Through BonneFire I have developed a monthly P-R-P:
Pulse Check – Reflection – Practice.
June’s Inspiring Guidance & Teaching for members is
“Reflecting mid-year and checking in with yourself”
Enjoy a sample below.
Join BonneFire today to gain access to the full text of June’s Inspiring Guidance & Teaching!
Reflecting mid-year and checking in with yourself
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley
What’s it in for you to reflect and check-in?
Better your life. Improve your relationships with yourself and other people. Learn to be authentic to your own voice and to who you are. Observe where, and how, and with whom you are not being truthful to yourself– or to them. Realize where some of your commitments are really not fulfilling, and how you might hold on for the external approval. Recognize when you know you are fulfilled and thriving. You get to know in your gut if your life and your leadership flow. You know if you are truly claiming your life…or not. It is not being egoistical, but honoring you.
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In my 2017 holiday wish I said, “As you contemplate kicking off 2018, consider how the balance in our lives is achieved by knowing ourselves and honestly, intentionally engaging in all sectors of our lives with respect for who we are.”
How may we know that we are on course, if we don’t take the time to really pause, ponder and ask the questions about how we are doing in our lives? How can we commit to change, even transform our lives, if we don’t know what to change and how to change?
Regardless of the time of the year, it is truly beneficial to minimally take a “pulse check,” in order to achieve optimal whole-life balance. Balance is achieved when we are truthful with ourselves about knowing what works in our lives, what needs improvement and what is missing.
“When we take a true pulse and reflect, we gain clarity about what worked, what was disappointing, and how we could have been more effective and possibly more patient and tolerant. We also confront the truth about where we missed the mark.
“In having a clear picture, we can define what should change and how we intend to create the outcome we’re capable of producing and hope to realize.” – Johanne Bouchard, Explore Big Sky, Dec 2016
Checking in, taking a pulse check, is to pause and to check how we are doing. Remember how a basketball player has to check his/her play not every other game, but at every game, at every quarter, in the moment of every throw, before and after every game. A golfer, a singer, a rower, a firefighter… anyone who is intently present to what s/he is doing and caring to be her/his best at what s/he is doing naturally takes a pulse check, as an individual and collectively when s/he is part of a team. A checking-in is actually being authentic with our feelings, and to connect with what sits within our own hearts. It is not criticizing ourselves but ideally constructively critiquing ourselves. It is optimally not comparing ourselves to others but rather getting in touch with ourselves and really knowing if we are giving it our best in what we elect to do and how we do it; what we choose to communicate and how we say it.
Let me ask you…
How do you feel about your life so far this year? Did you have a vision of yourself, and did you have clear intentions going into 2018, as a leader of your life and as a leader of others?
“Before I ask you to sit with me,
I must be able to sit with myself,
Before I ask you to accept my pain,
I have to accept the pain myself,
Before I ask you to love me,
I have to be madly in love with myself.” – C. Thoth
Being reflective is healthy as it is about developing self-awareness and self-knowledge to lead one’s self. Your wisest self lies within you, not outside of you. You need to take time to shut out the noise around you and isolate yourself from all the noise that is being pushed at you and that you often seek. Noise clutters your ability to be clear, to focus and be who you are.
My holiday wish invited us to take the time to reflect and to be introspective as we began a New Year; to set a clear vision, clear intentions and attention to lead our lives with conviction in alignment with who we are.
“Do more than believe: practice.” – William-Arthur Ward
Practice is so important to create the result(s) you want. When you commit to conducting a pulse check the practice is to act on what is being revealed, to experience the positive results and to keep on practicing at assessing, checking in, to finely tune all aspects of your life in alignment with you.
If you did have intentions going into the New Year, revisit how you are doing with them. Don’t assume that you need to stick to these same ones. You might have changed your mind, or want to change your mind, having realized that they were lofty goals or not really what you intended to manifest. Take the time to think through new intentions or revisit the intentions you had for yourself.
If you did change a job, don’t assume that because you have changed you didn’t get yourself in a situation that might still not work for you. It is not unusual to resist change or to resist admitting that a new change is actually not the kind of change that works for you.
Gain access to the full text of June’s Inspiring Guidance & Teaching by joining BonneFire today!
BonneFire is a community dedicated to fostering healthy individuals and healthy organizations. BonneFire is about living our lives loving what we do, being authentic to who we are, to our own unique blueprint. It is about being in harmony with ourselves and caring to be in harmony with others and realizing our individual and collective potential in all sectors of our lives.
BonneFire is in support of being true to ourselves, showing up authentically in roles that we commit to and inviting individuals to be introspective, self-aware, mindful, intentional and purposeful. Together we lead with dignity in alignment on values, governance and strategic priorities, conscious of the impact we can make for future generations. We are in service to each other and all stakeholders.
