I love the adventure I’m on. I love what I learn and the ways I figure out how to apply it to my life. I’ve always been drawn to helping the people who are already serving lots of people, and I hope my work helps them reach further afield.
I’m not drawn to beginner steps — or even intermediate steps. I love the total immersion I feel doing my work.
And yet I wonder. What have I left undone?
Cherish what you learn and pass it along
I have a large collection of ideas that excite and inspire me. A great many have been shared, but there are perhaps too many partially started projects that have could be completed. Part of this pattern of incompletion is that other things have become more interesting to me. Another major reason I leave work behind is that I’ve learned what I needed to learn from the creation of the outline or article or whatever form I used to figure out the question I posed for myself. I’ve grown from the experience and am ready to move on. But I need to take time to pass along what I’ve uncovered. I may need to broaden the trail I leave for others to follow.
Who needs what you have yet to complete?
Am I willing to go back to my earlier content and take the time to share it with others? After all, there’s only so much time…
I was recently asked if I used the goal-setting word count feature in Scriviner. My answer was “no, I almost can’t stop writing.” There is no goal. I let my life unfold. I respond to a phrase that resonates by leaping to my computer to write a blog post to figure out my ideas. And yet there are many ideas that are just partially developed but not delivered. And of these there are a lot.
My goal is to stretch me
This discussion came up because a friend has a series of small books written with information that would be incredibly empowering to others, including for me. And yet she’s immersed in new work that’s fulfilling her in much more meaningful ways. We both want to keep going rather than step back and re-pave part of the path we have traveled.
How do you smoothen the road for others?
If neither one of us put out the foundational content, are we making the road rougher for those who follow? What life might we change if we share our work and someone finds it at an important crossroads in their life? We could make a huge difference. Simply by putting out our incomplete work.
Trust the moment
When an idea comes burning through, I have to grasp it and explore it. The more I open myself to new ideas and insights, the more ideas show up. As my interest evolves, new topics present themselves for exploration.
I don’t feel my uncompleted work is as important as hers. But I will look again to see what needs to be moved further up the list toward completion and sharing with others.
Examine your purpose
Who do I serve? Will this uncompleted work have an impact on someone’s life? How does that compare with the impact of what I’m doing now? What choice would meet my purpose?
My focus has changed. For a long time, it has been primarily to grow me or deepen my place of service by producing more foundational, introspective work. Now my work is evolving into projects that inspire and motivate others to take a more active part in the care of our planet. So I’m caught up in an exciting new direction and there’s work left undone. I have to evaluate what will be best for the people I serve.
We change, we expand, our focus changes, our purpose evolves. We must make conscious choices in every moment.
What have you left undone? And do you need to take time to give it to others before you move forward?
To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Why We are Afraid of Change
Accept Yourself as You Are
Are You Inspired By Your Own Life?
The Purpose of Barriers
Feeling Powerless is Not a Reason for Inaction
