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BLOG:  Today is the day to begin!

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Happy April and spring! It seems like just a short while ago I was writing about the New Year and now we’re well into 2021.  Time is flying by so I have a question for you….

Are you living purposely and happily or are you just going through the motions?

There was a long period of time where I was just going through the motions.  Some of you know my story…I was working in a social work career I no longer loved and felt stuck.  I was ‘living for Fridays and dreading Mondays and my Mondays usually began on Sundays’. I was not even enjoying my time away from work.  I was miserable.  My husband, Michael could tell you I was also a couch potato and not very inspiring to talk with as I was full of complaints.  I truly disliked my life and hated to see what I had become until I was willing to look inside and stop blaming circumstances for my unhappiness. I had to stop paying the victim card.

That was a challenging and difficult period and from that experience came a new awareness and new path that I wholeheartedly embraced.  Now my life is lived mostly from doing what I love and it does not matter what day of the week it is.  There is more joy and gratitude in my life.  

Here’s a truth I learned during that difficult time and through the transition:

 

‘Every oak tree is in the acorn however, not every acorn will become the mighty oak tree’

 

What determines if the acorn thrives or dies?  It’s the conditions…It needs care including the right amount of water, sunlight, and soil to thrive and become that might oak tree. These 3 things are essential.

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So my conditions for thriving were simple yet took time to master…What I found I needed to begin with also included 3 essentials:

  • A willingness to take 100% responsibility for my life and all my decisions without blaming others.  To be perfectly honest this was the hardest of the 3 initial steps.  It was easier at first to look outside of myself and have excuses about why I was not happy.  This became harder as time went on as there was a strong part of myself that knew this was not the way to live…that still, small voice kept speaking to me and got louder and louder when I ignored it. I was stubborn-it took a number of years before I started listening and it was out of sheer desperation by then.  My life was not working and I could not ignore it any longer.  

 

  • Mentoring /Support… My success really depended on being in a structure of support and around others who were taking responsibility for their lives.  Finding others who had been where I was and had succeeded and found their passion lead me to amazing mentors and leaders.  I joined a community of transformational coaches and entrepreneurs and began to thrive.

 

  • Developing a Spiritual Practice… I had thought of myself as spiritual and had been studying for about 15 years yet had not integrated it into living differently…it was more of an intellectual pursuit.  When I experienced true gratitude and forgiveness and began the process of integrating this into my life things rapidly changed.  Good things just began to happen. I began to expect them to happen.  I had to learn to forgive myself first and cut myself some slack.   It is still a work in progress and it’s not about perfection, just improvement and forward motion.

So wherever you are right now, know that you can live life fully no matter what your challenges.  Even if your life is basically good…what would it be like if it was GREAT?   Today is the day to begin…you are worth it!

To Living Purposefully,

Valerie

 

 

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