How do we design ourselves a new future and move forward when it feels like you hit a wall,
Are overwhelmed,
And feel stuck?
Well,
It starts with taking an honest look at yourself.
Hey there friends,
Thanks for hitting play today and sharing a little piece of your journey with me.
My name is Anthony V.
Lombardo and welcome to this edition of the You Are a Conscious Creator podcast where I hope to provide you with some inspiration and guidance to help you consciously create a life of meaning,
Purpose,
And one that you absolutely love.
Many of us will reach a time in our life when we begin re-evaluating who we truly are outside of the identity we've been clinging to.
And without the status of our career or relationship situation,
This crisis of consciousness can be epic,
Like experiencing a dark night of the soul,
Where it feels like the ground beneath our feet is beginning to crumble,
And our entire existence is getting thrown into question.
Or it can be something simple,
Like just being sick and tired of being sick and tired of the monotony and mundane nature of life.
In these moments in life,
Whether big or small,
We crave something more meaningful and purposeful and yearn for truth.
In many ways,
We are empty and unsure of where to go and what to do to fill ourselves up again.
Many psychologists say these bouts of self-examination typically arise during midlife,
But I wonder if it is far more pervasive.
In our age of rapid technology,
Where screens are engineered to steal our attention and keep us searching for that next hit of dopamine,
Emptiness is surely inevitable.
Maybe you're not in midlife,
And maybe you never felt quote-unquote empty,
But we all have experienced the proverbial hitting a wall.
During a bout of feeling burnt out,
One of my colleagues recently told me that he told a friend of his,
I feel like I'm emotionally hitting a wall.
And she replied to him,
Well sometimes walls are there so we can lean on them and rest.
He couldn't even begin to express how much that really meant to him and how much he really needed to hear that.
Because sometimes in life,
We reach a point where there is very little pep in our step to continue moving forward on something we've been doing,
Something we've been pouring our heart into,
Pouring all our energy and time into.
Although we might initially internalize this as a negative,
It is actually a sign to reset and reconsider where we have been going and what we really want out of our lives.
Here's the hard truth that we are oblivious to most of the time,
The hamster wheel of life is very real and exhausting.
And the more we run on autopilot,
The further we move away from the truth of who we are and what we desire our life to really be.
So whether it's a midlife crisis,
Hitting a wall,
Feeling burnt out,
Or just spinning our wheels,
It's really all a classic case of feeling stuck.
And I have personally found that feeling stuck usually is the result of not acknowledging what our inner world is asking us to address.
Whether that's because we don't want to experience unpleasant emotions or face a difficult truth about ourselves,
Sometimes it's easier to deny what's bubbling up inside us and to keep doing what we've always been doing.
Let's face it,
Who wants to intentionally cause chaos for themselves and blow up their life?
In his various books on minimalism,
Joshua Field sums this up nicely by saying,
People often avoid the truth for fear of destroying the illusions they've built.
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
Just think about that.
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
Vishen Lakhiani in his book,
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind,
Refers to something like this as the beautiful destruction,
Where we sometimes have to destroy a part of ourselves so something greater can be ushered in.
So with that said,
The real answer to stop feeling stuck?
Start giving your life a hard look at who you are as a person and what brings you meaning and purpose.
But there's a catch here.
This is not somebody else's version of meaning and purpose.
This is not what society,
Religion,
Or your upbringing told you about the type of life you should have.
This is about getting honest with yourself and defining what is true for you.
Any time is a good time to begin actively designing your future life.
And maybe that time is now for you.
In her book,
Rising Strong,
The Reckoning,
The Rumble,
The Revolution,
Brene Brown writes,
People who wade in discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses.
I love that line.
And you're just as much a badass if the person you tell the truth to is yourself.
So with all that being said,
Here are some questions you can start to ask yourself to help you jumpstart this process of getting unstuck.
And it all begins by exploring what feels important to you.
So here are five simple questions to consider.
What makes me feel alive?
What am I passionate about?
What provides me meaning?
What did I love doing as a child but lost touch with?
What truly makes me joyous and makes my heart sing?
Now when you answer these questions,
Take note of whose voice is answering them.
Are these answers coming from deep within you or are they corrupted by outside influences?
Does it feel true?
If any of your answers don't feel like they are 100% yours,
Keep questioning your answers.
The way to make sure that you keep all the outside noise out of the equation and even keep your ego out of this process is to answer from emotion and intuition and keep questioning if it feels undeniably true for you.
But keep in mind,
This is not something you need to force or create.
These answers are within you.
They just need to be nurtured and released from years or lifelong conditioning.
If you listen,
They will be there.
They will speak to you and show themselves.
Sometimes in life,
The most insightful answers we seek are from the hard questions we have to ask ourselves.
We just need a little courage.
So if you're at a crossroads right now in your life,
You're feeling stuck and overwhelmed,
I urge you to go within and be curious to see what you find and love it and be with it.
That's probably all you really need to reach some clarity and to have peace of mind.
So thanks for listening today.
I'll leave you with this quote from the writer Ian Thomas.
Have a wonderful,
Beautiful,
And highly conscious day.
Much love.
