I hope you had a wonderful summer. This was one of the more joyful summers I have spent in a long time and at the same time very full. I live on the West Coast and have for the last 15 years, but all of my close family is on the East Coast (New Jersey, Philly, and FL). I was fortunate to visit them. Personally and professionally there has been a bit of travel amongst all the other tasks and responsibilities on my plate and it was beginning to feel like “too much.” This weekend I took a BIG pause and spent 2 days with much less technology, I caught up on sleep, ate really clean (meaning I had less caffeine and sugar in the form of dark chocolate), did some singing, dancing, and more meditating, spent time with friends, and came back into center.
Even I who knows what it takes to be healthy, flourishing, and well can get lost in the information overload, the fast pace of life, the desiring, fixing, and comparing mind, and the future planning vs. being in the moment. None of that way of being really adds to my contentment, in fact it diminishes it. Over the weekend, I asked myself, “Carley, what are your top commitments right now personally and professionally?”
My answer to the question above was to re-align with the 3 commitments I made at the beginning of this year, and to re-choose those and most importantly simplify and let go of the rest. It doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing or the many opportunities to go here or contribute to this, what matters is that I can only commit and say yes to so much, but I what I really love is less. With less, I can appreciate and dedicate myself to what I already have.
I know that you are also struggling to keep up with this fast pace of life just like me. You have taken on too much and/or you have gotten away from what really matters to you. I deeply needed a re-set this weekend and I find most of us do. I created a meditation that helped me this weekend and I wanted to share it with you. I feel it will help you to lean in and create a life you love. Are you ready?
Click HERE for the Video Meditation. This meditation is about 15 minutes with a special invitation at the end. Give yourself the space and time to set aside the time for yourself.
I believe learning how to lead is important for all of us. There are billions of people on this planet and all you have to do is stretch our arms from side to side and you will impact someone, whether that is at home or work. How you show up, what you do and say, MATTERS. I think what happens often in more industrialized countries is we are fueled by the notion of “I have to take care of me, I have to get ahead” and this attitude can often come from a reactive mind and body, which is in survival mode. This mind and body has no ability to see the long term consequences of this way of thinking or doing. With slowness, we can cultivate consciousness in how we want to lead ourselves and our lives.
We are in a very important time on this planet. There is an uprising of consciousness all over the world, because there is a lot of suffering, confusion, and uncertainty, especially now. Our planet is running out of fish, water, the temperatures keep rising do to our addiction to fossil fuels, and we are depleting the earths resources due to the overpopulation of people that need these resources. Additionally, we have the predicament of the Syrian refugees and then we have the upcoming US presidential campaign. The US leader that is picked will effect the whole world in a very strong way and we have to pick a leader who is capable of hearing the people and what we want (Go Hillary!). Lastly, as a human being we have the ever changing joys and sorrows, which means that everything and everyone will pass in our life and we have no control of when or how that happens, so we get to savor every moment for what is is and then let it go.
We need to be leaders NOW. The planet needs us to be leaders at home and at work. We can be the change we wish to see in this world. What is necessary is to show up with actions that align what really matters. For example, We speak up, we say No, and we break free from the cycle of routines and patterns that don’t serve us or our world. Many of us get bombarded in our routines and patterns and forget to look up and around. I am inviting you to look up, choose a different path, re-align, and remember that you always have a CHOICE.
Five simple tips to lead yourself well
(Use these tips after you listen to the meditation video above to help you follow through on re-aligning what is most important to you for this year)
1. Know Yourself
You can’t lead or model to others what you can’t recognize. Hence, start finding yourself and knowing who you really are. You can achieve it by spending quite time alone, reflecting with your past experiences, lessons and realizations.
2. Develop Yourself
After recognizing who you really are, what’s your true value, and what your weaknesses and strengths are, improve yourself personally so that you’ll be prepared to accomplish your goals. To lead yourself, you have to train it to acquire the needed values, attitudes, habits, skills and disciplines to do the tasks you will assign to yourself. You cannot lead yourself to do a job it is not capable of.
3. Have A Big Dream
Define the ultimate thing that you want to achieve this year. To effectively lead yourself, you have to align your objectives to your dreams. Remember that it’s our big dreams that keep us hoping and going in the midst of troubles and problems. So if you want yourself to follow your orders, your orders should not be conflicting with your dreams or with your mission and vision in life.
4. Make A Plan
Create a strategic plan to clarify, specify and support your dreams. Your plan will be your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and trackable set of objectives and procedures to achieving life’s successes. Remember that if you wish to lead yourself, you have to show it a clear and actionable plan to follow effectively and efficiently.
5. Be Honest
Have honesty and honor in everything that you tell and promise to yourself because if you are fond of breaking your own promises, even yourself won’t trust anything you say and think.
This is the moment, do you want to be a leader for your life or do you want to follow the confusion? What does your deepest knowing tell you?
