People ask me what direction they should go or how they can figure out what they should be doing with their lives to fully live and be on their path. Well, we’re headed into spring and one of the things I’ve found that is in harmony with this year of the goat is to pay attention to at least one of those little things that’s been irritating you. It doesn’t need to be a huge thing that will blow up the Death Star so we can all go home. That was last year and we’re all still in recovery from that. This year is about growth, about moving forward from the blast and starting to build the life we actually want rather than continuing to focus on what didn’t work and didn’t happen and can’t be changed.
It’s trite, but think oyster for a moment. So a little bit of grit or sand or ocean debris get’s in under its skin. It’s not pleasant and it has no hands and no opposable thumbs so it can just brush it off or take it out. Instead it secretes a protective shell coating around the sharp little bugger until it stops being an irritant, hence a pearl is born. So, just to be clear, as far as I can tell it doesn’t go into a deep depression wondering what it did wrong to have to suffer this torment, it doesn’t think it’s broken and try to heal it’s inherent broken nature, it doesn’t rail at fate and blame the world from its situation, it goes quietly to work dealing with the situation. It doesn’t accept the irritation as just the way it is, it doesn’t try to make the irritation a part of itself, it instead makes the irritation into a call to action and sets about resolving the irritation without destroying itself. It uses what it has on hand and resolves the problem while simultaneously going on about the business of life.
So if you want to know how to get started on your path or what direction to go next, start looking at the little things that irritate you. What can you do to resolve the issue? For example, if you’ve always wanted to dig into your art in a deeper way and it’s been nagging at you, but you’ve been afraid to go there, why not look at a way to do that which doesn’t mean becoming the tragic artist? What practical steps can you take to head in that direction? What happens when you do? Or is there something about your relationship, which is a good one, which has been an irritant for a while? It’s not constant but overtime it’s become noticeable and difficult? What can you do to behave like an oyster and deal with it healthily? Is this a means to go deeper into the relationship? Is it a door leading you towards a deeper relationship with yourself? This year is about small steps which lead to amazing results and tons of progress in unfolding what our lives can be. What small step will you take today?