I have twenty tabs open in my brain right now, like a project spanning multiple desktops and screens might require. I feel like I’m receiving calls on an old fashioned landline phone, with several lights flashing, waiting for me to hang up and pick up the next call.
One call from Productivity.
Another call from Balance.
Friendship keeps calling me, too.
Perhaps it’s Overwhelm, wearing a covert hat and sunglasses to disguise herself as Productivity, that is waiting for me to pick up the phone.
I keep avoiding her, but I know that she is accompanying me whether I want her to or not, like a shadow, dutifully following a 3-D shape in the sun.
Overwhelm lingers, creeping up from behind, like a child crouching behind another in gym class, getting ready to action the cruel and timeless joke of pants-ing another child.
Overwhelm stalks and waits.
She sits on my shoulders, with the heaviness of a weighted blanket, only shifting to slowly but expertly rise and bring her heaviness to my head. She plants seeds of a headache, and currently, congestion, forcing me to be here and now.
Frustration has called, too. She calls with a message that I thought I’d left in my twenties, but is now popping up again, like a piece of chewing gum you thought you’d removed from your shoe.
Frustration whispers her message nonchalantly: I thought I’d have it figured out by now.
It. What is it?
All the things we’re sold as children and women and young adults. The American Dream. The dashing husband. The beautiful children. The house in the suburbs, with a Cockapoo running around in the grass. The dream job. The profitable business. The perfect life.
If I could snap my fingers, though, and have all of those things magically appear, would I?
No, I wouldn’t.
As much as those things would all be nice (and honestly, welcome)… that’s not how life works.
The perfect life, the beautiful life, is one, I think, that requires building.
So my dear friends Overwhelm, Frustration, Productivity, Balance, and Friendship… you are part of the building.
I do believe that nothing is built overnight… except, maybe, an outfit for the next day’s work, and even that is stretching it for me these days.
Building takes time. It takes trial and error. It takes growth mindset. Learning from failures and experiences, and deciding to try it again.
Perhaps we spend so much time focused on the outcome of getting “it,” that we forget about the value of the process.
Honestly, yeah, I thought I’d have more figured out by now.
But if I reflect on the last five or ten years of my life… or heck, even the last six months… I am proud. It hasn’t been easy, but I feel privileged to witness my own growth, as a human, woman, coach, and being.
Plus, the building is a process of Creation. We get to create and collaborate and author our own lives and mindsets and next steps. We get to dream of what’s possible… and then, if we have the guts to go out and actually do it — we get to make our dreams something we can pick up and hold in our hands.
Don’t be fooled… sometimes, dreams change. Like most in this life, they were never really ours anyway. They evolve and change and grow, just like children have the tendency to do.
It’s the dreams that stick with you, that will absolutely not go away, much like the child in class that raises their hand to answer every question… that are worth exploring.
This is my favorite part of coaching, the opportunity to dream and hold space for my clients and their respective visions. The opportunity to flow with what’s possible for them, and witness what sticks.
Our dreams are important. They matter.
How often do you allow yourself to dream? And which of our aforementioned “friends” (or others), get in the way?
I’d love to hear.
In loving support of you and your dreams,
Grace