Episode 74
Do you ever look at what everyone else seems to be doing, creating, becoming... and suddenly find yourself wondering— Am I behind?
Maybe you have big dreams. Maybe you can feel something opening inside of you. Maybe you know there's something you're being called toward.
But the moment you begin looking at how everyone else seems to be moving, creating, and progressing, you lose sight of your own path.
And perhaps that's because your path can disappear from your awareness when you are staring at everyone else’s.
Today, I want to talk about that feeling of being behind, the overwhelm that can come when you begin to see the vastness of what we're becoming or what we're being called to create, and why you don't have to see the entire path in order to take the next step.
We'll explore how to come back to yourself, back to the energy that is alive within you, and why perhaps you're more on your path than you think you are.
If you're ready to join me, pull up a comfy chair, invite in your Soul, and be open to receive exactly what you need to live, be, and thrive as the embodied soul you are.
With everything that we've been moving through lately, I think many of us are feeling something opening. There’s a sense of expansion.
We've released things. We've let go of beliefs, identities, ways of being, ways of seeing ourselves. And when we create that space within ourselves, something else often begins to rise.
There can be this urge to create. To become. To move. To express something. To follow something that has been calling to us. And that can look like so many different things.
Maybe you're feeling more drawn toward your soul's path. Maybe you're opening to more of who you are at your essence now that some of those old identities and beliefs have begun to fall away.
Maybe there's something you want to create. An offering. A project. Something you want to share with the world. Maybe there's something you want to say. Or perhaps you're simply beginning to get a glimpse of what you want your life to feel like.
And you can feel it drawing you forward. The energy begins to rise. You start writing things down. You start thinking about what you want to do and where you want to go. What are those steps? What's possible?
And for me, I was experiencing some of this when I was travelling. There was more space. My environment had changed. And things were opening. I was getting clearer about some of the things that I wanted to move toward and create.
And then I came home. And I began taking action on one of those things. Just beginning. Taking some of those little baby steps. And very quickly, I found myself overwhelmed. Because this particular creation is big. It's a compilation of many things. There have…There are so many possibilities. And many choices. And suddenly, I couldn't see the forest for the trees.
And I think this is something that can happen regardless of where you are on your path.
Sometimes we begin to see more. We begin to recognize possibilities that perhaps we couldn't see before. We begin to understand the vastness of something that wants to be created through us. Or the vastness of who we are becoming.
And then the mind comes in and says— “Okay. But how are we going to do all of this?”
And when we begin trying to see the entire path…
When we begin trying to figure out every step…
When we think we have to understand exactly how the whole project is going to come together, or exactly how many… exactly how we're going to become this next version of ourselves...
We can become completely overwhelmed. We can end up doing nothing at all. Because the whole thing suddenly feels too big.
And I think one of the things that’s important for us to remember right now is that we don't have to do it all. We don't even have to see how the whole thing is going to happen.
You don't have to figure out the entire creation.
You don't have to know exactly how your soul's path is going to unfold.
You don't have to know how you're going to get from where you are now to the person you can feel yourself becoming.
You may be able to see the forest.
You may have these big dreams.
You may have big plans.
And I think it's wonderful to zoom out sometimes and allow yourself to see that. Allow yourself to imagine. Allow yourself to feel into the vastness of what might be possible.
But then come back down. Come back to this moment. Because don't let the vastness of who you are becoming convince you that you have to become all of it today.
You don't.
You just have to ask yourself— What is one small step I can take today? What's one thing that I know I can do?
And then do that one thing.
Maybe it's writing an email.
Maybe it's writing in your journal.
Maybe it's organizing one small part of something that you're creating.
Maybe it's asking yourself— What feels most alive for me right now? Where is the energy flowing?
And sometimes, the next step may not even look like it's directly related to the thing that you think you're creating.
Maybe the next step is going for a walk.
Maybe it's resting.
Maybe it's meditating.
Maybe it's doing something that allows you to come back into your body and reconnect with yourself.
When in doubt, follow the energy.
Follow the flow of the energy.
What feels expansive?
What's drawing you forward?
What do you keep being called back to?
What feels alive?
Do that thing.
And then see what happens.
And here's something else that happened to me this morning. I was looking through some emails. And I was seeing things that other creators were creating and birthing into the world. And almost immediately, I could feel myself getting heavy. And the thoughts began...
I’m behind.I'm not moving fast enough.
I'm clearly not putting my energy in the right place.
I'm delaying.
And on and on and on.
And thankfully, almost immediately, there was another part of me that stepped in and said—
You're exactly where you need to be.
And I think we forget this. I know I forget this.
Because no matter how much we understand something, comparison can still sneak in. We can still look at what someone else is doing. How they're expressing. What they're creating. How quickly things seem to be moving for them. And somehow make that information mean something about us.
That we're behind.
That we're not doing enough.
That we're doing something wrong.
And I think comparison is such a beautiful way to keep ourselves stuck.
It's a beautiful way to make ourselves feel bad.
It's a beautiful way to put our energy out of the present moment and put us into our heads.
Because your path can disappear from your awareness when you are staring at everyone else's.
And suddenly, instead of asking— What's alive in me?
Where is my energy going?
What is calling me?
We're asking— What should I be doing because they're doing that?
And those are very different questions.
No one else's path is your own.
Their timing is not a measurement of yours.
