So now here we are at 2010...I didn't even think about it being the end of a decade until I saw a status post on facebook a few days ago. It was a little startling to me to read that status post because then I started wondering if I should be thinking about MAJOR goals for 2010 and how to go about setting them, etc. But WHOA!...isn't that just looking for trouble? I mean, I'm trying to reduce stress, right? Not set myself up for failure by creating more work, more resolutions, and more things to do that I don't really want to do, right?
I started reading a book that I've had for a year or so...it's called "Repacking Your Bags - How to Live with a New Sense of Purpose." Seemed an appropriate book to begin at the start of a new year - a new decade. I threw it in my travel bag on Saturday as hubby and I went away for our 24th anniversary. I was able to start reading the book while waiting for a massage the 2nd day of the trip. It's not a hard book to read and so I'm wondering why I didn't pick it up and read it earlier. Maybe I just wasn't ready to examine the extra burdens I've been carrying around and learn how to lighten my load. (That's actually a quote from someone who read the book that I'm borrowing...in the essence of full disclosure!)
But I think what attracted me to the book - as I was packing my 'bags" for my anniversary trip - is that it uses the metaphor of "baggage" to help remind you that life IS a journey! And your experience along the way is intimately bound up in the baggage - emotional, intellectual, and physical - that you are carrying. What we carry in our bags defines how we spend our time, and how we spend our time determines how we live and who we are. Hummm....
I know people use the quote "life is a journey" a lot and I've even used the line "enjoy the journey" - or "come along for the journey" to several people close to me in personal conversation to perhaps help them understand that you need to live in the moment and stop wondering what the next great "thing" or event will be. If you are constantly thinking about what is next, then you miss what is NOW.
This life is going by too quickly these days to NOT be doing the things that I love. I had already recognized that early last year but let other things/people/circumstances dictate what my year would be like. Toward the end of the year, I was determined to make that change. I did this in small ways, like during Thanksgiving, I refused to answer any work related/non-profit related emails. I was, after all, on vacation and you can't fully relax and disconnect if you are constantly checking emails! It was a good feeling and the world didn't end and no one died by my NOT answering them. So, the Christmas holiday/vacation was going to be another test of my resolve. I officially go back to work on Wednesday and while I did read a few emails from work today, the urge to immediately answer them wasn't pulling me. It was a good feeling...being in control...
So what has struck me as positive from this book so far? So far, it's the "formula" for a "good life" which is...
Living in the Place you belong,
with the People you Love,
doing the Right Work,
on Purpose.
Harmony is another way to define this. Since our journey is ever changing, the balance among place, love and work is always shifting too. At some stages we are more focused on work, sometimes we are more focused on our home (place) and so on.
What pulls all this together is "purpose." If you are able to define your sense of purpose - or for those of us who need this defined a little more bluntly - "the reason you get up in the morning" - then you can remained focused on where you want to go and discover new ways to get there.
Okay...so there you have it. I still have more of the book to read so who knows what else I'll discover or "rediscover" in all this. I do know one thing...I need to get upstairs right now and "unpack" my bags from my anniversary trip.
That seems like a good place to start...
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