“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– William Faulkner
Sometimes I get so focused on my goals I forget about how I want to feel. I’ve started to put my hand on my chest and check in with my heart. “OK, wild heart, what are you feeling?”
I did this the other day after a week of striving and pushing towards my goals. I had to decide whether to go to a writer’s conference in June. I often make decisions based on the amount of effort, time and money spent versus the potential reward. But this time, when I checked in with my heart I heard these words: “You don’t need this conference. You’re done preparing. Keep doing. Not by striving, but by allowing.”
I’ve been a hard worker all my life. I always gave more than was expected of me, especially with my own business. And now that I get to pour that energy into my creativity I don’t want to hold back. What I took from the message of my heart is to love what I’m doing with no outcome in mind, to love the pouring out of words. To trust in the timing of things. Basically don’t push the river.
Oh, I was a great river pusher. I fought against that current until I was exhausted. When I was too tired to be in the water I held onto the river bank and stood my ground against the force of the current. I insisted on going upstream when the river was telling me to let go and float downstream.
Now that I’ve learned to put my hand on my heart and pledge allegiance to myself I’ll trust I don’t need to push the river any longer. I will work from my heart and allow things to come to me, instead of always pushing my will on how things should be. I will let go of the riverbank and find the courage to go with the flow of my life. I will use the mainstream current whenever possible. And hopefully I’ll learn how to float along the way.
