Change can be hard and often we feel we are lost on our life journey, but maybe it’s just a matter of realizing we’re stuck. How do you move forward?
I was on a walk that I take several days a week with my dog. It’s a mountain trail where all the trees look the same, and there are not a lot of features that make the winding path stand out. I know this path like the back of my hand, but with snow covering the ground and trees I got confused, I thought that maybe I had gone too far and even though the familiar markers were ahead, I was doubting myself, it just looked so different.
I wasn’t paying attention, just going through the motions, drifting along in my thoughts, and all of a sudden, things didn’t look right, I had to stop and reassess. “Is this the right way? Have I gone too far?” I felt a little tension, but trusted myself and went further, the old path buried under the snow faded out more, and I thought for a minute, I HAVE gone too far, maybe I should go back! Then I heard a voice in my head that said “no, keep going, you are on the right path, it just looks different, feels different, seems different, but it’s the right one”. My trusty dog knew the way, I leaned on him to guide us toward home. He never got nervous, he just kept marching on, he’s always my compass in the woods.
This can happen in real life too…you think you’re on the right path and low and behold, you seem to get confused, or lose your way…maybe you weren’t really paying attention, just going through the motions because it felt comfortable and familiar, and suddenly you look up from where you are and realize you’re not sure how you got there, and if it’s really where you want to go. It can also happen when forging a new path, you may feel lost for awhile, you can get confused, and forget why you made the change, this is normal.
The lure and safety of the familiar can keep us stuck and resisting the movement toward finding something better for us.
What becomes your compass in this case? Is it all your worldly experience, do you start tapping into your hearts’ wisdom and hear the call for a new direction that is better aligned with your purpose? Where is it pointing you? This is the unknowing, that can make you feel uncomfortable and maybe edgy, or fearful, but it’s also where you can feel most alive.
Sometimes it’s best to pause, breathe deeply, take time to meditate, or maybe it’s a bigger pause, a week, a month a year…I know I needed that bigger pause to change the direction of my life. That pull and addiction of a high stress work environment had me running on empty for so long, I didn’t even know where to go to fill up with new fuel so I took my leap of faith and left to travel, and just be present with me!
Fast forward a few years later, and I had started a couple of businesses, still in the exploration phase of figuring out my direction…and ultimately landing on coaching, as it is, and always has been about helping others that fills my tank most fully!
For so many of us, who have been working tirelessly on that career, sometimes the pressures of life and the job keep us so focused away from who we really are that it’s impossible to hear that voice that’s telling us there must be something else, then one day, all of a sudden, we realize we might be lost, or that we forgot to take that turn toward our true purpose long ago.
Know that you always have choice when it comes to direction in your life. Take time to pause and to think about what it is that used to speak to you, or what is speaking to you now, what are you yearning to do, what seems to be missing in your life, where are you feeling stuck? These are starting points and your compass…where the real work begins. Your heart and intuition can be trusted.
Until next time, keep moving forward, each baby step counts.
Kim
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