In the early days of my life, I wasn’t overly confident in choosing a path and I did not have a huge amount of clarity to what I wanted to do with my existence. I seemed to be making choices because something felt right without considering the consequences. Luckily, looking back at my timeline now, the choices that I made have brought me here today and my life seemingly aligned.
What is apparent at first is that life offers us so many choices! How lucky are we to do everything that want to? If there is lack of funding, we choose a (bank) credit or a plastic card to pay for it. Immediately, we gratify our latest need and desire. If we don’t like it, we stop it. At any time and without huge implications, just the frustration of having chosen something, that we don’t enjoy as much as we thought, we would. Learning by doing and moving on.
In recent time, I have made a variety of efforts to find out what my purpose is. And more precisely, what is it that I contribute to the planet. What do I bring into this world? And why am doing what I am doing now?
When I pondered my childhood, I remembered the wishes I had at the time: I wanted to become a doctor, a dancer or something to do with animals. However, as I finished my schooling, my marks sparsely got me through secondary school. I wasn’t in the best space of mind and life and so I opted for something easy, an apprenticeship. This also meant, that earning my own money would allow me to move out of my home which is something I really wanted to do. I needed to be independent. So, here is the first clue: Independence and a strong desire to make my own decisions plus choosing my own bed to lie on.
I let the idea of becoming a doctor go, as there were more pressing issues in my life that needed immediate attention. But soon after completing the apprenticeship, I wanted to become smarter in business and took on a hospitality job that earned me money to get me through evening school in business practices. As by now, I was independent and had to pay for it myself. But, being familiar with business things, meant a lot to me.
In a way in my world at the time, there weren’t too many choices available or more clearly, I did not realize they were there. Which takes me to the next question? Why did I not see those other things available to me at the time? The answer is simple, because no one pointed them out and I wasn’t asking the question. When reflecting on this, I decided that my own view wasn’t always the best and so now, I talk to at least two or three other people who I trust when in the process of making (important) decisions. I choose them, because they have different backgrounds and give me another perspective.
Clearly, what I was missing at the time was a mentor. Someone who had been there before and done it. Someone who knew what they were talking about! Nevertheless, we experience things and we move on. As long as we do that, life goes on. If we don’t do that, we get stuck, become frustrated, potentially unhappy and depressed. And because this seems so important to me, I feel that I know what mentoring involves, because I have been there before. What I enjoy today, is giving others my view, perspective and support to help them make better decisions for themselves. I enjoy this work immensely, because it allows me to connect in a meaningful way and assist others to take that next step on their journey.
Surprisingly, choosing to become a Chinese medicine practitioner, was the easiest decision I ever made. I walked into my mentor’s clinic in Melbourne back in 1996, because someone recommended an acupuncture treatment. I received a treatment without knowing anything about Chinese medicine and decided then and there that that was exactly what I wanted. It beautifully combined my initial desire for medicine, running a business and being independent. It also required reading and learning new things which I was really keen on. And it involved giving others a view or a perspective to help them take their next step. I had found heaven on earth, literally and I was ready for it. The rest is history.
In answer to my initial question on why I do what do today, you can see that everything that I thoroughly enjoyed came together and aligned exquisitely. There is a possibility that along the way, I will discover new aspects, new reasons to add to my current activities, but until then, I will stay with what I have got. There is no doubt in my mind, should there be other things that I must be doing, that they will show up for me to embrace the opportunity. So, in many ways, I have struck gold many times over. And I feel that I am doing exactly what I was (blindly) looking for.
Where do choices take us?
- Stopping and reflecting before making choices independent of others and own circumstances will be good choices to advance our life journey
- Each choice is just that next little or big step towards our life purpose
- Realising that a choice that we made wasn’t the best is not the end of the world
- Choices are brought to you to align with bringing your full potential into this world
- Lovingly made choices are a great opportunity to be kind to yourself
- Choices if carefully assessed and examined will take us where we want to be
As we are seeking for a purpose and meaning in life, making choices is a necessary tool to advance and develop. I would love to hear your story about the choices you made and where it brought you.
