Date: Saturday, November 18th
Time: 3:13 PM
#ThoughtsFromABench
When it hit me, I knew there was no turning back.
— The course changed.
Excited and hesitant about what was to come next.
I don’t know where it came from but all I know is that there was an obligation to follow it.
Like an electrician chasing a wire to its source.
More on that later in the post.
Most households have a storage drawer where you’ll find anything and everything. (maybe that’s just me)
Inside the drawer, it is messy and chaotic.
There may be some valuable and useful items in there but most of the space is taken up by clutter.
When you open it up and witness the crazy mess you quickly shut it because the task to find what is important is too daunting.
So what do you do?
Just let it be in its chaotic state?
Or do you take the time to separate what is important from what needs to be tossed out?
Let’s look at the two options.
Having worked in a business that helps customers maintain their properties I learnt that junk attracts more junk.
If you leave the mess as it is, it will only grow larger.
Allow the mess to grow larger and now you have a dilemma.
So quite clearly, letting it be is not the path forward.
When it comes to making major decisions, people oftentimes suffer the same issues as the cluttered drawer.
There’s too much stuff i.e. thoughts and ideas.
Your mind is cluttered and unorganized. Identifying what is important is almost impossible.
With an internal environment resembling a cluttered drawer, how can you make clear choices?
— You can’t.
It leads to decision paralysis.
There’s too much sorting to be done so you leave the decision alone which is also not the path forward.
How can I say this with certainty?
Well, because it’s what I’ve experienced myself.
I’ve been long pondering some big life decisions.
There’s been an awful amount of clutter standing in the way of making a decision.
I was searching for a way to remove all of the unnecessary noise.
What I was referring to at the start of my post was a question.
That’s what hit me while I was out for a run.
In a previous post, I shared what that experience was like.
The following question is what arrived into my mind;
“If I were to imagine myself in my old age, nearing the end of my life, and considered the regrets I might have, what would they be?”
What this question achieves is crystal clear clarity.
It’s not about looking back at what has already happened. It’s about looking forward from this very moment to your future self nearing the end of life.
It helps you to understand what you want the space in between to look like so that you can avoid regrets come the end.
What you can’t live without and what you cannot live with.
By answering this question, I could inform my next steps in alignment with what is most important to me.
After sitting down in solace, the themes of what was most important to me jumped off the page.
Well-Being
Family
Growth
Since identifying those themes, I have made some significant life choices.
I have decided to move to Ireland where my family resides.
This means leaving Canada, the place where I have built a life for myself and that I love.
That said, with the clarity of what’s most important for me in 2024, I can sleep easy at night.
The next big decision I’ve made is to leave my job.
I have been privileged to work for an organization that provided me the platform to grow as a professional and person over the past five years.
Making this decision wasn’t easy but I firmly believe that it’s the right choice to pursue self-actualization.
My role as a sales leader provided me with an avenue to unlock people’s full potential.
That is one of the areas of my work that I’m most passionate about.
Through my own experience and mentoring numerous employees, I’ve realized that people feel stuck in their careers.
They lack the clarity and guidance required to pursue what they truly enjoy.
I’m excited to help many people overcome this challenge.
The second area that brings me the most amount of joy is creating an authentic culture.
Many leaders and businesses face the challenge of building an authentic team culture that truly engages and retains employees.
I’ve developed and implemented a successful framework to solve this.
Focusing on those areas will allow me to achieve the greatest amount of personal growth while also helping others to do the same.
— Now it’s time to build.
Live Free,
Niall
Readers Reflection
What life decisions have you been avoiding due to a cluttered mind? If you focus on what’s most important to you, what decisions would you make?
Live free ❤️