My whole life has been one of reacting. I've even described myself as a leaf in a mountain stream: taken where the flow goes, no direction of my own, stuck behind a boulder until the current is strong enough to free me and send me on downstream. Of course, I can tell you why I think this is my modus operandi, but ultimately everyone has a story and what difference does it make. I would just be telling you my excuse. This is not to say that I thought of myself as a victim, for I did/do not. It is more a case in inertia than a case of being thwarted. The only thwarting going on is internal!
"We are the only species on Earth capable of preventing
our own flowering." David Whyte
The inertia is the result of not having a strong sense of my purpose, having no goals, having no plan of action with stops along the way, a roadmap created to get me from short term to mid-range to long term milestones. Procrastination can be a very real component to reacting...if you are always waiting, you are always delaying, putting off action. In one of Paul Chek's lectures, which you can find at www.chekinstitute.com, he talks about procrastination as being the handmaiden of a life without goals. Paul says that, without a purpose and a plan to achieve the goals that enable that purpose to be fulfilled, it is easy to procrastinate. You truly have no place to go so nothing is of the utmost importance and distractions can easily determine what your day looks like. We all have the same amount of time at our disposal...the difference is in how we structure and use that time.
"Know what turns you on so you can have lots of it in your life."
Sas Colby
Reacting is passive. Creating is active.
Creating is knowing what you want to accomplish and having a framework within which to work to achieve fruition. That is not to say that people who react don't have creative thoughts...that's what daydreaming is all about. And daydreaming is not wasted time; it is often the seminal seed of all accomplishments. But having a good thought and manifesting that into a good thing are not the same.
Creating is taking the daydream, seeing in your mind's eye how it would look in real life, listing all the steps that must be made in so that a concept can become a concrete thing, and having a time table, marking what needs to be done by when.
"Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset
you have. Without having a goal, it's difficult to score."
Paul Arden
How can you change from reacting to creating? First, want to! Second, set that as a goal for yourself. Third, determine the date by which the change will have taken place. Fourth, map out activities that take you from your current mind set to the one you are erecting in its place. Fifth, stretch your talents and skills to cross the chasm that presents itself as the impossible task at hand. Sixth, leap. Leap and the net will appear.
Lastly, share your goal and your plan with someone who wants you to succeed and has good ideas he or she is willing to bring to your table. To paraphrase the Bard, nothing is impossible but that thinking makes it so.
Create the life you wish to live by the actions you take every day.
"When you follow your bliss...doors will open where you would not have
thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for
anyone else." Joseph Campbell
My goal is to achieve my human potential. Every day will have a structure to it: study - exercise - work with clients - do the 'grunt' work that is required to run a business - continue to explore my emotional/mental memes to see if they serve me - meditate - get coaching help if I need it. Structure my day so that I can be spontaneous in my life!
"The soul speaks in image." Carl Jung
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