I was reading through my list of “wants” a few days ago, my version of the ol’ Santa list, and realized that all it would take to fill my stocking would be a good handyman, maybe a contractor for the harder stuff, some tools, and a pocketful of money.
Then I had a come to Jesus conversation with myself when I realized that I was planning my contentment, my happiness, my inner peace (and outer as well), my sense of satisfaction and joy around “stuff”, “things”, how it looks, where it is, where I can be, what it will be… holy crap!
Am I really that shallow and is all that I have been writing these past several years just a bunch of hooey and surface platitudes that I have been expounding out into the world and not embodying for myself… talk about the epitome of practice what you preach – or not.
I read this and wonder what you all are thinking, WOPT has come to visit and brought its mother and father, aunt, uncle, and all the cousins, first, second, and third. They are cheering in my head and laughing while they hold their sides to keep from bursting. What a picture! Can you imagine your office filled with the voices and faces of all those judgy, we are just trying to help, what will people think entities?
Here I am trying to write a message around challenging yourself to plan and prepare for an abundant, joy-filled, happy, healthy, and productive 2023 and I am stuck in the muck and mire of What Will Other People Think. Will it matter, will it make a difference, will it count for a hill of beans?
I distract myself with clearing my email and look across at my other screen and there looms that file, Stalking 2023, staring me in the face. Why can’t I just get it done?
I don’t know about you, but I am a recovering Procrastinator with an often not so healthy case of self-doubt and I got blind-sided this past week, paralyzed even, with the whole idea of “packaging” a program and all that this entails.
In retrospect, I can’t believe how many days passed with me sitting here doing everything but what I really wanted and needed to be doing.
- Ever find yourself with a plan and no direction to follow it?
- What do you do to move off the sofa and get productive? (Chocolate cake is not the answer, it just leads back to the couch).
- How will you get to the dream if you keep veering off the path?
When did the shift come?
I wrote to a coach and mentor that I have taken a lot of classes from, and I said, “Can I pay you for some help? I am overwhelmed, confused, stuck in the muck, and spinning my wheels?”
‘Of course,” her answer came back, “yes.” I thought that would be my golden ticket back to peace and productivity. WRONG…
We talked, laid out a plan, and I was off to the races only to stumble out of the starting gate. Yep, I did, kersplat!
I did the research, I wrote all these million pieces of “stuff” and I created content crazy masses of words, and completely overwhelmed myself with seventeen pages of “content and messages, quotes and inspiration” and no clue how to tie it all together.
Another five days of getting ready to be ready pass and one of those life events we all are challenged with popped into my face. My heart ran scared from the fear of another loss. Then there was Christmas shopping to do and football games to watch and cookies to bake before I ate all the dough raw (too late – sugar keeps the dream alive).
Finally, I sat down on a “clear the email” moment and up popped a note from someone I follow with a subject line like, “What the hell are you doing on the couch?” (Geeze I wish I had written that one.)
What a wake up, in your face, call to action. You all who know me now, know that I am susceptible to interesting experiences when left to my own devices. I read through that email, and it supercharged me (you’ll be reading the results of that today and in the next few weeks). It was a message I could relate to and understand. Off to the computer I ran and spent the entire day organizing that massive pile of words and truthfully, I am still at it.
What I want to leave you with is like “the rest of the story”…
My coach had stuff come up as well and we have rescheduled our next “chat” three times… thank heavens because I felt like crap with nothing to send in for review. Hire a writing coach and don’t write – a guaranteed recipe for stress.
Get a kick in the caboose email and the keys start clicking away.
Go back and look for that email for another dose of inspiration and it is gone! Yep, gone as in not there at all, as in no search anywhere in my computer even brought up the same words that had struck that nerve. Can you sing the theme song from Alfred Hitchcock (if you remember who that is 😊).
The moral to my longwinded story is just this – like Nike says Just Do It, my new mantra (and the gift I will take into 2023) is Just Keep Moving in whatever form that takes.
My daughter says movement is medicine (she means get my arse out of the chair and move). Here, I mean keep clicking the keys, even if it just produces 17 pages of words because… those words are golden and hold the keys to the end result you are trying to achieve.
And here I am writing again, coherently and extensively (sorry this one is longer than usual) but it all needed to flow out into the world.
Bless you for taking the time to read all the way through this.
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE YOU “HEARD” in my story? Sound familiar? Just hit REPLY and share yours…
Many thanks and many blessings for an awesome holiday journey.
*** If you would like to get a jumpstart on your next year and plan the path ahead, join me in STALKING 2023 – Look Ahead, Define the Path, Plan the Journey (what to take and what to leave behind), and create an Amazing 2023. Click and join me in the organized version of all those many words on those 17 pages. 😊
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Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
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