Anytime I’m struggling with a choice I need to make or an opportunity I’m hoping will move from an idea to a vision, my brilliant coach, Jille Bartolome, tells me to get in the shower (or jump on my trampoline). And no, it’s not because she can smell me cross-country or thinks I could use more cardio, but rather because it will get me out of my head and back into a trusting place. So often we know our right answers and believe that that call we are waiting for will happen. We just need to exhibit some patience, and more importantly, we need to align our thoughts and our feelings with our actions. It’s one thing to say to yourself, I will get this job or I will start this new business or new stream of revenue. It’s an entirely different thing to actually stop second-guessing our deep knowing, live our best life starting today, and wake up feeling jazzed and sustain our enthusiasm throughout the natural hiccups in a day.
The principle of “taking a shower” is helpful in another, perhaps even more important way. It reminds us that sometimes we do in fact need to get clean by washing off what’s holding us back, and sometimes that “dirt,” so to speak, is outside of ourselves. I realized yesterday that I’ve been holding onto a particular professional project that is no longer serving me. Unfortunately, I cannot get into specifics. I will simply say that after a great shower and five-minutes of rebounding, I realized that by allowing myself to be paid less than I’m worth on this particular project, compromise numerous boundaries around how I spend my time and energy, I’ve been foreclosing the possibility of other “big stuff” that has been in the pipeline to manifest. While I’m still committed to finishing out this project, declaring to myself that I’m ready to wash it off has already helped me gain clarity on what I want to engineer next. A new opportunity that will replace half of the project’s income has already shown up. I feel fully alive again.
