Where’s Your Heart?

As we all face this new year, many of us are exci­ted to face new cha­llen­ges, meet new goals, aspire to become new peo­ple & see new triumphs. We all pre­pare our­sel­ves in a variety of dif­fe­rent ways, lists, calen­dars, new apps, semi­nars, mee­tings, new habits, and this year, even a new pre­si­dent. These things are all good, and help us focus & get on track. But where is your heart at?

You know those moments that you have on rare occa­sion where your heart rips out of your chest, raw & alive, and is expo­sed to the world? Maybe it hap­pens riding in a car with an old friend, blas­ting an old record with the win­dows down. Maybe with your spouse in the kitchen after sha­ring a good laugh. Maybe at church when something pro­found hits you. Or after a con­ver­sa­tion that kept you up to the wee hours of the mor­ning. You know, those expe­rien­ces that give you goo­se­bumps and make you feel like you’re really living? When you stop to reflect in that moment, what is your thought? Is your self reflec­tion a “this is what I’m meant to do” or “this is who I’m meant to be” type of sta­te­ment? I know for me it often is. Your per­cep­tion of “rea­lity” throws cau­tion to the wind and your heart beats with pas­sion as your mind grasps to catch up.

Savor that moment. Bottle it up and take it to go. I think the whole con­cept that “rea­lity” sinks back in is bogus. What is rea­lity that it won’t allow us to live up to the full mea­sure of who we are meant to be in those moments? I’m not saying that we all have to aban­don the 9–5 to go live the dream, but what is it that holds us back from living out that full­ness in our ordi­nary lives? Why not BE who we’re meant to be no mat­ter what we’re doing or where we’re going? If we all lived up to our highest self stan­dard, how much bet­ter would that make every envi­ron­ment? What if ever­yone around you was trying to be the kin­dest per­son they knew how? Or the big­gest giver that they could be? How radi­cally dif­fe­rent would that make your work­place, your friendships & your intimate relationships?

I think that if rather than focu­sing on goals, aspi­ra­tions, and reso­lu­tions this year, we all focu­sed on trying to lis­ten to what our hearts tell us in those moments that we have all had, we would see much grea­ter suc­cess than we would hope for with our plan­ning & goals. So I cha­llenge you, in the face of your new years reso­lu­tions, and year plan­ning, to set aside some time and get in touch with your heart. Delve into those inner­most thoughts and figure out who it is you want to become this year through your tra­vels. Become that per­son, and all your other plan­ning will fall into place.

(Photo cre­dit: coconutbased.com)

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