What map are you following?

TreasureMap4By6

Have you thought about your life map lately? You know the one: it has clear directions which guide your choices day to day on the road to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.

You don’t have such a map? You just roll with the punches, let life push you around, or perhaps just go through the motions of living?

Oh! You have a map and, truth be told, it is actually very limiting so that you “succeed” and make no mistakes along the way.

Not that? Maybe you are following a map very carefully – but it isn’t your map.

Most likely, you are somewhere on the continuum between no structure and over-control or self-responsible and giving all your power away. And perhaps you are at a different point depending on which aspect of life (work, primary relationship, self-care …) you are thinking about.

Today I’d like to invite you into a few simple questions around any area of life that is chaotic, unhealthy or even just too comfortable.

Who is in the driver’s seat?
If nothing changes, where are you going?
What do you want to discover?
What shifts will insure that you DO?

What can you change?

Bring to mind a situation, relationship, belief that both challenges you and that you are ready to experience shift around.  

Got it?  Now:

  • What part of this is about you?
  • What part of this is about others?
  • What part is about the environment?
  • What can you change?
  • What else?
  • What steps will you take?
  • By when?

Again …

What? Again. And again.

What goal have you set for yourself? Perhaps for the summer it is to get outside more and enjoy the weather. Maybe you have begun a new exercise program. Perhaps it’s daily meditation. Maybe, like me, you are practicing the belief that you are enough, you are lovable just the way you are!

Whatever it may be, today is a day to practice again, to do “it” again, to remind yourself again. The journey toward your goal is one day at a time, one step at a time, yet another repetition!

Can you do “it” again?
Will you?

Land of the Free

Here in the United States, a celebration of our nation’s freedom is around the corner. I’ve paused often lately to remember and appreciate how free I really am. It is a gift to have been born into the “home of the free” and for me, into the white middle-class, a gift I don’t want to take for granted.

Yet, there is another type of freedom – or bondage – that human beings inflict on themselves. How free are you to live in integrity, to feel your feelings, to expand into your fullest and finest self-expression? How free do you believe you are? How free do you allow yourself to be? And, how, by your attitude, words and actions, do you free or imprison others? Do you allow your loved ones, your friends and colleagues, to be themselves? Do you treat others with respect and free them in your mind to be who they are? For a few additional questions around freedom and imprisonment, check out:

Imprisoned4By6

Imprisoned

Obstacles in your way?

Bring to mind a situation, relationship, belief that both challenges you and that you are ready to experience shift around.  

Got it?  Now:

  • What is the outcome you wish to achieve?
  • What is your tentative deadline?
  • What three main obstacles keep you from success?
  • What steps will take you beyond each obstacle?
  • What can you commit to now?