You Are Where You Are… For A Reason

Greetings Leaders!

I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflecting lately, a hazard of being 52 I suppose. There are lots of ups and of course some downs. I was chatting with a friend at work yesterday, and while we’re both happy and certainly blessed, we just aren’t where we thought we would be at this point in our lives.

I started to ponder how to go about making changes going forward and realized that my life today was a result of choices and decisions I made along life’s journey. While that is pretty obvious, sometimes we for forget that we are where we are… for a reason. If you want to make a change in your life, you need to change the things that got you to where you are.

So… what about you? Do you want more out of life? If you ask your friends and family that question, most would say yes. Sadly, not many of them have the ambition to go about making the change. But you… you’re different. How do I know this? Because you’re reading…. searching…. looking for something to help you actually make this happen.

Before you can create a plan on moving forward, you must understand how you got to where you are today. What have you done over the years that contributed to your current position? To figure this out, try this exercise.

1. Create a time line of your life. Start with your earliest memories and start writing down significant events in your life. This should take a couple of hours. Be specific. What successes did you have? Failures? Who was involved? What did you participate in?
2. Ask yourself what choices did you make that contributed to these events? Why did you choose to go to a certain school or play a certain sport? What made you get married? What made you stay single? Who were you associated with at the time.
3. Reality check – you are where you are for a reason. Look for patterns in your life that focus on behavior. Risk aversion. Risky behavior. A longing for acceptance. A driving personality. Submission.
4. Ask yourself, what behaviors do I need to change, if I want to have a different outcome? Only then can you start to think about how to change these things so that your life can be all that you hope for.

All the best!
All the time!
JT