Finale

I want to live each day, each week, each month and each year the way I lived this past semester.  Because what I did with this 12 week challenge was absolutely necessary to my wellbeing.  

Allow me to explain.

Coming into this semester, I was a nervous wreck.  As a senior, all I could focus on was the fact that time was running out.  But two weeks into my semester came my senior seminar project and everything changed. 

At the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I felt inspired to do something significant and important, I wanted to be intentional about my senior year and this project was the perfect way to do it.  So I came up with the guidelines to this 12 week challenge.  

And with each passing week I became more grounded in the present.  Earlier in the semester I was so focused on the end that I wasn’t allowing myself to enjoy the present. I found that I was happier and less anxious when I took life day by day, week by week, challenge by challenge.  I was reflective and thoughtful and honest. I set goals for myself that I never thought I would do and never thought that I had the time to do.  

Along the way I learned quite a bit.  I learned that there’s always time, always re-prioritizing that can be done in order to do what you want to do. I learned the beauty and power of living a life without limits.  I learned about the person I am and found a little bit more of myself in each week.  So needless to say, the past 12 weeks have been an incredible experience.       

I stumbled across this quote the other day and I fell in love:

"Our personas convince us that there is nothing that we don't know about ourselves --that we are in fact the person we see in the mirror and believe ourselves to be.  But the issue with this is that once we have brought into the story of 'this is who I am,' we shut the door on any other possibility and deny ourselves access to all of who we can be. We lose our ability to choose, because we can't do anything outside the confines of the character we're playing. The predictable persona we've constructed is now in control. We become blind to the immense possibilities for our life."

-Debbie Ford (The Shadow Effect) 

If there’s one thing that I’ve enjoyed learning the most, it’s that there are immense possibilities for our life. 

It just requires a little soul searching, taking opportunities as they come and allowing yourself to be uncomfortable every now and then.

The truth is, it’s easy to be comfortable.  It doesn’t require much energy to go into autopilot and follow routines and do what everyone else is doing.  So for what it’s worth, my advise to you is simple: challenge yourself. 

Be self aware and courageous in your own self-discovery, ask the hard questions and don’t be afraid of the answers you find.  Be adventurous, seek out new experiences and do things that startle you.  Take opportunities as they come and focus on what you can do in the moment.  Strive to be a better person in each passing day, week or year.  Better yourself.  Understand the person you are.  Seek out opportunities to learn and step outside of your comfort zone.  The possibilities that you are capable of are endless.

And just in case you were wondering, my blog doesn’t end here.  Tomorrow I will be jumping out of a plane and free falling for 45 seconds, which will mark the first of many encores.  In theory I should be scared but I’m too excited to be afraid now.  This project has made me brave.