Are You on A Plateau?

"Forget it enough to get over it, but remember it enough so it doesn't happen again."

~Me

It's a strange and frustrating place to be when you've achieved a long-awaited goal.

It is a place you've only considered as a hope, and yet with hard work and determination, you are there. You thought to yourself for years that 'if I could only finish this' or 'if I could only fit into this size' or 'if I could only earn this much' and now you are here. And what you know is something that only people who reach that point know - it's not the end of the hard work. But the once ridiculously hard work is now habit and routine, so it's changed from desperation to determination to daring. Daring to see just how far you can go. You could keep what you've learned to yourself, but before you know it, you'll be in a conversation with others who are on that path, just further behind, and they are stuck. Unable to move forward and looking for answers. You've hit a plateau.

Maybe the problem is, you're striving to be impressive rather than authentic? 

Plateaus can be a way for your true self to call you back to just be sure you know what you are doing and where you are going. It's a flat place where you can sit, stand or wait. It allows you to rest without fear of falling or losing your balance. Funny, we usually self-designate these places of rest, but at other times, they appear to be imposed upon us.  It can be your support team, whether it be body, mind or soul, just needs a break. Or, you could be subconsciously slowing yourself down. Something caused you concern, or maybe you tripped and got scared. Whatever the reason, you're there. The external drives are somehow not clicking with the internal needs.

It's time to regain our connection with self.

It is the voice of your own internal mentor. It knows you best, but you have to choose to listen to it. The external voices of others can drown it out, and we end up giving away our own personal power. When you believe that the answers we seek lie outside of ourselves, we can forget to check in and see what really true for us. The internal knows this. So it is asking you to wait. 

So what will you do with your plateau?

You can get frustrated and blame.

You can give up and roll backward.

Or you can take a deep breath and rest.

The last one gives you the chance to be transparent and honest so you can decide when to move forward.

Cheers.

Occupation: Aspiring Beam of Light

"What is to give light, must endure the burning."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

A part of my job that I particularly love is interviewing prospective new team members.

Most of the time, they are social worker types like me and very interested in service to others. Many are young, but I also get the occasional seasoned soul who is looking for a place to put down long term roots. During these adventures, I usually have some of the most interesting conversations. If they are willing to open up, I can get to their motivation for wanting to work with children on the Autism Spectrum. Many times, I am inspired by their answers and challenged to look inside and reconsider my own motives.

Yesterday, I spoke with a young man who had the most unusual name.

While I will not share that private part of the conversation, I will tell you that the name seemed somewhat spiritual in nature. I found out that it was a name he had chosen himself, which made it even more intriguing. He explained that the meaning had to do with always facing toward the light so that you could put your shadows behind you. He could not have known that this week, I have been musing about being a light to others, and what this means for me.

Not just seeking the light, but being one.

Being an aspiring beam of light that shines right on others, putting their 'shadows' behind them. I do appreciate times when we have to seek light. Times when we find ourselves in a darker place and feel a bit lost. I understand it feels as though we have lost our light source in these times, but I wonder if this is just our own self-defeating behavior? What if the light we seek is always within, only covered over by things that come into our lives and succeed in covering it over for a while? Like a fire extinguisher, events that spray a retardant on our flame to smother it? 

Could it be we only need to manifest the flame, the passion, or the effort to rekindle it?

What do you need to do to stoke up your inner fire? 

Don't be afraid of the heat. Let it burn baby.

So go - glow.

Cheers.