Power Years

Are you satisfied with how much fun you're having? Here's how to find out what's fun for you and make more time for it.

"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep." This poem captures everything I am trying to do in my personal and professional life: stay awake and help wake other people up to themselves and all their possibilities. It's so easy to sleepwalk through life. To not be in our bodies. To not be present to ourselves and the world around us. Particularly these days, it can be exhausting to stay awake and witness everything going on in the world. Switching to autopilot, maintaining the status quo, and numbing can almost feel necessary to survive.

Midlife gets a bad rap with its connection to crises and stray chin hairs. But what is also true is the middle can be an incredible time of life. By the time we reach our 40s and 50s, we’ve put hours and hours into building our lives. If we haven’t quite gotten to the top of the mountain then we’re at least experts on the climb. And we look around and realize that all our choices have brought us to this point.

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is not busy at all and 10 is totally time bankrupt, how busy are you? If you said 10 (or even 11 or 12), you’re not alone. Life is busy. Especially when we have multiple roles and responsibilities and people counting on us. And who are we kidding, that's mostly everybody these days. There is always someone or something who needs our attention. So let’s say for the sake of argument there really is zero time. Let’s say that every minute is legitimately booked.

I have a lot of empathy for feeling stuck. I understand how hard it can be to bust out of well-worn patterns, habits, and beliefs. When I’ve felt like that in the past, I haven’t been able to see what’s possible. I haven’t been able to see that I have choices. It feels like I’m going around and around in circles and nothing changes. And worse, it seems like everyone else is moving forward.

Late last year, I realized that some parts of my life were thriving and others were looking a little bit flat. So in January, I decided that instead of waiting until the end of the year to take stock and come up with goals for the new year, I would do that at the end of every month.

Are you being guided by a clear understanding of what you want your life to look like and what matters to you or is your Inner Critic making your decisions? The answer to that question is the key to beginning to make new choices that will help you create a life that serves you.

After learning how to make a "Book of Hours" in Rozanne Lopez's workshop last December, I'm sharing some of my favorite quotes and wisdom from my very own Book of Hours journal. They continue to inspire me and keep me focused. I hope they will be valuable to you as well.