11 Jan Setting a Guidepost to Forge Future Opportunities

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”   ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet and Essayist

I read my horoscope every day. Really, you ask? Yes, really.

I believe in signs. Oh, some may call it fate. But I call it an unseen connection so strong that it reaches out and grabs us either in a very dramatic manner or with a more subtle nudge. But you know it’s there and its message is usually provocative because it wants us to listen for what is best for us.

Sometimes these signs aren’t obvious and we need to instead make the greater effort to pause and reflect so we may listen more attentively to better judge what we hear. For example, it may confirm where we’re at or lead us in another direction.

In December I met with a colleague to discuss the continuation of a sales program we had launched earlier in the year. A decision to continue the partnership and program had weighed heavily upon me.  I went to the meeting still not knowing if I wanted to continue with the program. My partner and I talked quite a bit but at one point I heard myself say, “It’s time to be selfish.”

I was surprised by what I had said. And yet, as unexpected as it was, I instantly knew the message these words conveyed.  And it was indeed provocative. For the first time since I started my professional career more than 35 years ago, I was going to be selfish!

Since our childhood years we’ve been hearing, watching out for and working toward expectations.  Expectations of parents, teachers, friends, professional colleagues, etc. all seem to take a front row seat to our thoughts, decisions or actions. And that day when I spoke about being selfish, I had unwittingly, and from within, quite simply voiced the realization – the discovery – that my next year was to be for me.

Of course my work and life can’t totally be for me. I will always be committed to those I work with and teach because I love to help others find easier pathways and accomplish what they have in mind. And, as with us all, I have bills to pay! But I do believe it is possible to shape our life and work around a particular idea, desire or need. And when I do this, I think of it as setting a ‘guidepost’ to provide structure and direction to what we do.  It helps us to see possibilities and forge opportunities.

That day in December, when I stepped back from a partnership and program, I had arrived at my destination of the journey I had taken the past year.  A journey that moved me through a reasoned look back at where I’d been and what I had done

And now, as the calendar page has turned to 2017, I realize that my last year’s journey, my thoughtful look back, provided many ‘signs’ in the form of insights and wisdom through which I can now fill this coming year with the riches that come from hard work, knowledge, and, likely most important, introspection.

And now I will know where I most want to be.

I’ve chosen my guidepost word for 2017. Learn what it is and how I came to select it in the video at the top of this page. Just click to view.