Happy New Year to all! I feel so blessed that you continue to read my blog and share your thoughts with me. I have now been writing this blog for 10 years! My book came out almost 6 years ago! Hard to believe this evolution has been occurring for this long. Actually, it has been going on far longer, and the last 10 years more intentionally.
One of the great parts about life is how we all evolve over our lifetime. Who you are now isn’t who you were many years ago. Yes, there are things that perhaps have not changed, however for most of us, we have grown a lot, changed a lot and learned a lot. Some spiritual advisors believe that is the entire purpose of life, to evolve and grow more and more enlightened. Evolve and grow more conscious. We begin to see that the patterns of behavior we have believed are “just who I am,” can change and perhaps the older patterns no longer serve us as we grow. For many in Corporate America, this tends to happen as we move up in the hierarchy, taking on more responsibilities and leading larger teams and organizations. What got us there, will not get us further. Yet, many stay the same person and just expect the same results. That usually doesn’t happen. The results change, the expectations of you the leader change, the challenges change. The most important part of our journey is change.
Many of us happen upon this change because we have found the pressure to stay the same too hard. Just like the carbon that is under so much pressure it becomes a diamond, we too feel the pressure to change. The pressure sometimes comes from feeling out of sorts, from circumstances changing dramatically, from wanting more or different out of life and feeling lost or discontent. The pressure is always mounting and at some point we realize that staying the same is too hard.
The beginning of evolution tends to look a little haphazard and many of us start with “I want to be happier.” Or, “I want to feel different.” Or, “I want to feel less stressed out.” I find with many of my clients they are close to burnout, feeling stressed out and struggling to find a semblance of balance in their lives. And so we begin to identify what is happening and what they want to happen. And so the evolution begins.
What I have found over the last few years of my transformation is that I am much more intentional with it now. I no longer create platitudes of “being happier,” as I am happy. I am now focused more on what I want to change, make bigger, make better, do differently, continue the growth around, etc. It isn’t through goals per se, for me it is through intentions based on how I want to feel most hours of every day.
Last year, the word I used for my intentions was Allow. I wanted to allow myself to trust myself more and no longer need the opinions of others to feel validated. I wanted to allow myself to surrender more and not have to try to control how things happened or exactly what would happen. I allowed myself to surrender to the universe and let it and my intuition guide me more. I wanted to allow myself to receive more. Receivership is connected to gratitude from a frequency standpoint. So much of my stress before was created because I couldn’t receive help. I couldn’t even ask for it as it was drummed into me from a young age that even asking for help was weak. I was created to be strong and independent and asking for help or better yet, receiving it just made me weak. Of course, I now know that isn’t true.
On December 31, 2023, as I read through all of my blessings and moments from the year, I found the piece of paper that had Allow, and trust, surrender and receivership listed. As I reflected on the year I realized that I did do this over the course of the year. I trusted me, my gut, my intuition, my decision making without needing anyone else’s thoughts or inputs. It isn’t that I don’t ask for other’s opinions, it is that I don’t forget what I wanted to do and just jump to do what they suggest because I don’t trust me. I trusted me and listened to others thoughts and then did what I thought was best for me. I surrendered the how in terms of my househunting and will be moving near the beach in a few weeks, renting instead of buying and finally ridding myself of all the stuff that has weighed me down. I allowed myself to receive, everything from love to friendship to help to compliments (something I used to poo-poo!).
I realized at that moment that my evolution was more intentional in 2023 than ever before. I focused in on the patterns of behavior that I wanted to change so that I would allow more. I allowed things that activated me (or triggered if you like that word better) to point me toward my deeper healing and my deeper understanding so that I could release those thoughts and patterns and create new beliefs. I let myself dig deep during the year and allowed a few important relationships to wane, as that was better for me. And, by the way, the others didn’t seem to notice or care.
As we move into this new year, I continue with intentional evolution. Focusing on how I want to feel and what I want in my life is front and center as I build my intentions and vision for the year. The word I chose for this year is Trustfall. The true meaning of trustfall is from team building exercises when you have someone fall backwards and the team needs to catch them. This is a true testament to trust according to many team building experts. There is a lot of proof that it doesn’t really build trust, however it is used just the same. I took the work and thought of it a little differently. Trust – I trust my intuition to steer me, my body to tell me what it needs, my faith that the universe always has my back and is working for my highest good. Fall – I leap into 2024 with excitement to take leaps of faith. I will fall forward into the arms of the universe for all that is there for me and be open to all it has. My trustfall is about faith in me and faith in the universe.
I know things will surface that will need deeper understanding and more release. That is the most exciting part of the ride, what else do I get to release so that I continue to raise my frequency and vibration. I am aligning more and more with the stream of wellbeing that is always flowing. Less resistance to that allows for more miracles and more love in our lives.
Intentional evolution is moving me more and more to the purest and best version of me! Every day I wake up trying to be better than I was yesterday. Some days that is a slamdunk! I may have sucked yesterday. Some days I don’t know how to be an even better version…and I am always trying to be better.
New Year, New Intentions. New Intentional Evolution.