When I was younger, I carried around with me an 8 1/2 by 11 inch Day-Timer filled with to-do lists, schedules and plans. It because so heavy and full of papers that at one point I think it was heavier than my purse.
At a certain point, I think I grew weary not just of carrying the thing around, but of all the lists, all the dates, all the plans. It all felt like a lot of pressure. Surely it came from a wellspring of unbridled ambition, and I tired of myself and the way I was going about doing everything. It all felt so over focused, like I was trying way too hard.
I like simple, and I went directly to simple.
Nowadays I do have a calendar that I keep on my computer, but quite literally I keep all my lists, plans, calendars and obligations in my head.
If you were to see my actual calendar, it has very little on it. You might think I am not doing anything or that I don’t have any actual plans.
Someone will ask me, “Can I come in?” and then name a date and time a month from now.
I will look up (accessing my visual memory) and say yes or no.
I admit sometimes I do have to look things up.
Yesterday one of my best friends invited me to go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, and I wasn’t quite sure which precise weekend in October might work out. I knew it was one of the last two weekends, but I wasn’t quite sure which one. I did indeed look that up.
My game plan for success now is quite simple.
So simple in fact that anybody can do it.
I simply ask for guidance.
Beginning when I wake up in the morning, I ask for guidance about which clothes to put on, which of my handmade jewelry, scarves or shawls to wear.
It’s not so much that it’s all that important what I wear, although color can be incredibly healing and balancing, and wearing the right crystals can focus and balance your energy very powerfully.
For me, asking for guidance first thing is like turning the light on when I wake up.
When my friend asked me about the weekend to go backpacking, part of what I was doing when I weighed the weekend was feeling ahead and looking ahead to feel what the weather would be like. I use my gifts to be at the right place, weather-wise.
I dislike lists. I dislike other people’s prescriptions.
Of course, there is a lot of good advice and good ideas out there – such as, don’t eat junk food, get enough rest, have fun and try not to worry so much.
But my true game plan for success is about asking for guidance, and that simplifies literally everything.
I either get a yes or a no.
I am either compelled to do something, to be someplace, to work with someone, to say something, to buy something or not buy something, or not.
Sometimes of course I forget to listen to myself.
I was out grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s just yesterday, for example. I knew I needed to buy some yoghurt, but then I argued with myself. “Surely I have enough yoghurt,” I thought. I couldn’t remember, but my guidance was prompting me. I stood there at the checkout counter looking over at the dairy aisle. I am sure we have all been there at one point or the other.
Sure enough, I went home and the next morning I was on my last dose of yoghurt.
“By now, you would think I would know to listen to my guidance,” was the first thought that came into my mind.
A long time ago, a client of mine who was a great businessman and who did not consider himself particular intuitive gave me a bit of advice.
“If you think about something, and it’s not a definite yes, then it’s a no,” he said to me.
There are things and events that I have literally been compelled to do.
I don’t need to read all the brochures and marketing materials. I just know where I need to be and I show up. I don’t have to read someone’s bio. I don’t need to know anything about another person other than that I have something to learn from them, give to them, exchange with them.
I rely on divine timing, on divine communication, on divine ambition – i.e., not my will but God’s will actually be done.
My clients are literally amazed that I can keep all my appointments in my head.
I rarely make a mistake.
By asking for guidance, I don’t need to carry around an eight-pound Day-Timer.
I am always busy enough. There is space in my life to breathe, to be and to accomplish.
