A Trifecta of Life Lessons

1. There are no obstacles: only opportunities to learn and grow.
2. There is nothing I need that I don’t have.
3. Everything that must get done will get done.

Some people choose the field of Accounting because of their love of numbers. I had chosen it because of my fear of words. Truth be told, I barely passed 10th grade because of a D- in English. When I was 38, I discovered I was a writer, and my journey since then has been one of trying to reconcile and integrate this “inconvenient truth”.

I’m 45 now, and as a single mother with two active girls, a full-time job, physical therapy for a severe herniated disc, and a new consulting business I’m trying to get off the ground, there is little time to just sit and write anymore.

And as I found myself torn this morning between wanting to write a post for you today and needing to do therapeutic exercises, get my girls ready for school, and get myself ready for work, I found myself thinking, “I have no time to write today.” There was sadness as that sentiment rolled through me.

One lesson I’ve learned well over these past six years is that there are no obstacles: only opportunities to learn and grow. Listening to my inner dialogue this morning I realized I was just making an excuse, and in that excuse, I was turning away from the writer that I am.

Two other lessons arrived hot on the heels of this winning truth: there is nothing I need that I don’t have, and everything that must get done will get done. Over the past six years, this trifecta of life lessons has empowered me to transform my life from one of deep despair to one of thriving adventure. When something is important to me, I know I can either make an excuse or I can take action.

Granted, there are some fairly immovable factors of my life that I choose to honor in order to keep the wheels greased. But there are many other factors that can shift, shrink, or fall away all together if I am bold enough to be who I am.

As I look at my morning from the other side of having written this post, I see clearly that my busy schedule is not what stands in the way of writing: it actually drives me to write. If I had all the time in the world, there is a chance I wouldn’t write much at all, and a chance that the things I would write might be more “soft” and less practical.

These very distinct boundaries don’t stand in the way of creativity: they help me get clear quickly about what to write. These boundaries also set the stage for writing and give me material to write about. Even more, they prod me to share what I’ve written before I have a chance to judge it as pure garbage and rework it to death or not post it at all.

There are no ostacles: only opportunities to learn and grow. There is nothing I need that I don’t have. Everything that must get done will get done. So now let me ask you: what’s standing in the way of you being most fully yourself?