New Year: Doing
We can’t change what we don’t see but change isn’t just about seeing, and it’s not just about honoring, it’s also about doing.
Noticing your coffee pot is overflowing is different than honoring it by not touching the hot liquid, but honoring is different from taking action and stopping it from overflowing. Seeing your cracked screen every day is different than honoring it by sliding from a different direction as to not get cut, but honoring and noticing lack long term value if we don’t take action — like getting it repaired. We can notice and honor all day long, but if we use those as excuses to avoid change? We’re no better off than where we began.
Taking action is the only thing that will get you from wanting to embodying. That said, we often hear the words “take action” and want to become overnight successes but we can’t just pop up from our current reality and enter our dream world. We must first honor the people we are right this moment and only focus on taking the next best step from there. Hence, why the honoring chapter was so critical. It’s important to know who you were, who you are, and who you’d like to be, so you can make a more pointed plan towards the reality you’d like to experience.
The reason it’s important to reflect + honor first, though, is so we don’t get caught up working towards goals that don’t make sense for us. Prioritizing our true values through honest and vulnerable reflection can make deciding next steps, feel like a breeze. Establishing a working relationship with our values ensures we continue working “with them” as opposed to “in search of them”. Let yourself have faith that your reflection was enough, and bring that enlightenment with you into your next choice. This is the difference in feeling like you’re flowing with life and approaching things as they arise, rather than playing defense which often shifts into flailing.
If you notice yourself drawn to expanding your knowledge base but can’t afford to enroll in a class at the moment, honor your current reality but still take action by seeking out scholarships, free courses, financial aid or reading more books on the subject until you’re able to invest. Whatever makes accessing the things you do
If you find yourself wanting to do less impulsive online shopping, you can make it more difficult by disconnecting your credit card from your accounts, creating boundaries like “wait 48 hours before committing to purchases over $20” or whatever to create more resistance to add difficulty to the things you’d like less interactions with.
It truly doesn’t matter what you want, specifically, as long as you’re dedicated to going for it with some sort of action. The goal is to get you from your current reality to your intended reality with the least amount of stress possible. So it’s about the reflection, the honoring, but also the doing.
First we notice, then we honor, then we act.
Notice where you are now, where you’d like to head, what someone heading there would do next, then continue to take action and make decisions that honor those things until you reach your destination. Again, it’s important to get to know your personal values and become someone who honors those motivations so that this will make sense for you in the long run. If you need to change course, great. Just remember that momentum begets momentum so keep taking action towards what you want next until the next best step appears. What minor changes can you enact to get you closer to your goal? What can you do to better enjoy this process? How can you integrate gratitude into the journey itself? How can I embody and make decisions like the person who already has accomplished this goal?
When the next best action feels unclear, taking a step back to regain perspective is a perfectly respectable and effective way to continue taking action, that honors what you currently need. There’s nothing wrong with that. Do what works. Drop what doesn’t. But remember that the magic comes from the action. Stop thinking, and start doing. Stop imagining, and start embodying. Stop planning, and start moving. You got this. And if you don’t, know you’re perfectly capable of figuring it out on the way.
