I love my work. I love that I get to support leaders and coaches in doing transformational work all over the world. I love that I get to spend time creating books and articles that seem to inspire people and help them better understand how to follow their dreams and accomplish great things. I love my life–except for when I don’t.
It is in those moments that I don’t seem to be loving my life that I have to remind myself that it’s all part of the picture of living fully in today’s world. The mundane things in life are still there. I still have to do my taxes, and do the laundry, and walk the dogs, and remember to put gas in the car, and buy groceries. And then there are the emails that must be answered. That alone can seem to derail an entire day.
However, when I’m not loving my life because I feel like I’m caught up in all of that “stuff” and it’s keeping me from my “real work and purpose,” I am forgetting that all of those things can also be fed by my calling to be a transformer. I have just have to choose that perspective and then I start to love my life again. When I remember that doing my taxes and putting gas in the car and buying groceries and anything else I am doing can be done with a particular intention–the intention of being a transformational presence wherever I am, whether I am interacting directly with anyone or not–my attitude instantly shifts and I am loving my life again. And somehow the deadlines for “the real work” and the fact that I am behind in that work because I’m running errands aren’t stressing me anymore.
It’s great if we are doing wonderful things in the world. It’s great if we are transformers. And it’s also important to remember that we are humans living a human life with mundane things that need to be done. It’s just part of the deal. When we separate the “transformational” parts of our life and work from the “mundane,” we get into trouble. When we can just let it all be a part of the transformation flow, it starts to work again.
To be sure, we can often learn to manage the daily stuff more efficiently. But when you catch yourself stressing out over the fact that you aren’t getting to your transformational work, invite the energy of transformation to flow through whatever you’re stuck doing. At the least, it will ease the frustration of the daily stuff, and at best, you’ll love your life much more of the time and perhaps make a difference for someone else, too.
