Two Days
I celebrated my birthday 2 weeks ago. It's amazing how quickly time seems to be flying, especially as I get older. I have no idea where this past year went, but I do know that it was a good year, and I'm excited about the year to come! My celebration was squeezed between a large leadership event and my youngest daughter's college graduation, so there was much celebration.
I'm reflecting on this quote from Mark Twain:
"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born... and the day you find out why."
What a great thought. I celebrate my birthday every year. This year there was time with family, a great gift, and a couple of celebratory meals. It was a good celebration, as it is each year.
The second day, from the quote above, has come to me over time. I've been on a journey for the past 32 years, trying to figure out who I am and what my greatest contribution to this life is. It's been an exciting journey that I've loved at every step of the way. It hasn't always been easy, but it's been good.
It's when I stop and look back that I can gain the perspective and see where my life is heading and where my future lies.
A couple of years ago, I "stopped" and did a Paterson LifePlan. I took 2 days, and entered a one-on-one session with a facilitator, and he helped me see and gain perspective on the past 30 years of my life, and then from the knowledge gained from that, I began to put a plan in place moving forward, into this next stage of life.
Today I'm working forward, moving closer to my gifts, my passions and the goal of my life to impact and help leaders and organizations to experience their greatest success and outcomes.
It's still a journey, but the confidence I have has changed dramatically in that it all makes sense! I can see the path and I can anticipate the trajectory.
The LifePlan Process helped me to:
- Articulate key lessons I learned from major turning points in my life
- Celebrate success and failure by identifying learnings from each situation
- Define "what's important now", or helped me determine where I need to start to continue moving in the right direction.
- Evaluate areas of my life that didn't have the appropriate margin, creating capacity
- Identify that things in life that "refueled me" and restored my soul. I then created a plan to ensure that these things became a part of my normal day, week, month and year.
There's so much more I could share.
The process was so impactful that I walked through the Facilitator Process so that I could help others experience what I experienced in looking at their own lives and their own journey. I have now helped many others continue in this journey, and in some cases, make some major changes to address the need, the call and the passion they have for life.
I share this with you to encourage you. You don't have to be STUCK. You don't have to continually wonder "WHAT IF...?" You can begin a process of discovery that will set you on a course that helps you answer that question, "Why was I put on this earth? What's my greatest contribution?"
If I can help you with that process, don't hesitate to contact me HERE
