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Introduction

I was recently on a co-working session with Duncan Elsey, my fabulous IAJW team member. Duncan is our web guy, tech genius, and he is someone I trust with all my evolutions and growth in the IAJW. He is a strategic thinking partner and also a friend. We often wander off into various conversations about life and business and our dogs and other things in our working times together. Duncan is intelligent and kind and he is a journal writer!

Life Choices & Priority Setting

During one of our recent working times together, we were talking about work volume, priority setting, and life choices. We also were reflecting on the many changes and transitions we have both been through in the last little while.

Duncan talked about how during times of change and growth, it is important to ask ourselves a few things including the following…

Journaling Prompts

  1. What’s the transformation you want?
  2. What’s the opportunity available in the change, choice or situation?
  3. Where do you really want to go?

The Boat on a River is a Metaphor for Life

As our conversation about about life and choices continued, Duncan said, “it’s like being in a boat on a river, you can just get taken down the river and end up wherever it takes you or you can put your oar in the water and have some control and influence over where the boat goes.”

Of course, there are times in all areas of our lives, where we might want to just get in the boat and see where it takes us. We might be open to that sense of adventure and mystery and want to just go along for the ride.  AND there are other times in life where it can serve us very well to have the oar, to be empowered active agents of steering our lives, our metaphorical boats, in the direction we want to go.

The oars of our fate include things like knowing what we have control and influence over and putting a great deal of energy and focus in these areas. It also includes our planning, organization, intention setting, mindset, and our sense of empowerment to influence our lives.

Journaling Prompts

  1. When do you let the river of life just carry you along and see where it takes you?
  2. When, or in what circumstances, do you put your oars in the water, metaphorically speaking, and influence the direction of your life?

Grab the Oars & Steer Your Boat: Priority Setting & Choice

Many of us, myself included, try to focus on too many things at once. We have huge “to do lists” that never end. There is great wisdom in honing that list down and giving ourselves permission to focus on less things, with more intention, and to have the chance to experience a sense of accomplishment, pace, flow, and success.

I am spending a full day this month simply organizing my “to do list” and my priorities. I want to have a full grip on the oars of my boat, while every now and then letting the river carry me where it will. It is a healthy balance to do both, but it is important to be intentional about when you are holding the oars and when you are sitting back and letting the river of life carry you forward at will.

Journaling Prompts

  1. Is there an area in your life where you would like to be more intentional? Or more in control? Or on top of things? What is that area?
  2. What would you like to give yourself permission to do more of? Less of?
  3. Are there any systems you need to put in place to feel more organized and in flow with things?
  4. What is one choice you are making in your life at this time that you feel really good about?

Put the oars in the water of your own life!

Remember Why You Are Here

“In my innermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no desire when you remember why you came to earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. the good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in the harbour and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But…that is now what great ships are built for…this comes with much love and prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, need, earth.”

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., excerpt from a Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times