Having dreams, visioning where we want to go in life, what we want to create in life is powerful. Without them, it is easy to move through life on auto-pilot, expecting today to be like yesterday and doing the same things day in and day out.
Often, however, those of us who vision and want to live into our dreams set ourselves up with high expectations of ourselves and low tolerance for the learning curves, the journey from here to there. When we don’t meet those expectations, we berate ourselves, judge ourselves harshly, or even quit with self messages like , “I can’t. I’m not enough. It’s too hard.”
If this is you in any area of your life, today’s reminder is:
Our high self-expectations, our goals and visions, are meant to serve as “North Stars” not measuring sticks with which we beat ourselves up.
Don’t quit! But know that we are given visions and dreams to guide us, to encourage our next steps. Then we must regularly step back and assess:
- Where are we on the journey toward the goal?
- Does the dream still seem right for us?
- Have the steps taken shown us that a new vision is more fitting?
When our dreams serve as North Stars, when they inspire us to take action, and when we celebrate progress rather than use the dream as a yard stick for our next beating, we grow! And if we regularly pause to assess whether or not we are meant to stay on the current path, we grow toward our highest and best vision with Life itself as our North Star.
What high expectation no longer serves you?
Where is Life pointing you now?
“Our high self-expectations, our goals and visions, are meant to serve as “North Stars” not measuring sticks with which we beat ourselves up.” Love this, Jeanne. Thank you! A great reminder for me today.