Title Disclaimer: Not to be confused with reckless living but instead daring to be fearless in following where our intuition directs us. It can be a scary thing, but let's try this for the remainder of 2013 and brace ourselves for wherever it leads. My hunch...it's going to be really really good. So let's end the year and begin the new on a high:
Put the instructions and opinions of others to the side and your fear-based hesitation to the other side. What is it that has been silently gnawing at you to begin? What is it that you really want out of life? Dare to speak it out loud and watch how your belief in it being possible for you moves you into taking even the smallest step, confidently.
Ponder at how far you've come in other areas and how absent your believed "security" in the familiar has been -- yet you made it. The doors suddenly closed, scenes changed and people disappeared but you still arrived stronger, more confident and more developed than before.
Step out on a limb; take the chance. If the branch begins to break rest in the knowledge that you've been this way before. You've felt the ground shift beneath you, done without yet you're still standing. Whatever holds you back in thought with the lie of failure or the reminder of who you're not (yet) is ever present whether you move forward or not. See, it's not in the doing that's the issue, it's in the thinking that the ship first begins to sink and in the speech that death is assured.
Life is so short. So very short. Aren't you curious to see where an unscripted day or two of fullness will lead? Write the piece. Apply. Buy the new color. Paint the new picture. Share the dream. Speak to your crush. Sign up for the class. Run a mile. Walk 2. Not when you're 20 pounds lighter. Today. Begin. Try the new dish and add your own spin to it. Expose something you hold a secret and watch it lose its power. LOL. Leave closed doors, closed. Say hello. Try something you've always wanted to do, but haven't. And another. And another. Fill in your own blanks however you would like and offer no explanations and search for no validation as you dare to be your authentic self.
The student was ready and 2013 set out to reveal to me that the things I would have previously thought I would never have grown through successfully, I did. It reminded me that when your life gets a shake-up or major change of any sort occurs all that was intended to fall does, leaving you with your structure and who and what is meant to stay. And that's enough. Now that that's settled, it continues forward.
Rather than researching an instruction manual on how to find what it is you're looking for, I say to hell with more instructions. You already know the answers. Your way is already mapped out. Break out of the rigid rules of life and make your own way along the route. I so believe we would sometimes be so much further ahead if we tossed out the rules from the "experts" who got those rules from someone else or learned them through their own experiences and followed our internal compass.
Yes, we were all born with one. While hearing or reading about others who are where you would like to be fuels our fire, there is one thing they all have in common: they got to a fork in the road and took the path not yet traveled, not yet written about, not yet lived. They trusted their compass. My favourite advice is like that. It comes from a little nudge -- leading me back to following my own intuition. Don't misunderstand me, there is much to learn and understand when someone else shares their life experiences with you. Isn't that the beauty in transparent and powerful exchanges? But more often than not, you know the answers you're counting on someone else to provide.
Truthfully, you might get it -- whatever your "it" is, and you might not. It matters that you tried. And tried. And possibly tried again. You might win them all, but you'll never lose. For every step you make forward, you win the battle against fear that said you wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't. You peel a layer off that voice and expose the hidden truth of your strength. For every no you pushed through and every hurt you processed through, you showed the world you're one bad something to reckon with, but more importantly you revealed to yourself that indeed you are just that fierce! So, I ask because I'm confused: after all of that, what exactly has given you the right to still fear?
Now is the time to step out on chance. No holding back. Take the leap. That one -- the one that causes your knees to buckle. It may not work out as you planned every step of the way but it promises in the end to take you to your best self therefore working out greater than you could have ever imagined. Bold courage my friends will take us through the adventures of this world.
I am a field of all possibilities, like Deepak Chopra reminds us and life, like running, like dreams are best experienced and understood in first person. While it's comfortable for someone to walk you through what may happen to you based on what happened to them, you have then adopted a spectators chair and the same results may not be yours, even if you chose the exact same route. Furthermore, how much more do we gain from being in the act versus watching from the sidelines?
What will you find true for you before the end of 2013?
Your formula, mixed to perfection for you requires boldness and a little courage to step forward, throw fear to the wind and trust that whatever is out there for you, is that darn good. Why would it be anything less? It requires all you've got though.