Hello beautiful people!
Let’s move the goalpost!
And whether your reflection on that day right now makes you feel proud of what this journey has been thus far, intimidated that you’ve got so much more to do, or thrilled that you’ve got a whole new approach for the work you know is still stretched out ahead of you, here’s one thing I want you to give yourself credit for: You’re farther along than you think! And if you’re really smart, you’ll start moving the goalpost for what you hope to achieve!
Listen up!
I remember watching an interview with someone who was celebrating several years of sobriety. She was talking about her sober journey, the fits and starts, the doubts and delights, and everything in between. She then showed off a tattoo with letters I don’t quite recall (because I wasn’t crazy about *her* acronym, and — like I tend to do when I love a concept but not the execution — I wrote down what *my* acronym would be) that represented her commitment to the journey — all of it — with its beauty and its challenges. My version of the acronym would be NDTC. Never Doubt The Choice.
(Now that I think about it, hers may have been NQTD. Never Question The Decision. But something about “decision” rubs me the wrong way for this tattoo’s purpose because I believe we’re always deciding things and then re-evaluating and re-deciding based on all the things that change in us and in conditions over time. But CHOICE is inherently transient and that means it can be supported and celebrated as the beautiful selection it was for us in that moment in time, by definition. When people around us get married, I share my #1 tip for success in a relationship: “Choose each other every day.” Because life is a series of choices. Keith and I didn’t commit to one another on any particular day and now stay together because of THAT commitment. We stay together because we choose each other every day. That active, mindful option we exercise regularly is why this crazy relationship of ours works so beautifully!)
Anyway. My love of choices and our ability to commit to them, make new ones, commit to those, love ’em so much we choose ’em again, and so on, is part of why my worldview includes the moving of the goalpost theme. Benchmarks can be a death sentence. They can be a recipe for disaster. But we use ’em all the time! Yes, we love setting up goals to achieve and then going after those things, of course! But the idea that once we GET something we’re done? That’s just not the truth of what life is about! Being nimble is our greatest asset. Getting greedy for the next thing once we’ve accomplished something is an awesome feeling. Because the truth is, we’re never done. Our lives and the goals we set out to achieve in these lives are all experienced in an iterative, progressive, choice-filled process.
And as my friend Denise Duffield-Thomas says, “You have total permission to create your life exactly the way you want it!” (Tweet it.) It’s the choosing you do that makes all the difference. And you’re choosing constantly. We all are.
See? Farther along than you may have thought!
Today’s work: Give yourself credit for the massive changes you’ve made in your life in just 75 days. This is only the beginning and there’s so much more joy ahead for you if you get greedy for moving that goalpost. You’ve built up a muscle for checking Google Alerts every week? Yay! Congrats! Now go for twice a week. You just doubled your show bible input and halved the amount of time each session takes. Yes, really. That’s the math on that. Your networking abilities are feeling a bit less shaky? Awesome! Move the goalpost. If you’ve gone to two schmoozefests since our course began, get on the calendar two more you’ll hit before it ends. Totally do-able and a major boost to your Brandprov skills and your relationship-building! Found that EFT tapping surprisingly releases your anxiety? Hooray! Next up, set a time to tap daily — even just for 60 seconds — around a topic for which you wouldn’t describe your emotion as “anxious” but as something less awesome than blissed out. You just moved the goalpost on your ability to create more joy in your day-to-day life!
Even if you’re thinking, “Augh! It’s gonna take 365 days to complete these 100 days!” that’s fine! That’s moving the goalpost, and it’s all good. You’ve made progress, just by showing up to this page today. Besides, these 100 days represent a lifetime of tools you can choose to use to have a more joy-filled journey every day going forward. Take your time. Give yourself so much love for how far you’ve come. And get greedy for more! It’s all yours.
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
