Have you noticed how yesterday’s self-image sometimes has to catch up with the changes that have created the person you are today?
This is exactly what happened to me a few days ago.
Walking westward in the afternoon on the pedestrian path near Granville Island, my husband Donald and I came across a turtle basking in the sun.
With the light in my eyes, I asked him to identify the lump in the middle of the path.
As we got closer, the turtle turned around and bolted so quickly toward the brush and into the water that I couldn’t catch it on camera fast enough.
But Donald did.
A young girl and her father coming in the other direction had been watching with us.
The father laughed and said, “They’re really fast when they need to be.”
Well, this was news to me.
You see, I’ve compared myself to a turtle very often, especially where learning, awareness and change is concerned.
The last 5 years of stepping into a solo coaching career have felt like molasses – and they’ve humbled me repeatedly.
And though I know intellectually that everything takes the time it takes, and that pushing harder to make it go faster may very well cause delay, it still has floored me a great deal.
But now, I can see new levels of skill and understanding.
Holy Cow! Even unconscious competency is peeking through at long last!
Slow and steady, and then – watch out.
So Who Are You Being Today?
Maybe you can poke around the images you hold about yourself and find a new and energizing perspective.
Like my friend and colleague Lesley Pyne in the U.K., author of Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness: Inspiring Stories To Guide You To A Fulfilling Life.
She didn’t expect that in her mid-fifties she could become a human rubber band, let alone teach yoga and write a book!
If you have any such surprises, I know that many of us would love to hear them.
Offer us some inspiration. Go on.
Often in hearing others, we find a key to an opening within ourselves.
Help us all out, if you can.
Love to you,
Miriam