By Andrea Goeglein
Many times in life we are called to take a different path to reach the same goal we have been striving toward for a long time. Over the last month, I have been called upon to do that countless times. I then decided to create an exercise to help me open my thinking to new possibilities.
Dr. Success Challenge: If you have a consistent exercise routine, deliberately change it for the next two weeks. If you walk or run, change your path every day for a week. If you have a weight routine at the gym, do it in reverse one day, randomly another day, etc. If you swim, start at the other end of the pool. You get the idea. Whatever you do to improve your physical health, mix it up for several days. Make note of what ideas come to you, what you notice different about the environment, and your mood.
I undertook this exercise with intent for a week in a location I had walked in most of my life. What I did was take different streets, walk in and through a park instead of around it, and take paths that were not built until recently. Here are some of my observations:
- Each time I took a different street, I was amazed at the things I saw. I tried to remember if I had ever walked down that street and, if so, what I remembered about it. If I could not remember ever walking down it, I wondered why!
- I realized I was holding a lot of fear about walking certain places such as newly laid paths through a heavily forested park. As I walked with heightened awareness – I mean fear – I noticed how long the path seemed. Miraculously, once I had walked the path and did it for a second time, I was equally amazed how short the path actually was.
- I then had an opportunity to walk a lot of the new streets and paths with someone – my editor Katherine Armstrong. We walked, we talked, we solved problems, we reviewed and edited sections of my next book, and we sat and enjoyed park benches I have walked by for decades but never stopped to enjoy.
When I look back on this period of time, in addition to noticing the fear, metaphors for time and space, and the importance of companionship, I noticed I produced more written words during that one week than I have in the last month.
The Don’t Die™ Principle: Change your awareness and your perspective changes can now be abridged to include: and get more of what you want done!
Happy exploring. Thank you for reading. Andrea
