Day 251/366 days Towards Self-Mastery.
When your creativity is stymied it's next to impossible to figure out what it is that excites you. I guess that's why most people end up working in jobs that eat away at their soul.
You want to spend your life doing something that you're passionate about, if only you knew what that was?
A young man recently discussed with me his concern that all his friends were now University educated and in well paying jobs. He's asked them what made them choose a University degree and their careers. Without exception they answered, "Our mothers made us do it!" Had he missed out on something because his mother hadn't made him go to Uni?
I didn't have the heart to tell him that in a few years or a few decades time those lads would be miserable and underachieved in careers chosen for them. Their spirits will be subdued into oblivion and they'll wonder how to get out of the careers on which they have built their lives.
He has time. He'll find his passion.
My own passion fell into my lap at 5 years of age. I've been mopping up other people's tears since then and serving and caring for them in a number of ways: nursing, midwifery, childcare, and now mental and emotional wellbeing.
If you've been one of those who were forced into careers for whatever reasons, you're going to find it harder to make a shift.
But ask yourself this question. Is this how you want to spend this precious life? Is this it?
Just one interlude into the commercial world took me off my path and pointed me in the wrong direction. It was lucrative but soul destroying. I wasn't prepared to settle. Are you?
No fairy godmother is going to come and change it for you. You have to do that yourself.
You need to find the reasons that are holding you back. You are not making the move for a reason and when you discover that reason and all its many elements, then that truth will set you free to live the life you want.
Most of my work is supporting people to find what's holding them back, keeping them stuck in lives that don't serve nor excite them.
Sarah says that the price we pay for authenticity might seem high. But what of the price you pay for not living life fully, expansively, creatively and passionately?
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.