can take this week to start listening to your own internal guidance?
Remember: Planning to take an action isn’t taking an action. So, go do it and remember to have fun!
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