In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell wrote that he always told his students, “Go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don’t let anyone throw you off…. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call ‘following your bliss’… There’s something inside you that knows when you’re in the center, that knows when you’re on the beam or off the beam.”
Pretty deep, eh? I agree with Joseph Campbell on this point. I also think this can be one of the most painful challenges. Following your bliss can be an ever-elusive dream most of us long for.
I intend that each person in my sphere of influence, get connected the their Divinely-given magnificence and have access to expressing that magnificence out in the world.
That may sound like a lofty goal and in truth, several high-achieving results producers I’ve said it to have argued vehemently that they are NOT magnificent. They readily provide an exceptionally long list of shortcomings, faults, and foibles to prove that they are anything but magnificent.
We can talk more about why someone would argue so strongly for their weaknesses over their strengths at another time. For this message, let’s assume I’m right and that you ARE magnificent (some part of you knows it’s true, even if it’s deeply buried). How do we access that magnificence through the daily emergencies, life challenges, and just a crazy busy life in general?
It might surprise you to know that our sleepless nights have nothing to do with your schedule, long To Do List or the pressures of mounds of work waiting for you at the office.
Your craziness is due to not having curated your life to accommodate what you HAVE to do with what you WANT to do, and a good measure of R&R thrown in.
You get started creating a calmer life by granting some time and space to think your best and most focused thoughts. Even if it is only 15 or 20 minutes of meditating, driving to an appointment with no audio on, walking out in nature without ear buds feeding you music, a podcast or your favorite new audiobook, playing our favorite sport or just daydreaming will give you access to your own brilliance.
Of course, another element that is key to gaining access to this brilliant thinking is to clear all of the distractions that keep you from being able to grant yourself the time and space required to access your critical thinking–to conscientiously take on developing a process for having time for critical thinking on a daily basis.
The good news is that it doesn’t take a huge amount of effort to find your happy place of equilibrium for that time to do some longed-for critical thinking. The first thing to do is take stock of two crucial elements which will start to pry open a new opening for some of that precious critical thinking. Here are those top two crucial elements:
- Identify your Profitable Practice™ – made up of the key actions you take when life is running smoothly and nothing is dropping through the cracks. It may include, keeping a clear desk, keeping email quantities at a manageable number, cleaning out a file or 10, having a clear floor with no piles of paperwork, etc. (You have a personal list too). Write out your Profitable Practice at work, at home and your personal well-being; like drinking 8 glasses of water, eating minimal sugar, minimizing alcohol consumption, working out, etc.
- Identify your Achilles Heel Obstructions™ (AHO)? These are the monkey wrenches that derail you when you are diligently managing your Profitable Practice and then suddenly, you’re not. Then, with an almost imperceptible change in your actions, everything starts falling apart and dropping out, including your sanity. Your AHO’s may include following the next shiny object instead of finishing the project you started in the morning, taking on one more thing, even though you were supposed to be out the door for an appointment 20 minutes ago, saying “yes” to everyone who comes to you with a request, rather than asking them if they can wait until you finish what you’re working on, forcing yourself to stay at your desk with no breaks, food or respite, etc.
Of course, there are more steps to take to really transform the way life occurs but these two steps will dramatically alter your sense of control by carving time for that precious critical thinking. If the idea of this kind of support appeals to you, my Time Alchemy Formula™ might be a good fit either privately or in group format. In the Time Alchemy Formula™, we redesign and transform your space, calendar, structures and most-importantly, your context so you can finally live the life that you *really* want without sacrificing any part of your already-delicious life.