This Time Next Year

A funny thing can happen when you finally decide you deserve your own life.  You start living it.

So, here's a question worth sitting with:  How would you like to feel this time next year?

Not just what would you like to weigh, earn, own, finish or achieve.  How would you like to feel?  Strong? Free? Peaceful? Energized? Sexy? Creative? Excited about your future? At home in your own skin?

It's been said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Mine quite literally did.  I began with a single step around the track at one of my favorite places, the North Burnaby track.

There was no dramatic declaration and no punishing new regime.

No - none of this "by this date I must weigh this, accomplish that, become her, or fix everything." Those days were over and out! In fact, I did something far more powerful.  I just took the pressure off and walked.  That’s it!  I committed only to that, and it allowed for my thoughts to wander. I let my body move just a little at a time and I gave myself enough quiet and space to begin hearing my own intuition again.

Then, one step became another.  And somewhere along the way, I realized I was beginning to transform my life.  And then I began to understand something about transformation:  A life compounds.

Just like a bank account.  You don't build wealth by standing over your account screaming, GROW!  You make deposits.  A little today.  A little more tomorrow.

And eventually, something wonderful begins to happen. Your deposits start building upon previous deposits. Growth creates more growth.

Our lives work much the same way.  Every walk is a deposit.  Every nourishing meal is a deposit.  Every boundary is a deposit.

And here is where you confidence starts to compound, and then your health, and then your courage compounds, and then so does your joy, your self-trust, your intuition, and then your feelings of deservingness compounds.

In the old days I used to put a time limit on things but the peace of mind is when you realize you don't have to overhaul your entire life by Tuesday.  In fact, take that pressure right off.

You don't need to know exactly how the next year will unfold. Sometimes you leap and trust that the net will appear. Sometimes you don't even leap.  Sometimes you simply take the next step.

But first, I believe we need two things:  Reality and vision.  Get real about what isn't working.

What are you tolerating? What is draining you? What have you outgrown? What dream have you been postponing?

And then get curious about what could be.  This is the best part!  But hear me please and for  crying out loud, get your hormones and blood work checked and organized ASAP!

I say that with experience.  And in looking back through my own blood tests, I realized there were times I had gone a year between them. Meanwhile, I was trying to solve things with willpower that perhaps needed information.  There is no point in trying to make significant changes to become the woman you want to be if you are feeling like crap and are having a hard time losing the outer weight.  When you have brain fog, are exhausted, and feel blue, everything feels like an exhausting effort.  But here’s the thing.  You may make the same mistake I did and regret not getting your hormone health organized earlier.  We are our choices.

Your precious body has been carrying you those thousand miles.  She’s been acting up as a cry for help from you.  Find out what she needs.  Trust me, when you put her first, you will be making another deposit into your account.

Oh, and here is one little word I’d like you to add to your vocabulary:  Deserve. 

Because it is that one word that started me on this journey and absolutely changed my life.

A couple of years back a woman in my coaching class told me that I deserved to live my life my way.  Deserved?  It almost sounded scandalous and luxurious!

For years, I put other people’s needs before mine.  

At some point, you have to become the star of your own life on your terms and on your timeline.

Maybe today you decide to walk and tomorrow, you make the appointment.  Maybe next week you say no to something you don't want to do, and then before you know it, you sign up for the class, resurrect an old dream and find yourself tossing all those dowdy garments that have no business joining you in your new life.  There you go, these are more deposits into that bank account.

So here is the thing.  Imagine making one small deposit into your own life every day for 365 seemingly ordinary days.

Let’s keep on imagining….Where could you be?  Who could you become?  That's the magic of compounding.

At first, almost nothing seems to be happening.   You're just walking around a track.  And then one day you look around and realize, Holy Shit!  I built a different life. 

And you didn’t do it through punishment or pressure.  Screw that.  You simply kept walking and depositing into the person you wanted to become.

That's what fascinates me now. How much my life changed without ever experiencing a moment of dread. 

So don't worry about the thousand miles today.  Find your track and take the pressure off.  Then my dear woman you will begin to really meet yourself on that 1,000 mile journey.  You will hear your own voice again, you’ll get super real about where you are, and dream of where you want to go.

If you make a few simple loving changes in your life and for yourself with deservingness as your North Star, this time next year, you just might blow your own mind. XOXO