It’s much easier to go back to the familiar than to push forward. We know what to expect. We know how to do it. But it doesn’t grow our own life when we stick with what we already know. It doesn’t teach us how to do anything new, or how a different approach might affect the outcome. There’s no advancement when we go back to what we already know.
Don’t go back.
I keep falling into the trap of thinking about going backward. For me, it centers around coaching. I have coached. I have even coached several topics. Yet when my business organically went away when I did some old lady things like move cross country and have knee-replacement surgery, I never tried to revive it again. Except on occasions, like recently, when I started to create a coaching course.
The fact is that I outlined the course eight months ago, left it for these exact reasons – that I didn’t want to do something I already knew how to do. So why does something I’ve already done, that I know how to do, show up again as a temptation?
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
A zillion years ago, as a PTA mother, I figured out that just because I was capable of doing every job didn’t mean I had to do it. It was a very useful lesson I’ve applied ever since. The more capable we are, the more opportunities there are to serve. The catch is to choose only those that will grow you.
What do you need to learn next?
Whenever I teach a topic, I always improve my own skills. A useful question to ask yourself is, “What do I want/need to learn next?” Then go teach some version that.
Yes, I know, we’re taught that in order to build a business we have to meet the needs of others, but that doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to be limited by that. What if we go exploring someplace we don’t fully understand, figure out how it works and what we need from it and share it with others? I bet someone wants to have our light shed on their journey.
Follow your call
All my life I’ve been a spiritual explorer. It’s taken many forms, from energy healer to spiritual counselor to philosophical spiritual explorer. Each experience adds to the dimension of the concepts I explore, what I discover and how I interpret that.
I decided to keep moving forward. Yes, I started to resurrect that coaching course, for about 48 hours, until I remembered not to go back. Only forward. That’s all you can do anyway, go forward. But sometimes we try to avoid the adventure of ongoing change by resurrecting what we already know how to do.
I’m going deeper. I’m listening to whispers and nudges that suggest I explore a specific direction or make a turn there. I’m curious, I’m inquisitive, I try out ideas in my own life. And then I share what I find.
I know others hear me and are moved, because they tell me.
Yes, I could touch some lives if I went back and did what I already know how to do, but I can grow my own life as well as that of others when I keep going forward.
To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
The Prime Real Estate of Time and Space
The Power of Exploring the Unknown
Is Everything You Know Still True ?
29-Are You Wiling to Move Beyond Your Comfort Zone?
34- Use Labels to Expand Your Possibilities
