It’s been 10 years since I answered my wake-up call and began to radically change my life very slowly.
I changed my diet, paid off my debt, decluttered my home until there were empty rooms, cleaned out my closet, quit my job, created work I love, downsized from a big house to a small apartment, deepened my relationships, owned my introvertedness, became soul-centered, and took my life back.
I didn’t plan to make all of these changes, but each one inspired and encouraged the next. 10 years might sound like a long time to change, but it feels like the blink of an eye. A scary diagnosis was my wake-up call and invitation to change. I had other wake-up calls, but I was too busy and distracted to answer them. As Elaine St. James so wisely offers, “One of the reasons we keep our lives so complicated is so we won’t have to listen to our inner voice telling us what we need to do to make our lives work better.” I kept busy and distracted so I didn’t have to listen.
Here’s the good news … once I made a little time and space to hear my inner voice, to really listen, changing got easier, exciting even. As my inner voice became easier to hear, I was able to connect with my heart, and gain more clarity about what I really wanted in my life. Before then, I forgot I had a choice. The funny part is that even though simplicity was at the core of each change I made, I wasn’t after a simple life.
I wasn’t removing the clutter, reducing stress, and rejecting busyness to have a simple life. I was doing it to have a life … a beautiful life that makes me smile at least 99 times a day.
Maybe this is your wake-up call
My wake up call was a phone call from my neurologist’s office telling me I had Multiple Sclerosis. I didn’t need someone to tell me I was sick to know I was. I knew things weren’t right, but it felt easier to just keep going.
How many times have you thought “this isn’t working” or “something’s not right” or “things have to change” – those thoughts and words are from your inner voice. It’s your wake-up call calling. You don’t need a scary diagnosis or major crisis to wake up. No one needs to tell you because you already know. Your inner voice has been trying to tell you, but in case it’s been a challenge to find time and space to listen through the chaos, maybe you’ll resonate with one of these situations.
Maybe this is your wake-up call …
- If your life is on auto-pilot, this is your wake-up call.
- If you never put yourself first, this is your wake-up call.
- If you’ve become someone you don’t recognize to please other people or to chase some version of success that doesn’t resonate with you, this is your wake-up call.
- If you are constantly numbing out with food, shopping, booze, tv, or other distractions, this is your wake-up call.
- If you are worn down, beat up, stressed out, and completely depleted, this is your wake-up call.
Getting your wake-up call is not the hard part, answering the call is. Choosing to answer the call instead of ignoring it is hard, because you know if you do, things are going to change, and change is scary. That said, not changing is worse, especially after you know.
You are brave and strong enough to answer the call. Big change comes from hundreds of tiny steps and they all matter. You don’t have to have a perfect plan for the next 10 years or even the next 10 days. All you need is an open heart and the next step. Not all the steps, not a big step, just the next one.
You’ve got this.