Retiree, if you want to do something meaningful for yourself this year, take five minutes to receive this message: In our day-to-day living we learn to expect a certain amount of predictable events based on the way other similar events have occurred in the past.
Over time, we then begin to plan our lives based on our expectations of how we’re likely to progress. But be careful not to become too mechanical about what you’re expecting from life as you practice Prediction!
Life will do its [typical branching off] and we’re often caught off guard – regretting unexpected outcomes for some time into the future. Should the “branching off” of events be so surprising to you? Well… as I reflected on some of mine, the answer that came to me was: “no, not really”… and I realized that my extreme disappointment wasn’t going to produce the outcome that I had been expecting either!
So then, [how] does Prediction produce our desired outcomes? Well, I got tired of feeling so dissatisfied, every other month: it didn’t make sense that I was working my hardest at being a good human and achieving meaningful gains, while life kept dishing back mediocre outcomes at best. I expected ‘the process’ to go more evenly and more systematically – follow steps from A through Z, and then, well, mission accomplished!
An honest reflection about the patterns that were leading me to the mediocre outcomes helped me to eventually understand this principle: Everything that you set your eyes, and then your heart on, won’t be perfectly lined up for you!
On the other hand, when the outcome is truly part of your destiny you’ll need to learn and understand a couple of rules:
1. To win that prized outcome you’ll need a degree of steadfastness - yes, dig your heels in it and pull them back out with each step, as you follow that winding road! Before long you'll regain your stride!
2. Keep reminding yourself that life is seldom linear; unexpected events may shift your plans at various junctures. This should be expected. While it may slow you down at certain points, never allow the winding road to cancel your persistence!
Part of my mistake was to veer off, walking away from my destined road. This only delayed my arrival at self-actualization. (And I cautiously use this expression in the same sentence with the concept of ‘arrival’). I veered off at pivotal times in my life because the occasional slowing down made me believe that I was on the wrong path. This is what often happens when we lack understanding about focusing on our personal purpose. Not yet understanding my purpose, I thought the journey was “too long and too convoluted”.
Okay, so what can you do to get back on the right path?
In those honest self-reflections, learn to hear the voice of your Creator’s whisperings. (You know… that feeling in your gut!) That whisper reveals crucial information about the real you, and significant aspects of your designated course.
Which paths are part of your designated course?
I cannot stress enough how important Introspection is going to be, to kickstarting this very personal process.
This journey will obviously require your determination about this self-work, but it will be absolutely worth the thirty to sixty minutes a day away from your smartphone and other distractions. In order to hear that inner voice that is trying to free you, you must shut off the excess noise that is happening in your daily life. We experience so much ‘fill-in’ noise that we don’t even recognize it as such, to get rid of it from time to time. Try designating a day or an afternoon when you can just put social media to the side and focus on hearing yourself think. In time, you’ll also hear your soul speak.
Your answers are there, waiting for you to complete this puzzle for yourself. Listen in for revelation about your present condition and your future potential.
Now, you can begin a deeper dive that will lead you to your inner truths. Here, you can redirect past undesired processes that were so embedded in your daily surrounding noise.
You won’t believe the clarity that results from undergoing this process and journey! This, up to this point is self-realization.
Lastly, your self-actualization becomes the most rewarding of these stages. To be self-actualized does not mean that you have now become this perfect human being. (You do understand that perfection doesn’t exist, right?) It does mean, however, that you’re intentionally and willingly diving into understanding your true purpose so that you can live it! I promise you, this is one of the most liberating experiences you can have.
Introspection, Prediction, Self-Realization, and finally, Self-Actualization. This journey should be experienced by all human beings because we all want to understand who we’re truly meant to be in the universe. After all, should your environment or another human being be trying to apprise you of that? In a temporary coaching situation, yes, I think we’re engaging in that right now. Passed that, I think it is much more valuable to achieve that self-awareness.
Then, you will be able to invite others to learn you, as you’re learning them as they’re becoming a more viable part of the same spaces and situations in relationships with you.
Coach Mandy S.
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