Life's an Adventure...Live it!

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” ~Albert Einstein

My last blog post was January, the first quarter of the year, and here we are in the final quarter of 2022. Life moves fast and if we’re not present it can pass us by with regrets of woulda, shoulda, coulda.

I took a hiatus from consulting, from blog posts, from social media (somewhat) to breathe. To reflect on the past. To live.

Go back, move forward

Reflection is an opportunity to go back so we can move forward. I’ve been unmotivated for many years; uninspired. I’ve been standing at a crossroad choosing the wrong path because I’ve “been there done that,” and wanted what was next in this second chapter of my life. I used to be fearless. If I was unhappy with where I lived, I moved. A job? I quit. But for years I’ve become careful. Too careful.

Where was the fearless girl? Where had she gone? Will she make a return?

I filled my days doing nothing. I had a five year goal and I was laser focused on those goals and didn’t deviate. I became a hermit in the process and did nothing. I found it freeing. I didn’t feel guilty for spending my weekends doing nothing. I didn’t feel pressured into or felt as if I had to do something in order to feel/be productive. I actually enjoyed being home doing nothing. Some days I sat on my balcony doing nothing. Other days I binged watched a Netflix series. Mostly, I was still. Still enough to hear the whispering of my soul that something needed to change with me and for me.

Over the summer I started redecorating, replacing and reorganizing items. I moved stuff around, got rid of old stuff; the stuff I’ve had forever because they didn’t look worn or still functioned. I realized these items and objects I held onto represented the old me and I had evolved and was still evolving. I saw my past, present and future through that stuff. How far I came and in what seemed like taking a step back with downsizing 6 years prior, I had indeed moved forward. My, how I deprived myself of fine things. It was in my doing nothing that I came to that evolution.

There is a downside to doing nothing; however. I got comfortable. Too comfortable. So comfortable and laser focused on achieving goals that I neglected living. I stopped doing things that I loved. I stopped taking risks. I stopped being fearless.

Life’s an Adventure…Live it!

Toward the end of 2021 I wrote on my vision board (a white board above my altar actually) that I wanted to travel for a year. Take my “do nothing” up a notch by visiting other places, specifically domestically. And although I haven’t fulfilled that vision YET, I did visit a few places this year, places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do. Stepping out of my comfort zone.

In February, I took a drive to Vermont for my birthday and went snow shoeing.

In May I visited NOLA for the first time and honored the ancestors, leaving offerings under the ancestor tree in Congo Square.

And just last month, I went ziplining in the Berkshires on the longest zip line in the US—5500+ feet long. It was frightening and exciting and if you didn’t slow yourself down to take in the views, the depth and height of it all, you’d zipline right through it in an instant—it does zip by fast! I got on that zipline thinking I’m going full throttle, no slowing down on this thing! But being so high up, above the trees and mountains, the vastness of it, I slowed myself down and took in the views, because it does go by so quickly—this became a metaphor for me: I’ve been zipping through life in the past, never slowing down to be present; to admire the views. As cliche’ as it may sound, something within me ignited after this trip. I became motivated to do something or, some things.

I’m rebranding my business and looking for a way to kick off a second business that’s been on hold since the pandemic. At the end of the month I’ll be taking classes that I’m hoping will help in launching that second business, and I intend to travel to unknown places whether locally, domestically or abroad and bring that vision of traveling for a year, into fruition.

I still appreciate doing nothing. I feel it’s necessary. But not at the detriment of doing some things, of living. of slowing down and taking time to admire the views—your views: the past, present, and future.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ~ Helen Keller

XO ~ Gillian