Dear beloveds,
Let us breathe in and out as we read Seneca’s words: “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
January has been blown away by the wind and February is rushing past too. I don’t know about you, but I have found myself reflecting on choices - big and small - that I have made throughout my life. Some of these choices have shaped so much of who I am and how I live, others just seem to nudge here and there, while others seem to have happened without choice as if by magic!
If you are looking for different results, you must design different actions.
“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” Shirley Chisholm
But Raquel, how can I do this? First and foremost, live by your values, not by someone else’s values. In this month’s episode, I encourage you to design your life, even when it feels like all winds and storms are against you. In today’s episode you will find:
The Choice Point, from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), whose co-founders are Steven C Hayes, Kirk Strosahl and Patti Robinson. Russ Harris, who is a doctor, a therapist and an incredible trainer who spreads the magic of ACT around the world.
Big choices: partner, house, car, children
Small choices with big consequences: friends, sport, food
In life, we can be guided by our values or we can live by reaction. When we live by reaction, we keep getting jerked from side to side, we live by reacting to the values of others, by trying to keep up with the Jones’s, by responding to our insecurities, and we keep moving further and further away from the life we want, further and further away from the person we want to be. On the other hand, when we live by our values, we are aligned with who we want to be, with where we want to go in life. We move in the direction of the life we want.
Go forth, beloved, and design your life. Start exactly where you are and take some wisdom from William Ernest Henley - who lived from 1849 to 1903. This wondrous poem is titled Invictus and goes like this:
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
I hope that you enjoy the podcast, and I ask you for a favour: please leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
With love,