Life starts with stopping.
In “Control the Control”, we looked at the illusion of control and how to slow to a stop and regain our lives. After an intentional pause, the four step process we discussed to examine your life was:
1. Know where you are
2. Know where you are called
3. Own ‘your’ process
4. Take your next step
Know where you are:
What is the most important thing to know when you are looking at a map? Knowing where you are.
If you do not know where you are, then the directions the map gives you are useless. You could go miles in any direction, but without knowing where you began, end up just as lost as you started.
To that end, a colleague of mine from Spiritual Leadership Inc., says that an organization having a clear sense of where they are is as important, if not more, than knowing their vision.
What hinders us from accurately naming where we are?
Fear.
Fear of not being enough. Fear of having to change. Fear of failure.
Take a moment, assess yourself, and don’t be afraid to say out loud:
I am not where I want to be.
I am not who I want to be.
This is not what I wanted or intended in for life to be.
When you stop, you have the ability to see where you are. On the bank of the river you can see the current. You can see what is ahead. Sometimes we realize we are moving in a direction we want to be going, yet many of us see we are not.
Living in quiet denial of your current state only allows you to linger longer in desperation.
Name where you are. Talk to a friend. Be vulnerable. Name your hopeless spot in your life.
Hopelessness invites and gives permission to hope.
Only then, can hope take its authoritative place in our lives.
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There is also a positive side to this process.
Some of you reading this, might say, “I am where I need to be. Or at least I am heading in the right direction.” If you find yourself there, keep moving forward. This process is not just for when you are broken, but it is also very useful for constant, consistent and intentional forward momentum. In other words, since God is always shaping and forming us – this process never is completely complete.
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