One of my favorite quotes comes from the Zen philosophy, and in my opinion it carries a few different messages. I believe the main meaning of “Wherever you go, there you are” is a reassurance that we carry within ourselves all we need to live our lives joyfully and in awareness.
There is an endless creative source inside each of us, which will provide you with inspiration and guidance along the way if you’re able to recognize it, learn to listen to it and take action. I know many of us can feel that our past is a strong factor in how our future unfolds; however, this need not be the case. There is much value in experience and in lessons learned, and as such the past can be a trusty adviser. However, too often there is a strong inertia binding our steps as we move forward, with no better justification than that things have always been that way or that we’ve already invested so much time/money/energy in one direction. A change of course, however beneficial might turn out to be, can feel like a acceptance of failure.
I am challenging you today to open up to all that the present moment has to offer and to agree to reinvent your future in awareness of where you are, yet freely allowing yourself to dream of where to go next. You have what it takes to make it happen. If you have enough clarity to see it in your mind’s eye, you will also find the resources you need to make your intention a reality.
One way to reset your goals and your perception of what is possible is to use the “begin now” approach. At frequent intervals throughout your life, take an honest look at where you are and where you are heading, and ask yourself: if I were to begin anew today, with all the knowledge and experience I have now, would I continue in this direction? If the answer is no, then find a way to stop and change course. Inertia for inertia’s sake has no value, and it’s simply the drifting cousin of apathy.
I know your mind’s natural resistance to change will kick in as you try this, and it will work hard to justify your current path and highlight all the ways that make a course correction unrealistic or even impossible. Acknowledge that resistance, thank it for its effort to keep you “safe” and continue on. You don’t need to have an answer to the Hows and What Ifs right away. You simply need to visualize for yourself the Why and, to some extent, the What: the vision you want to make reality, the mission you hope to accomplish.
The details are important, of course, and without the How, nothing ever gets done. But figuring that out has its time, and things often fall into place in ways you couldn’t have imagined in the beginning once you’ve allowed yourself to achieve clarity on where you intend to go.
My own story can show this to some extent. My professional path began in Eastern Europe with the pursuit of education in the field of Physics. My intention then had been to obtain a doctorate in the United States and find a good position with a large corporation in research and development where I could move up into management. I have achieved all that, and I could have stayed on that path for the rest of my professional life. However, after almost a decade, I had reached a point where I chose to take a hard look at where I was and what I wanted to do with my life. At this time, I chose to focus on entrepreneurship and ways to help people count their blessings. Photography had always been a passion of mine, and it became the natural choice for both a purpose in itself (I love creating art that reveals the beauty I see all around me) and a means toward my mission (through the lifestyle portraits I create together with the families I photograph). While this new focus can seem dramatically different from my previous path, to me it’s all part of my journey of being true to myself and moving toward my soul-fulfilling purpose. I have learned that change is the only certainty in life, and have embraced both the excitement and the uncertainty as constant parts of what shows up when we are being in tune with ourselves, and willing to course-adjust with honesty and joy.
I hope you will find the courage to allow yourself to dream big, to remove perceived limitations on what you can be and do, and life your best life, whatever form that might take today and every day.
