“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure; the process is its own reward.” – Amelia Earhart
They say we go through a cycle of spiritual rebirth every seven years. It may not be verifiable science, nor is change set on an exact timetable, but it’s one of those ideas that feels true. Often, it’s only in hindsight that we can see those pivotal moments in the logbooks of our lives with the clarity to recognize them as crucial steps toward growth.
But what if we were the architects of our growth—the “PIC” (pilot in command) of our own journey? Wouldn’t we have a better chance of arriving where we actually want to go?
This is exactly what you’ve chosen to do with your decision to embark on a Course Correction. This reset could be beneficial in any “threshold moment” in your life: Divorce, menopause, retirement, new job, marriage, college, Tuesday… Of course, you don’t have to have a monumental life change going on to crave a reset. I know that when you’re ready for change, you want to get started right away!
During Course Correct, we’ll look very honestly at the current state of our lives and our potentially self-defeating habits. We will assess and define our goals, and then employ strategies to reach those goals.
Day by day, you will get your power back by heading to a place that YOU designate as being best for you and your ultimate happiness. I want that for you and will do all that I can to help you get it.
I’m sharing this strategy with you because I created it for ME and because I believe we will have a better world if we start right where we stand.
It doesn’t mean I’m perfect or that I don’t get off course. I do! With the hectic nature of life, it’s natural to lose sight of our direction sometimes.
I’ve been stuck and frustrated and desperate to get myself to act and live in ways there were in sync with who I wanted to be. There’s nothing more painful than living a lesser version of yourself and knowing it will culminate in living a lesser life than what you were capable of living.
As with most difficult choices and changes, it was far easier to do nothing than to take action. Deep inside, I knew what I had to do. I wanted to change but didn’t, if you feel me. I justified, procrastinated, denied, and lied myself out of change. The more I did that, the more frustrated and lost I became.
When I learned to fly, my instructor gave me a great lesson on the importance of regular compass checks. What did she do? She let me get lost. I had no idea where we were and only a vague notion of how long we’d been off course. It can happen very fast.
Imagine a compass with the directional lines fanning out from a dot in the center, much like the spokes on a wheel. At the very center, the lines are close together, but as you continue outward on any one line, the lines get farther and farther apart. The longer it takes you to figure out you’re off course, the more off course you will be.
The bottom line is that I was suffering because I kept ignoring that nagging calling for change, a change I intuitively knew would usher in a radical life shift; spiritually, physically, and energetically.
I wanted that change. And…I fought that change.
Sound familiar?
Luckily, I have a natural tendency to seek inspiration, to love learning, to deeply crave knowledge of how to develop human potential—specifically my own potential. I don’t think I’d have bought so many self-help books over the years if I didn’t want to better understand the world and its possibilities, and if I didn’t believe in the promise that I could always transcend where I currently found myself.
There’d been a sharp uptick in my purchases of self-help books in the last few years in particular. Why at this time in my life, my late-forties, was I digging and tunneling through all these books like they were the only way out of an underground gulag?
Shouldn’t I have it figured most of my crap out by now? What was I trying to find? Obviously, my search had grown desperate.
Then realization struck: I sought out these books because I was stuck on the far side of a chasm between who I was and the potential of who I could be. The discord between those two parts of myself was a constant source of pain and I was looking for a bridge.
I also noticed that it wasn’t one issue in particular that I struggled with. The list of things I needed to shore up was growing and the fissures affected every area of my life. I was living that agony until I got so desperate for change that I spent an entire weekend alone, delving into all aspects of my life, and decided exactly what steps I needed to take to get my life back on track.
There’s a quote by Pablo Neruda that will strike fear into the heart of anyone who claims to believe in personal growth and living their best life:
“Someday, somewhere – anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.” Pablo Neruda
Make no mistake; the end is a destination no one will avoid.
Ideally, we’ll be well acquainted with our higher selves at the end of life.
If I was going to be her, I had to quit living like I had all the time in the world to course correct.
We’re not promised a day.
That is a harsh but massively important fact. We don’t like to think about it but we know it. And from this point forward, you can’t un-know what you know. You can only ignore it.
I realized that I had to stop using my searching and reading and complaining as a procrastination device and get to the real work of helping myself. The only way out of my mess was action—simple actions, every single day—that would move the needle toward my goals.
Only months after my radical experiment to course correct, did I appreciate how I might also help others. I couldn’t be the only one grappling with this sense of not being who I was truly meant to be. Sure enough, every time I started talking to people about this radical reset idea I called Course Correct, they would get all excited like they thought they were alone in feeling this way and were so relieved to find out that they weren’t.
I’m proud of things I’ve accomplished: being a mother, losing 50 pounds, becoming a private pilot and a published author. Course Correct has changed my health, my work, my relationships, and my life!
What I decided I had to do with my own Course Correction felt utterly radical. It may be the same for you, depending upon how off-course you are. For me, some of the changes were extensive departures from how I lived my daily life and would go against some of my very ingrained (and very enjoyable) habits. To commit to 90 days of across the board, sweeping changes felt utterly guerilla and revolutionary in tactic.
In a very real way, I wanted to boldly wipe the slate clean. I knew I needed to shut the door on the old me with the old ways of coping, and gracefully step into this new phase of my life being more wholly authentic and brave.
Getting older and getting better takes guts, y’all.
This isn’t about striving for the “should” of you, who you think you ‘should’ be. It’s about the willingness to let go of what isn’t truly you—the litmus test for knowing that is a “no” answer to anything that you can’t honestly say represents your best life or highest self.
Doesn’t this precious gift—this one wild life—deserve our best and call upon us to show up as the highest version of ourselves? Isn’t that a place from which we have the most to offer the world?
True happiness is your birthright. No more settling. No more excuses.
Step into your worthiness. It might feel forced at first, especially if you’ve been dead last on your list for years and years. But every day that you work this program it will increase your sense of what’s possible when you finally do what needs to be done to Course Correct.
Action Item:
Take a minute and jot down just one thing you KNOW you need to change. If you’re like I was, there will ultimately be more than one, and we’re going to address that possibility in future modules, I promise. I believe that every aspect of our lives affects the other parts much like all the parts of an airplane work together to make flight possible. All the segments of our lives should work together to make our lives run beautifully.
Right now, of all of the issues you may want to address, I want you to pinpoint one element that causes you the most pain—the reason you bought this course. This is something you’ve been getting nagging inner voice warnings about. It’s likely the thing you think most about. Admit it. Name it. Close your eyes and allow yourself to FEEL the pain it causes you. Then, allow yourself to imagine the FREEDOM of not having that issue plague you anymore.
The reason I’m asking this of you is that I want to encourage you to stop ignoring or fighting that inner-voice and start trusting it. It is you—an “other” you and it has only your best interests at heart and will be your ally on this journey. It’s been telling you what you need to do because it wants to lead you away from pain and toward your personal true north.
We’re going to acquaint ourselves with this other you—your highest self—in the next module.
So, right now, get honest about the what and as we progress, we’ll tackle the how.
