As the Sharing Perspective to Share Smiles project evolves a natural rhythm to the posting will too. In the meantime, I’m sharing perspective as I feel inspired.
The intention is to make a positive difference and there is always someone – if not a lot of someones – who can use positive.
As I look back over the months that led to this moment I’ve come to see the most important action I took when working on manifesting goals was to clear what stood between me and the goal to the best of my ability.
Release!
It’s natural to focus on the people, places, and actions you need in order to obtain goals but what about the inverse?
Yes, sometimes people can be an obstacle.
Chicken or Egg
It’s hard to determine which came first, releasing other people’s ideas of what my career focus should be or purging physical items that acted as messengers cluttering my mind.
In Terah Kathryn Collins’ book The Western Guide to Feng Shui Room by Room she explains the reason items in our visual space chatter at us and stresses the importance of making sure what they’re saying to us is positive.
The two were so intertwined it was hard for me to see which was doing the most good. What I do know is that it turned into a process that lasted over a year and culminated – from a career perspective – with the decision to focus on the positive and share that positive with the world.
Slow and Steady
I did not put a timeline on the process though I did work to clear physical clutter as soon as I decided what needed to go for the simple reason that each time I passed the reconfigured space I got validation I’d made the right career decision.
Now What?
After the furniture and other items found new homes I gave consideration to the importance of what was next, taking time to “just be.”
Already burned out the last thing I needed was to push myself to take action without enough data.
I spent the early part of 2023 considering what information I needed before making a decision as to what would come next, along with where I might gain that important data.
State of the Union
When a virtual writers workshop popped up on my radar not long after I considered it the answer to a prayer!
The focus of the conference was exactly what I’d been wondering about – What was the state of the traditional writers market from the publishing side of the equation? Had things become friendlier for writers in the era of ebooks?
I knew before attending this was the final piece I needed to go forward with a decision that had been in my head for some time.
It’d been in my heart too but I’d been so inundated by the noise of other people’s thoughts and opinions on the matter, I couldn’t hear it.
The conference speakers were wonderful and I gained a wealth of information. The kicker? It only took one slide, shown early on the second day of the 2-day conference, to validate my belief that moving to the Share Perspective to Share Smiles project was the right direction for me.
I invite readers to read the updated Welcome Message.
A bonus was that attending this conference showed I’d achieved goals I set for myself when I started down this path in 2003.
Leaving Corporate to pursue my childhood dream.
The Cost Benefits Analysis.
I’ll admit, considering the cost of the conference in light of validating what I already knew with one slide gave me a twinge of heartburn.
One slide? Not even the full breakout session. One slide!
A close friend offered a wonderful spin on it. He pointed out the cost of the conference was nothing compared to the time and energy – and cost of doing business – I would have lost had I continued on for months or years only to come to the same conclusion.
In other words I got a solid return on my investment.
The weeks after were a flurry of activity.
I’d removed the last bit of doubt and was free to move toward my new goal.
Most of that activity was mental and spiritual as I realigned my identity with my writing.
As I’ve stated, I needed to return to my writing roots.
In terms of actual actions, I spent most of the time releasing anything keeping me from moving forward.
Fear, doubt, regret, or any other fear-based emotions or thoughts that would only act as debris on the path.
I took small steps to align myself with sources of support.
Including Kenneth Wong’s Feeling Good which, like Paulo Cuehlo’s The Alchemist stresses the importance of listening to your inner guide, something I’d lost touch with thanks to all “the noise.”
These steps allowed for more releasing, even as I took other actions that drew more positive energy into the space created by releasing “the noise.”
I’ve referred to this as letting go of that which no longer serves.
It’s an energy intensive process and one needs to be vigilant about staying focused. At this stage of the journey? I’ve come to see that taking time to clear obstacles on the path to the goal is equally if not more valuable than getting tools to theoretically speed the journey.
Tools can be helpful but if you’re weighed down by the other, the tools just add more weight which may and likely will hinder your efforts.
My advice for those working to manifest a goal is to see where you can remove hurdles in the way.
Including and especially mental and spiritual hurdles that may be weighing you down.
Elizabeth Maxim 