I have a big ol' goose egg on the back of my head.
I just recently started another absolutely fulfilling adventure a few weeks ago by taking a part-time job as the Agriculture Lead at a non-profit living history museum nearby which showcases life from the 1800s.
Now, I realize that isn't everyone's cup of tea but it most certainly is mine and I've been absolutely thrilled to spend time around the historic buildings, log cabins, and livestock (huge longhorn cattle, horses, donkeys, and chickens so far but we have plans to expand) with the occasional smell of wood-smoke from the blacksmith's shop floating along the breeze.
And I'll tell you that for me, this is exhilarating work even when it is cold and wet outside. Which leads me to my story. The other day it was cold and wet outside. And muddy. And do you know what you get when you mix livestock manure with wet and muddy conditions? Very slick and nasty mud. And that's just what I put my foot into at just the wrong angle to have my feet slip out from under me and my head fall backward into the wall of the chicken coop. The very hard wall, I might add.
To my knowledge I have never hit my head that hard ever before. I was seeing tweety birds flying around and felt my brain shaking in my head for a while afterward. It took me a little while before I could stand up. And remember that I landed in poopy-mud. So that's where I had to sit for a while before I could stand up. While I didn't go to a doctor, I did check the concussion symptoms and I had several of them going so I'm pretty sure I had a mild concussion. It cleared up within a few days afterward and now I'm all back to normal (normal for me, at any rate).
What on earth does this story have to do with aligning your actions to the life you want?
You know you’re living the life you want when you can slip and fall in a nasty chicken poop and mud combo and then hit your head so hard you have a concussion and have to sit in the poop mud longer until your head stops spinning and you can actually stand up....and you’d rather do that every day than sit in the office job you used to have. (Although realistically my brain can’t take a conconssion every day so I decided to troubleshoot the slippery conditions to prevent it from happening again.)
Now y'all don't run out and get concussions thinking that's the key to life. Instead, think about how the worst days in an awesomely aligned life - one in which all the actions you take lead you toward fulfilling your life's vision - and how those bad aligned days filled with concussions can still fulfill you more than an easy day in an unaligned life.
As strange as it sounds, I had a great day that day, concussion and all. I had to cut my day short and go home and rest and had headaches for a while, but I still counted it as one of the good days.
Instead of running out and getting a concussion, though, think instead about how you can take steps toward getting your life aligned with where you want to be. Don't wait until tomorrow to suddenly be the person you want to be. Become that person today and watch yourself suddenly have the life you want to live even if you do happen to get a concussion.
Be on the lookout for a new program I'm launching in April geared toward helping people establish their life visions and create actionable plans and mindset shifts to achieve them. I plan to have two versions - one for individual coaching and one for small-group coaching.
Until I really sat down, thought about, and wrote down where I wanted to be at the end of my life, it was only a vague dream that I "hoped" I'd get to one day. But working on that vision and prioritizing those end results has helped me create a life I'm proud of now. I can't explain just how fulfilled I feel every morning - even the bad mornings. It's just a night and day difference compared to the life I used to live.
I'd like to help you get there, too.
Comments