Their creation doesn't mean you should have created yours already.
Their opening doesn't mean you're not opening.
Their becoming doesn't mean you're behind in becoming yourself.
And I think this is where I want to share an analogy that I learned years ago that has stayed with me. Think of your path a little bit like a GPS. We put a destination into the GPS. And perhaps, in this case, that destination is something that we came here wanting to experience in this lifetime.
Maybe there is a coordinate within you. Something your soul knows. Something your body knows. Something your energy knows.
Maybe it's a creation that you want to bring into the world. Maybe you can see it already in your mind. You know what it is that you're creating, even if you don't yet know all the details.
Maybe your destination is better health. You can imagine yourself feeling alive and joyful in your body and your life.
Maybe it's a different way of living. A different experience. A different expression of yourself. There is something within you that knows the direction. The coordinate is there. And then you begin. You take a step. You move toward it.
But what happens if you think you've made a wrong turn? What does the GPS do?
It doesn't panic.
It doesn't say: “Well, that's it. You've ruined the entire journey. You should have turned left ten minutes ago. Look at all of the other cars that are further ahead of you. Clearly, you're terrible at this.”
It doesn't shame you. It doesn't punish you. It doesn't tell you that you've fallen off the journey completely.
It simply says— Recalculating.
And then it meets you where you are.
Not where you think you should be.
Not where you were supposed to turn left.
Not where everybody else is. Where you are. And it gives you the next step from there.
And I think sometimes we forget that. We spend so much time wondering whether we've somehow fallen off our path.
Whether we made the wrong decision.
Whether we wasted time.
Whether we should have done something differently.
But perhaps we don't need to answer all of those questions. Perhaps we simply need to ask: I'm here now. What's my next step from here?
Because you're always somewhere. You're always at a coordinate. And from wherever you are, there is another step available.
And of course, this also brings me back to something I've talked about with you before and that’s detours.
Because sometimes we think we know the destination. We put something into our GPS and we think: Okay. This is where I'm going. And maybe we have an idea of exactly how we think we're supposed to get there.
And then life happens.
We take a turn we weren't expecting.
Something changes.
We end up somewhere we didn't plan to go.
And perhaps we think, “Aaah. I’ve taken a wrong turn.” But sometimes, looking back, we realize that there was something there that we needed. Something we couldn't have known when we first set out. A person. An experience. A healing. A piece of information. A skill. A part of ourselves.
Something beautiful that became part of the journey.
And maybe what we thought was taking us off our path was actually adding something to it.
Maybe our soul knows a little more about the journey than our conscious mind does.
Maybe we entered the destination we could imagine at this time. But there was something larger unfolding. Something that we couldn't see yet.
And maybe, sometimes, the route changes us. Maybe sometimes we change what we understand the destination to be.
So perhaps recalculating doesn't always mean— You made a mistake.
Maybe sometimes it simply means— There's something this way first.
And also… Stop at the café and have a coffee. Go to the park and smell the flowers.
Please. Life is not a race. There is no medal for getting there first.
You don't have to race through your own becoming.
You can rest.
You can take a pause.
You can take a detour.
You can make a decision that, looking back, you might have made differently now. You can do something that you think you shouldn't have done.
And then— Let it go. Forgive yourself.
The GPS is already recalculating.
You don't need to spend the next ten years punishing yourself because you missed a turn. You're here. Come back to yourself. And ask— What's my next step?
And this is where I want to come back to the beginning of this conversation. Because when we feel the vastness of something… when we can see the forest… when we can see all of the things we want to create, all of the ways we want to grow, all of the things we want to experience…
It can feel overwhelming.
But you don't have to walk the entire forest today.
The destination can be big.
Your next step does not have to be.
You can hold the whole forest in your vision.
And then come back down to the tree in front of you.
You can put the destination into the GPS. But you still have to take a step. The GPS can know exactly where you're going, but you won't move toward it if you don't move.
And I think this is the balance.
You don't have to do everything.
You don't have to do it perfectly.
You don't have to do it quickly.
But when you recognize a step that is yours to take— Take it. Just take one step. And then see what comes next.
And if comparison creeps in— Notice it.
If you begin shaming yourself because you're not doing enough— Notice it.
If you begin blaming yourself because you didn't do the thing you said you were going to do— Pause.
And remember, for now, give yourself a little reprieve. Give yourself some care. Remember that you are exactly where you are. And from here, there is a next step.
And if you choose one small thing and you don't do it… If you recognize the next step and you find yourself resisting it… Don't immediately make that mean that you're lazy. Or that you're failing. Or that you're not on your path.
Just get curious.
Notice the resistance.
Write it down.
Ask yourself— Why is this coming up right now?
How might this be keeping me in the same place?
How might it be protecting me?
What might it be protecting me from? Even if that thing isn't actually true now.
You don't have to solve all of this today.
For now, just notice, because we'll talk more about resistance another time.
But today, I just want to leave you with this.
You don't have to figure out the entire route.
You don't have to know every turn.
You don't have to see the whole path.
You don't have to race toward the destination.
But you can come back to yourself.
You can look for where the energy is.
You can listen for what feels alive.
And you can take one small step.
You are not behind.
You haven't fallen off the path.
You haven't fallen out of the navigation system.
And if you think you've taken a wrong turn...
Recalculating.
Come back to yourself.
And take the next step.
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I look forward to being with you again next week.
