Working from a place of restfulness
A couple of weeks ago, I had a fireside chat with Anupama Murali, on the subject matter of women in leadership. As a life coach, she makes it her mission to help people develop the "Achieve with Equilibrium" mindset. She goes about her daily affairs with a "Do what matters most!" approach. After speaking to her, I went to dig a little bit into the subject. That was when I came across the book “Exponential Living” by Sheila Riley. The caption "Stop Spending 100% of your time on 10% of who you are" immediately caught my attention.
The whole thing summarizes what Anupama and I were discussing about in our session. Whenever we are chasing after our achievements or accolades, there will always be an emptiness. Its like a void that we cannot fill by ourselves. We keep asking "what's next" and go running after the next thing. But imagine how different things will be when we can come from a place of feeling rested, and at peace with ourselves. Everything just naturally falls into place. You don't have a sense of striving as you go about your duties. Instead, you are filled with a sense of contentment. When you arrive at the state of peace, it shows that you are at a place where you settled and satisfied. So, when you go about trying to achieve something, you feel a sense of accomplishment.
And if things do not go as planned, it does not bring you down. You shrugged it off and keep on moving forward. At the end of the day, this is a result of us having a strong sense of self-awareness . It is about our capabilities and limitations. Sometimes people just keep themselves busy running to and fro because they do not have a sense of this inner peace. They try hard to fill the emptiness in them. Like what Anupama shared in the video, when we have busy schedules, it does not allow us to move forward towards our purpose. When I used to have a hectic work and social schedule, I found myself getting burn out easily. When you have people hanging around you without a purpose, you find yourself robbed of precious time. These people may even dissuade you from pursuing your dreams. Be intentional about how you spend your time and who you spend it with.
When you invest your time wisely on things you are passionate about, you find ourselves growing in many areas. Even when you are following your passion, be cautious of people wanting to rob you of your peace. It is natural for us to seek comments and feedback from our community of friends and peers when we embark on a new project. Although we can argue from a standpoint, that we are gathering feedback to improve ourselves; what we are seeking after is approval and affirmation. The comments we receive can spur us on or crush us. I made a stand very in my life not to let any comments affect me. I know they will cause me more harm then encouragement in my life. Instead I choose to filter the comments that I receive to see if it is beneficial for my growth. If they are something that can value add to my life, I take and it and apply it.
If they are something that comes from a place of not adding any value, I completely ignore it. Take control of your life and don't let the circumstances of people define who you are. "If you don't have peace, it isn't because someone took it from you, you gave it away. You cannot always control what happens to you, but you can control what happens in you," - John C Maxwell
