If you’re anything like me, then your holiday season might have been filled with reminders of your childhood, sweet time with friends and family, and visions of investing in your best self. This season often brings out the best of us, and subsequently the worst.
Reentry after vacation can be intense, and even a little scary as we return to the mounds of work we left behind and the expectations we didn’t fulfill. It can be really tempting come January to start berating ourselves for all the things we didn’t accomplish and how “off” we are from our life plans. Maybe we say to ourselves things like “I am not my ideal weight,” or “I don’t have the job I really want,” or “I didn’t spend enough time with my kids and spouse.”
A Call to A Fresh Narrative, and a Different Way of Looking at the Past
But what if your 2018 were different? What if you thanked all of your 2017 experiences and decisions for serving you for a season and then began to craft a fresh narrative for a new you in 2018? What if you focused less on the life you don’t have and more on the parts of your dream life that you do have and how you can amplify them? And what if you gave yourself a big, metaphorical hug and said “Hey now, you did the best you could, and that was good enough. You are enough.” That, my friends, is the beginning of a path to self compassion.
The path to truly joyful living comes when we become our own biggest advocate.
We will never find true joy if we keep critiquing all of our misgivings, and keep looking outside ourselves for a sense of affirmation. The path to truly joyful living comes when we become our own biggest advocate. As Rilke says in Letters to a Young Poet, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” Life’s perfect plan will unfold in its due time. All we are called to do is to tune into the now and operate from a place of love and gratitude.
As such, we must also ask ourselves powerful questions that continue to propel us on our journeys. One of the most powerful questions that I have heard since starting my new year is one that came up during a recent meditation “Is there anything in your life for which the fulness of time has come?” In the book of Galatians, the author talks about how God sent his son Jesus to earth “when the fulness of time had come.” What this means is that Jesus appeared just when he was supposed to-not a moment too soon, or a moment too late. So, go ahead and ask yourself “what is it that is wanting to be born in this moment, right here, right now?”
What is it that is wanting to be born in this moment, right here, right now?
For me, the “now” is about creating communities of entrepreneurship and innovation. It is about empowering other heroes of design and disruptive innovation. And it is about tuning into the heart of it all, not the head. Because ultimately, there is enough research out there to prove that most of the world’s groundbreaking ideas haven’t come from factories and boardrooms; they have come from sort of electric strokes of genius. To quote Nikola Tesla “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.”
Unleashing the Big and the Bold in 2018
And so, this year I am going to be launching some new tools for manifesting our biggest, best versions of ourselves and making our visions a reality. These tools will come in the form of events, workshops, and online resources. I am also going to blog about some of the things I am learning, and the books and movies that are inspiring my own creative journey. Below, I am including a few that I have worked through since early December and loved.
My Latest Recommended Resources for Entrepreneurs and Global Innovators
Find Your Why toolkit and Online Course
The companion to Simon Sinek’s Start with Why is a valuable starting place as you envision who the big, bold 2018 YOU might look like. I’m about halfway through the companion toolkit and my Ahas have been so powerfully guiding the future of my business and my personal life. When I worked in corporate innovation, I used Sinek’s Golden Circle to align teams regularly when we were working on something tough and truly epic. And i’ve gotta say it worked. This more personal follow-up series will help you apply those same principles to the way you live and work.
Joy
A 2015 movie starring Jennifer Lawrence that charts the journey of Joy Mangano, one of the most prolific inventors of all time. Joy’s story is an inspiration for those of us founding companies, building new products and services, or even just in the process of reinventing our lives. After watching the movie, I highly encourage you to start reading Joy’s book “Inventing Joy: Building a Brave & Creative Life.” Her story will ignite your drive to create and live into your big, bold ideas.
The Law of Divine Compensation
My coach recommended this book to me almost two years ago. I probably wasn’t ready for it then, but now I am and it has been so powerful. Author and inspirational guide Marianne Williamson explores the role that our beliefs play in shaping our reality when it comes to money. She helps readers uncover hidden places of lack and lean into a sense of abundance by opening our eyes to the little, often simple ways God shows up all around us to lead us into our calling.