Finishing Well
Have you ever taken a new job, but were still required to work at the current job for a few more weeks? Or signed a lease on a new home, in a new state full of new adventures, a month before you move?(That’s me!) Like a senior a month away from graduating high school, these times of transition can feel like purgatory, just waiting for your “new life” to begin, while being forced to stay with your “old life” just a little bit longer.
The “waiting place” as Dr. Seuss so eloquently describes it, is full of people just waiting for the next “thing,” oblivious to what wonderful sights and sounds around them. It can feel like quite a challenge to redirect your forward-thinking, future planning brain back to reality.
This is the challenge I’m facing this month; staying present and available for what is here now, while simultaneously making plans for the not so distant future. This is not my first rodeo, as they say in the south (no time like the present to practice my southern metaphors), and for the first time in awhile, I feel somewhat prepared to offer you my ‘expert advice’ on how to finish well.
Finishing Well requires you to first Be. Then do. And watch yourself Have!
1. Be and do from a place of gratitude
After my painful divorce and sale of my first business, I packed up my car and drove half-way across the country to start a new life. But first, I expressed gratitude to OWL that supported me along the way. I wrote thank you notes to send off to friends and family expressing my heartfelt thanks for being on this difficult journey with me. I sat in my favorite nature spots along the water to ‘be with’ my gratitude for God (the universe) and all of His wonder. And when I arrived at my new home, I sat along different body of water to ‘be with’ my gratitude once again. Critics would argue I should have been applying for jobs and piecing my life back together. Maybe…maybe not. After all, I found my next career and opportunity to serve the community simply by ‘being’ with God and gratitude as I walked in to the CrossFit gym and Church that would steer me into my next path.
2. Take time to connect
Open an excel sheet and write down the names of every single person you want to connect with one last time to express your gratitude. These are the people that know and love you, that you absolutely must see one more time before you’re off on your next adventure! And if there is anyone that may no longer love you, that you know you’re particularly grateful for, find a way to express that in whatever way is of service to that individual. And don’t forget to take time to connect with yourself. Spend time reflecting on your journey that brought you to this very moment and ask yourself, “What still needs to be finished?”
3. Have fun!
Finishing well is OWL about taking those seemingly ‘un-fun’ moments like canceling your internet or finishing a project at work you no longer care about, and turning them into fun opportunities. Fun occurs in the present moment, not when you’re sitting/pacing/hiding under a blanket planning your future, so get ready to be fully present with every task that comes your way. As you focus on doing these tasks, allow yourself to be unattached to the outcome, after all, you’re in transition with a goal of finishing well, not finishing perfectly. As you look for a new job or place to live, let go of any attachment you have to “that one,” and allow yourself to be fully present with whatever doors God (the universe) opens up to you, trusting that the timing and OWL the other things you want you shall have.
As I self-reflect on the last 7 years of my East Coast life, I’m reminded of being fully present with everyone and everything I interacted with when I first ‘landed’ in Hoboken. I spent those first 4 months being authentic and open, expressing my desires for a new career, community, and connection. I did a lot things during that time too. I interviewed for jobs, launched a CrossFit Kids program, taught fitness classes, and went on adventures in the city with strangers whoo just became friends. And at the end of those 4 months I had a new career as the Executive Director of a non-profit mentoring program for children.
This formula of being-doing-having is crucial for transition. Particularly the being part. For the first time in a decade I was able to be myself, and for that I am forever grateful. It turns out being whoo I was designed to be, the OWL whoo swoops in to stir things up so they can shift and change for the better, allowed me to do and have it all! As I finish up these last 22 days on the East Coast I will be eternally grateful to everyone I met along the way and look forward to connecting one last time before I say, Bon Voyage!
What challenges do you face when trying to ‘finish well?’ What rituals do you follow to support you through transition? More importantly, whoo will soar alongside you as you step into being, doing, and having it all? Is it me? Click the link below and let’s find out!
