Strip It Down

You don’t get out of life what you want; you get out of life what you are.

-

Now read that again…

-

I read those words from Les Brown many months ago, and I jotted them down on a sticky note that has been stuck beside my keyboard all this time. I’ve read them every time I opened my laptop, and I’ve thought about them many other times throughout the days.

-

The impact of these words ran deep. I thought and thought and finally acknowledged to myself that the things I was saying I wanted out of life weren’t the things I was doing. Or being. Or feeling. Or even believing.

-

That sticky note, the one that’s now tattered and dirty and barely hanging on, kicked off a chain reaction in me that’s still playing out.

-

Over the past few months, I’ve been stripping things down. Removing the habits and hobbies and space-fillers that used to overload my calendar and keep me racing from one meeting to another. From one social gathering to another. From one task to the other.

-

The intent hasn’t been to remove all of those things from my life forever. Just to strip things down, simplify, gain clarity, find peace, sit in the stillness, and just be. To take out all of the distractions and really get a hold of what it is I want and who I want to be. Not who I used to want to be or who other people think I am.

-

It’s working. I’m starting to uncover an outline of what that life and person really look like. And as I start to see that more clearly, I’ll start adding back in the things that lead me toward that vision.

-

It hasn’t been easy, but it was necessary. A cleansing of sorts. A rebirth. An intentional reshaping of my daily patterns and where I want them to lead me. A phoenix rising from the self-created ashes.

-

I don’t have it all figured out, and I probably never will. I doubt this will be a one-time process and imagine it will be something that I implement every few years as a matter of well-being and happiness. A gut check on who I really am and where that’s taking me.

-

If you’ve been on this journey with me, I thank you. If you’ve been one that has listened to me ramble and struggle and ponder and figure things out, I thank you. If you’ve been one that I haven’t talked to or seen much in the past few months but you’re still there in the wings with our bonds of friendship still as strong as ever, I thank you.

-

Self care isn’t always easy and it’s often not understood by those around you, but it’s necessary. It’s hard and it’s messy and and it’s lonely and it’s confusing, but it’s also rewarding and soothing and strengthening and oh so very worth it.