After a relaxing and reflective two-week break from blogging and writing, I am back to my weekly routines and rituals. For me, December and January are a time for review and recommitment. As I ponder what is most important to me right now, I am aware of a readiness within me. For the past two years, blogging, populating my web site and working on three books has been my ‘daily bread.’ In November 2012, three proposals landed in my lap signaling change is coming. Fortunately, I am ready to put my contributions and myself to work in the world. I am watching and waiting to see what Life has cooked up for me in this regard.
In a world where yesterday’s solutions no longer fit today’s circumstances, we are obliged to notice what is emerging, accept and enter into willingly and then learn from these new experiences what works and what does not. Choosing to live Life as a participant in its flow requires different attitudes and skills than choosing to manipulate with one’s will. What becomes key on this journey of emergence is to know the answer to the following three questions.
1. Who am I?
2. What is important to me RIGHT NOW?
3. What is my purpose?
When you can answer these questions, you will then be able to choose appropriately from among the many emerging opportunities Life provides. None of us can predict or see the future, which is why it is so important to be awake and aware in the present. What we choose for ourselves in the present creates the future. So choosing only that which aligns purposefully with who we are and what is important to us is the making of a good life. Psychologist Tim Kasser maintains when we feel insecure (don’t know who we are or what is meaningful to us), we tend to compensate by accruing material things. I call it compensation spending wherein we accumulate money, objects, even people in our desperation to feel worthwhile. Research tells us the exact opposite occurs. The more materialistic we are, the less happy, socially just and ecologically sustainable we become. Living a ‘goods life’ to the exclusion of a ‘good life’ is much too narrow a definition of success.
Success, in the form of meaningful living, is the outcome of answering the three questions posed above. In essence, we are creating our personal ‘elevator speech’, which is what you will see below in my own responses.
Who am I today? What is important to me right now? What is my purpose?
I am a kind, gentle, compassionate being who bravely transforms her fear into
peace, love, and joy. I do so for me, from me, for all. My ‘first-things-first’
practices of meditation, yoga and writing enable such transformations.
From my own personal journey toward living a success-filled life, I came to realize we are gifted with many visions but only one purpose. In other words, there are a million ways in which I can fulfill my purpose of transforming fear into joy. One concrete illustration lies in the values, principles and thought models emerging from my STS Adaptive Enterprise Team collaboration. However, writing poetry and facilitating meditation and writing groups also align with what is important to me right now.
Just a reminder — what you do is not who you are. Who you are comes from a much deeper source of understanding. So, how would you define success for you?
