My Inspirational Year #4: Reinvestigating What do I Want?

[Note: This series is part of the journal I wrote called: My Inspirational Year. Each month shares a topic to deepen the learning. Follow each month as we uncover that month’s topic! You can order the journal or simply follow along on your own.]

• You can order the book here.
• Want an autographed copy (I have just a few left): http://lauraerdmanluntz.com/product/my-extraordinary-year/

“Every once in awhile, look around and make sure the life you are creating is the one you really want.”‘

Wayne Dyer

As you go through the intentional process of My Inspirational Year, you want to periodically check in with yourself about what it is you really want. Since you are growing and tapping more and more into who you are, there is a good chance what you want will change.

So this month, your work is to:

Consider if what you thought you wanted four months ago is what you still want.

And, if you aren’t doing My Inspirational Year (yet), this process is an important one to work on. We grow in life, we change, we ebb, we flow. We are also highly influenced when we are young (and sometimes when we are older!) by people who are important to us.

Our goal is to tap more and more into who we really are and what is important to us.

You will find one of three things:

Idea one:

You still want what you thought you did.

You will look inward and say, “Yep, that’s what I want!”

Idea two:

You really don’t want it. And, upon further consideration, maybe you never did.

Stick with me here.

Sometimes what we think we want was really what someone else wanted for us at some point along the way. Maybe it was a parent or a coach or a revered teacher or maybe your spouse, someone whose opinion mattered to you.

And once the seed was planted, it became a part of you, your self-concept, and you never questioned it.

But as you go through the process I have outlined in the journal, you are going to grow and tap more and more into what you really want. Realizing what you have thought you wanted wasn’t what you really wanted can be hard, but is crucial in order for you to find what it is you DO want.

(It also can be a tremendous relief as you are able to let go of a image you have been forcing yourself to fit into – like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.)

Idea three:

You have outgrown the goal.

Maybe it was your goal and felt good for awhile, but it isn’t who you are anymore. When this shift happens for me, it feels like when I change the style of clothes I wear. Have you ever experienced that? I used to wear all athletic-looking clothing. Now I have a more feminine look. The old clothes don’t feel the same on me. They fit in size, but just not quite right.

Idea four:

It is time to make it bigger.

As you grow, what you want will grow, too. And, what I mean by “growing” is a deeper representation of you.

It isn’t different (like #3), it’s bigger.

Maybe you are effecting more people than you originally thought you could or you realize you can make more money than you thought possible. Bigger.

So how do you know?

Take some quiet time for yourself. I like to take a walk or a bath to relax my body and mind. (Another good time to do it is when you are on vacation or out of your usual surroundings. You will find it is easier to be objective then.) Then I pour a glass of wine or a cup of tea and sit in quiet to contemplate what I am creating in my life.

Does it still feel good?

Sometimes you need to take a conscious, relaxing breath to open your heart and mind to see something that might be hard for you to see. It isn’t always easy to realize what you have been doing isn’t what you really want, especially if you have put years into it.

But, if it isn’t what you want, don’t you owe it to yourself to investigate what you do want?