As I live my own life and coach my clients, I am reminded that slowing down and taking the time to get back to the basics is never a mistake! Ironically, it is in fact, one of the fastest ways to leap forward. To put it in terms that are close to my heart and have been since I was a little girl…when a professional driver approaches a turn on a race track, they slow down to ensure that they will be able to accelerate at full throttle on the way back out of it. It’s all about finding the right “line.” For anyone who has spent any time either spectating or racing themselves, the concept of “slowing down to go fast” is probably familiar. For the purpose of what we will be discussing here, it is the perfect analogy.
More often than not, the first step toward the solution to whatever dilemma(s) we are facing is as simple as identifying and clearing out the “static” that has been created by those seemingly unrelated aspects of our daily life; those little habits or repeated oversights that are insidious to our progress.
Regardless of your religious or spiritual perspective of life, it’s meaning or your opinion of why we are all here, I think we can all agree that we should make the best of it while we are. What that means to each of us is actually beside the point. What is important is that our perspective is free and clear of interference, or “wide awake” as I like to refer to this state of being. A clear and unencumbered channel equals a healthy outlook and our best chance for a happy interpretation of our lives. Please notice I said, “interpretation.” We will come back to this idea in a subsequent post.
For now, let’s imagine you are any type of “receiver” through which data, content, or information can be shared. The key point here being that YOU ARE THIS DEVICE and keeping yourself healthy and in good working condition is tantamount to your satisfaction and level of happiness in this life. Think about how frustrating is it when you realize that your Wi-Fi is down and you can’t access the information you want to download? Take it a step further and think about how it would feel if you realized that unless you dive in and actually diagnose and fix whatever it is that is impeding the signal, you won’t be able to access ANYTHING but broken static or a blank screen any time soon!
Here’s a thought…How about we start doing the work necessary to repair our metaphorical “connections!” When it comes down to it, doing so is actually quite simple, but please don’t mistake the word simple for EASY! Don’t underestimate how deeply involved you have likely been in “coping” for much of your life. For all of the unique (and not so unique) ways that you have chosen to do this, these “skills” are the very tendencies or habits that have been weakening or flat out blocking your access to the answers that would help you to sidestep that with which you are trying to cope in the first place. It’s a vicious and insidious cycle!
“Self-medicating. Numbing. Escaping…” Call it what you will, but whatever IT is that you are doing to avoid the pain caused by not doing whatever it is that you know would make you happier, does absolutely nothing but delay your progress toward getting there. Even worse…it may even be blocking you from figuring out what would!
If you had a bullet in your leg that wasn’t lodged in a precarious place, you would technically have the choice to do nothing but clean and bandage it to avoid infection. Your body would then grow scar tissue around it and you would be “fine,” but the fact is you would still be walking around with a bullet in your leg and chances are that bullet would keep you from doing something that you would otherwise like to do. Sure, you avoided the temporary pain of removing it, but in doing so you have turned something that would have been an acute and short-lived problem into one that will be with you for the rest of your life unless you actually stop compensating for it and have the damn thing removed!
So, you see, achieving progress and clarity in any area of your life is about sucking up the short-term pain of slowing down long enough to discover and address your “blocks” so you can enjoy the clarity you will gain once you have dealt with them! I have learned over the years that the reason a client initially engages me doesn’t really matter. Regardless of the “why” we always end up back at the beginning…so now I simply start there, because if we can identify what’s been clouding their ability to see things clearly, we can address it together so they can move past it more quickly. The basics are just that…basic and foundational. The view I am always striving to help my clients to gain is “crystal clear and unobstructed,” like the one in the picture I chose for this post. The way I see it, the faster you are able to see clearly, the better!
So, if you have been following my blog you know I like to “Bottom line” things as I wrap up…
Your baseline physical and emotional health and the habits that dictate their status can be very telling. Recognizing and addressing those that are creating “static” or even “interference,” can be transformational, and dealing with them directly can help you to move ahead or completely shift course in ANY area of your life where you are feeling less than empowered. Life can be simplified down to a series of CHOICES! If you aren’t satisfied with where you are…make a different one and keep making them until you can see things clearly. Put simply… Slow down to speed up!
Until next time…
dani