Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.
Shannon L. Alder
Hello, Lovelies!
There is a powerful question I ask myself at least once a year.
It’s a confronting question, if you are truly honest with yourself.
The question is: Is my life working for me right now?
If you’re brave, I’d love for you to find some time to sit with this question, and maybe journal it out.
Feel into the question. Feel into your state of mind, your energy levels, your mood. Think about what needs to be done and who is there to do it. Think about where you live, the people in your life, the way you fill your time. And as you examine each area keep asking Is this working for me right now?
The right now part of the question is important. Don’t leave it out. Sometimes your life doesn’t look or feel great but it’s temporary – there’s a reason behind it that will make putting up with current circumstances worthwhile because of a bigger goal you are working towards. Let me give you an example: my home is filled with boxes right now. It feels crazy and chaotic and overwhelming. But I’m moving from two homes – a city home where I have lived for 28 years, and a farm where I have lived for twelve – to make a massive downsizing change where we will live in one treehouse by the beach. Chaos is to be expected. It will pass. So what I am experiencing right now is temporary. I can live with that.
When I ask myself that question again Is my life working for me right now? (it’s a question you need to ask over and over) I can shift my attention from my cluttered home to my daily routine. I can look at my happiness levels, my outcomes and results, my satisfaction. I can look at the dreams I’m chasing, and the dreams I haven’t started on yet. I can dig around to find out where I have become bogged down and why. I can seek out the areas where joy has been replaced by duty, where living has been replaced by survival. I can look for where I have ceded control and am running on automatic pilot.
Tip: We spend a LOT of our lives running on automatic pilot.
I don’t always like the answers, when I am brave enough to ask this question. Inevitably, I will uncover areas in my life that will require more thought, and then action. Change, even when it will be good for me, is usually harder than staying in an unhappy but safe rut.
This big question Is my life working for me right now? hard as it is, has allowed me to keep navigating my life so that it is meaningful to me. It helps me set the course, make the corrections, and move forward in a better direction.
I highly recommend it.
Let me know how you go.
Love, excellent Japanese 0.38mm pens that write like a dream, and a fresh new journal, Nicole xx
A powerful necessary question. So often it is easier to sweep the query under the carpet or the bed with the dust bunnies you can’t quite reach. And like those bunnies, doubts and a stalemate with life keeps on growing. Next Monday is another mid 50’s birthday. So much of my own life is making me tired of it, giving up isn’t an answer, but it would be lovely to sleep without pain or dissension for a very long time. Except, the house would be a disaster when my eyes finally opened up again! Keep thinking the end to mom’s mess will be reached and more pitfalls keep appearing. Being the responsible child has been wearing.. So, to answer this question point blank. ‘No’. This summer, however, there are plans to plant milkweed for western monarch butterflies, so that will hopefully make a tiny difference somewhere.
Oh, you are selling your beautiful city home!!! I loved it. Art Deco period home from the mid 30’s.such beautiful features. Good luck with the move. What a mighty effort ahead of you. If I lived nearby I would love to help, but I don’t sorry. Do hope you get a lot of helpers.I live on a houseboat on the Noosa River. That’s my husband’s dream and he loves it. One day we will go back on the land.
I am an emotional mess trying to stay a float
Sending big hugs to you too Joanne ❤️ hang in there xx
Blessings to you Joanne💛
I’m got so much pent up…anger & sadness…and today the tears are flowing. I can’t seem to hold it back, how can I go out into the world today? You always seem to hit the nail for me when it’s most needed. Much Love always XO
Big hugs Satisha 💗 I hope you can take time to sit with those feelings and explore them. Love you 😘