I made a decision to blog each weekday morning, when was that, 5 days ago? I have posted ONE morning blog since that time (7 Level Sunday is already an established habit).
What happened?
This is an interesting question. Well, I can tell you that for me with this blog idea, I didn’t FEEL like it. Every single morning that I have walked this year, I have had what I considered to be brilliant insight. 🙂 Well, at minimum, I have come back in the door and hurried to write down my thoughts to make sure they were captured. Once I made the commitment to post them (semi-publicly, I might add), guess what? Brilliance – gone.
I have walked and listened to inspiring mp3s, as always. The first day, honestly, I posted an idea from the week before. Second day, no idea. The third day, it appeared that my dog’s paws were too cold to walk, so we came home. The forth day, nothing. Today, again, nothing. That’s not entirely fair, I had some great ideas for my business, but I somehow couldn’t translate them into usable insight.
So what do you do when this happens? Well, the short answer is – do what you set out to do. Honor your commitment.
Of course, my first thought was “perhaps it wasn’t meant to be.” No one really got used to me blogging, it won’t hurt if I just don’t do it.
But I know better. I used to use this logic a lot to allow my circumstances to run my life. I would think.. “hmm… it is hard, it must not be meant to be.” Now, sometimes that is true. Living in your Sweet Spot isn’t meant to be hard. But it will be challenging. We are happy when we are growing. Growth is challenging. When something becomes challenging, it doesn’t mean it is not meant to be. It may very well mean that you are on the verge of something great. The Sweet Spot is always a place of balance. There is no black and white answer. You don’t want to simply “try harder” at an approach that is not working (perhaps this is for a later post), however, you do want honor your word. And I’ll tell you why.
In my “Freedom Summit” interview yesterday with Carolyn Herfurth (check her out at truthu.com), we talked about this idea of making a decision, and that often once we make it, all kinds of “stuff” shows up to challenge our decision. It is almost as if the Universe is questioning our level of commitment, saying – “come on, are you really serious this time?”
As soon as I committed to a daily walk and blog post, the ideas left my mind. My dog, for the first time ever, didn’t want to walk. Circumstances aligned for me to throw in the towel immediately. When Carolyn made the decision that she no longer wanted to do her business because she knew there was something else for her, her client load doubled almost immediately. Extra money flowed in in the business she wanted to leave with no extra work on her part. When I committed to going for it in launching my coaching business without a safety net (JOB), I got spontaneous job offers. Even still, every time I take on a new strategy in my business, I’ll get an out-of-the blue and tempting contact from a recruiter – immediately.
Now, I could, and Carolyn could have, interpreted these things as signals that we were meant to do the other thing. But I have learned that this is really a signal that I am on the right track. It is my opportunity to say “thank you, but no.” It is an opportunity to stand in my Authentic Power. My coach calls these hard decisions the “terror barrier.” It is often referred to as being “3 Feet From Gold,” from Napoleon Hill’s book. There are different barriers we will pass on our journey to Freedom, Power, and Genius – our Sweet Spot, but these little things like the “I don’t feel like it,” thoughts, the loss of ideas immediately after making the decision to share them, or the financial temptation to stay on a path you’ve outgrown are simply little challenges that remind us that we are growing. We have to learn to distinguish them as such, and say “THANK YOU!” for the feedback. I appreciate this guidepost on my way to True Success.