Dear Passionate Creatives,

For years I had been hitting the pause button on my life…I’d been hitting it so much that I’d finally managed to get it stuck there. When opportunities would present themselves I would turn the other way. When ideas sprang to mind, I would temporarily get excited and then flippantly shrug them off. I’d craft tailored excuses and create scenarios that justified how or why I couldn’t action what I wanted to do. Oh yes, I had become quite a compelling storyteller with myself…

It took me ages to get out of it. Mostly because fear and self-doubt were the two recurring things that would set me back each and every time I thought I felt ready to make a move.

But here’s what I was confronted with that shook the very foundations I walked on: I’d gotten to a point where I was more afraid of who I would become if I didn’t make a change rather than what would happen if I did make a change.

It was one of the most confronting moments in my life that led to the greatest turning points in my life. Being conflicted about who I would become if I remained confined, fearful and reluctant to step forward was so terrifying that the excuses I’d been comforted by for so long, were failing to have an affect on me.

I’m a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. We are presented with opportunities that invite change and that was what happened to me.

Change means that you are no longer willing to continue living the habits and patterns that no longer serve you. It means that you are deciding in that very moment to be a more inspired and empowered version of yourself. It means that you desire greatness far more than you desire complacency and that you regard the value and worth of who you are and believe you deserve nothing short of amazing.

Every time you hesitate to act and make a decision on what you feel passionate about, you are hitting the pause button on your life. You are pausing something that’ll make you happy…you’re pausing something that’ll inspire your life…you’re pausing something that will enrich your soul…you’re pausing something that will change your perspective and help extend and enrich who you are. Each time you hit pause, you say no to the chance to completely open up your life. When you reject opportunities that feel right and that are calling you to step forward, it is as though you are giving the Universe a huge slap and rejecting a gift that has been presented your way.

One of the most recurring themes that come up in my Workshops and Retreats is having conversations with women who express how hesitant they were to attend. Hesitating is a natural response to something we know has the power to completely transform our lives. We fear that we don’t have it in us to be that greatness, to be the enormity of what our potential is inviting us to experience. We have become so used to being safe and keeping ourselves confined. It’s always incredibly rewarding for me to see the giant shift that happens in the mindset of participants when they finally realize the enormity of what they can do and our experience together empowers them to take the next step to open up their lives.

The greatest resistance arises when you are about to take the next step. Be prepared to be challenged, be prepared for the feeling that you’ve made the wrong decision, be prepared for the voice that says you’re being foolish and it’s not going to work…This resistance is testing your willingness to change and how prepared you are to finally let go of your old ways and let go of beliefs that no longer serve you…

Happy Travels, Paula x

 

p.s: For those of you no longer willing to live a life on pause and need some help taking the next step, then you may wish to join me this September for the very special Emerge Retreat on the beautiful Greek island of Serifos. Click HERE for more details or email me: paula@mediterraneanwanderer.com