What Makes You Come Alive?

I spent the first few decades of my life being a "will power" junkie. I thought: No matter what the challenge, no matter what my needs and interests might be, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen.

And indeed I made a lot happen. I felt good about many of those accomplishments. But often the accolades I received felt meaningless. This was because I didn’t necessarily find what I had achieved truly meaningful — to me. At a certain point, I realized that my will had become detached from what I really cared about; what jazzed and nourished me. Worse yet, success gave me only momentary happiness (or mostly just relief) and was followed, almost immediately, by anxiety about accomplishing the next thing. In truth, I felt empty and exhausted.

Over the years, I gradually shifted from pushing through the world on sheer will power to listening internally to what I'm truly called to do. When I'm sitting with a question or decision, I've learned to tune into a much deeper place within me that has nothing to do with analyzing pros and cons. Instead the right next step most often comes to me intuitively and viscerally. Sometimes it takes tuning in consistently over a period of time, and in other cases, I get an immediate flash of clarity.

The amazing thing is that every time I do this, the decisions I make energize me, rather than deplete me. I don't feel resentful or weighed down by duty. Instead I show up for the next challenge or opportunity more fully aligned with who I am and want to be in the world. The path may still be difficult at times, but I'm able to handle whatever comes my way with more centeredness and spaciousness Why? Because I've "come alive."

So ask yourself, as Howard Thurman wisely implores us all to do: What makes you come alive? Now go do that. And if you'd like help answering that question for yourself, let’s partner on this quest. Please set up a free “discovery session” with me today!

— written and published by Elise Miller, Cedar Wise Coaching, May 1, 2022

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

— Howard Thurman