Treat #60
: Completing Down to the Truth
What bugs you? What aren't you doing that you really want to do? What aren't you saying? What is the truth in this very moment? If we will tell ourselves the truth we can move our energy and un-stick the stagnation.
Recently I had my annual financial planning meeting and I had quite a learning opportunity on this subject. I have a highly creative and active mind that makes up all kinds of things for me to do. Another way of saying that is—I sometimes over-commit my energy, usually with myself.
My financial advisor looked at the last item on my agenda and asked if he could give me some feedback. He asked if I was willing to hold my attention and focus on the three projects we had identified as top priority this year and complete them before scattering my focus starting new projects. I was stunned, as I hadn't noticed I had been doing that. He challenged me to move those things not to my three priority projects and my day-to-day business from my Projects list to the Someday/Maybe list.
It was quite a process for me as I pride myself on doing. As you all know, one of the items on my Projects list is completing the Completing Book. I have been struggling with the form of this book and putting pressure on myself to finish. Obviously that hasn't worked.
I asked my financial advisor…how can I not have the book on my current Projects list? I have been promising it to my clients and subscribers for a long time now. One client already has placed an order for 100 books. (Now that is pressure.) He reminded me that the key is being in integrity with myself and telling myself the truth. I committed to completing down to the truth by following his suggestions. Little did I know the gift I was about to receive.
I returned home from the meeting and immediately created started "later down the road projects" off the Projects list and onto the Someday/Maybe list. I could feel my mind and body relaxing from pressure I didn't even know I had. However, when I got to the Completing Book project, I noticed I was unwilling to move it. Because I teach this stuff, I asked myself…what is the successful outcome I want with this book? I had to know the truth. Do I honestly see this book being completed and do I want to complete it? The answer was a clear yes. So then I asked…what is my timeline for completing it? The truth inside me (without the shoulds and others expectations) was next year. So I bravely changed the Completing Book project category on my action list from Projects to Someday/Maybe. Within seconds I received the clarity I have been looking for and the method to complete the book was laid out before me. I know this was a gift that came forward when I was willing to ask myself direct questions and tell myself the truth.
Last month one of my clients was quite proud that he had only six projects on his list but, after we were finished downloading his brain, the truth was he had close to 25 projects. He was carrying these projects in his head, not admitting he had them. It was true that many of them were Someday Maybes, but they were still taking his attention.
Once we free up the space inside that is being occupied by those things we haven't yet told ourselves the truth about, our creativity expands and can be expressed and completed.
Since my meeting with my financial advisor, I have been on a rampage of truth-telling to myself. I have replaced physical objects in my home that were bugging me that I had pretended not to notice—one was an office phone that didn’t allow me to hear as well as I wanted, another was giving away a chair that was comfortable but hardly used. The removal of the chair created room for something else that I didn't know was bugging me—it was a wonderful domino affect. And I actually did a number of things from my Someday/Maybe list spontaneously, without focusing on it.
Completing down to the truth gets all the bugs out and leaves us with big empty creative spaces to occupy.
Martha Invitations
1.Ask yourself…what haven't I been willing to admit to myself? It could be about anything. Then see what action you want to take.
2.Move something that you have had on your Projects list for more than a year to Someday/Maybe and see what happens. It might surprise you!
3.The next time you find yourself bugged about something see what action you can take to shift it.
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