When Life Speaks

Lately, it’s been a bit of a struggle. The moment I feel like I’m starting to make progress, something happens to stunt my momentum. Working overnights, I’m not strong enough, not yet anyway, to push through the tiredness. I’m not a machine, so when I’m tired, it’s harder to stay focused to write. I make progress on better managing distractions only to end up slipping back into bad habits. Working to change myself and my life, it’s frustrating when things don’t go as planned. Yet it is when I am still—able to quiet the noise and listen—when life speaks.

From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

I’m on my second read-through of Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success. While there is no magic bullet or quick trick that will allow you to fast-track the change you want for your life, change happens through the actions we take and the choices we make. As Hardy writes, “If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination.”¹

I’ve realized, in a way, the decisions I make daily taking me away from my desired destination is life speaking to me. It’s telling me to hunker down and get to work so that I’m not perpetually stuck with the life I have now. This means having the courage to cut out everything that does not serve me or my purpose. Or even, if necessary, removing myself from a toxic work environment. There are the signs along the way pointing me back to my desired destination. As Oprah Winfrey advises, “Your life is always speaking to you. It speaks in whispers, guiding you to your next right step.”

When Life Speaks

Here’s the question: When life speaks, will you listen? There are all kinds of indications that you’re not on the right path or in the right spot. For me, it’s the way my stomach knots in the hours leading up to my commute to my day job. Or it’s a feeling when I’m editing and I sense that there’s something off about a particular passage. Sometimes it’s just how my body feels as I’m stepping into a particular situation.

Remember, be aware of the choices you make so that you may get to your desired destination. And when life speaks, listen. It may just show you who you are and who you can still become.

And let me, then, leave you today with this last thought…

You are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And, best of all, you do not need anyone’s permission to be—unapologetically—who you are.

1. Hardy, D. (2010, 2020). The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success, p. 30. [↩]