Serendipity

My experience with myself and with many people I have worked with over the years is we all stop doing what supports us and would take us in the direction our spirit and soul calls us to go.  The visual is that of a trapeze artist who at some point has to let go of one rope in order to take hold of the next one.  As I observe my own work, I see myself stop coaching sessions, skip my daily practices, and commit other forms of self-sabotage, just when I am ready to reach a goal or take an idea from decision to creation. I’ve seen the same behavior in clients as well, taking a break from counseling just as they are about to round the bend on some difficult issue. I’ve seen it in my students working on their dissertation-giving up when in the final chapter, or not completing  a required re-write after their defense. Clients will say something like-oh, I'm going to take a few weeks off, I'm so busy (or whatever reason they have).  Unfortunately, just like the trapeze artist who fails to take the bar, the ricochet effect of not going forward causes an even bigger set back and requires more hard work, time and energy, than before.

The day I forgot to publish my blog I happened to be writing a new segment on discipline and commitment for the Circle of Self ^® website. When I went back and read the above paragraph, I really did have to laugh at myself!  I was writing about what I was about to do again-derail myself.  Only this time I haven’t.  And I pray daily for divine intervention around my attempts to self-sabotage.  This is one difference.  There is another difference as well.  My thirty day blog commitment is not so much a goal in itself.  Rather, it represents a very deep personal decision, and a profound knowing and commitment about the absolute necessity to make a permanent change in my life.  I believe that every one of us experiences a couple of times in our lives when we know for certain we are at a crossroads.  This is one of those times.