Are You Willing to Surrender?

Is there something you feel called to do but can't figure out how to make it happen?

Have you been working toward a goal but it feels like everyone and everything is throwing an obstacle in your face?

Does it feel like what you want will never happen?

I know that feeling. In fact for several years while I was building my business part-time and working full-time for a corporation, I thought I'd literally die before I could reach my goal of leaving my day job or at least scaling it back to part-time. I tried numerous times, unsuccessfully to create a part-time arrangement or job-share. I felt defeated, at the mercy of others, and just plain sad.

Can you relate?

Then, just as I was at the end of my rope, I got deeply in touch with my feelings. I truly got in my gut what I most wanted to happen for my life. I made the decision that it will happen. It IS happening. I set a strong intention. I prayed. I surrendered. I let go of trying to figure it all out and worrying about how it was going to happen.

Then… it just happened.

In a series of events that I could not have masterminded, I got a gift in a disguise. You know the type of news that at first seems like bad news, but in fact holds the greatest gift you could be given? What was different this time around though was that I knew instantly that it was a gift and that it would be the best thing that ever happened to me.

The same can happen for you… and you don't even necessarily have to endure bad news to experience this sense of trust and liberation.

The experience I am talking about happened for me in July 2007. I had been working on my business for a few years and just yearning to scale back on the day job and move into entrepreneurship. I was so frustrated by my inability to create that transition, to make that leap. Then I went on vacation to one of my favorite places on the planet – Maine. As I was on a kayak trip one day I just felt so deeply the pain of wondering "when will it be my turn?" When will this happen for me? There's no "someday" on the calendar, so when, dammit?

I spent an introspective week on Monhegan Island, Maine after that trip. On Independence Day I found myself in one of my favorite spots along the cliffs just watching the gulls sitting with my journal open wondering if I should write. Then divine inspiration wrote me. That's right, I sat there and the message I most needed to hear flowed through my pen. I didn't think about it, wonder how, or try to figure it out. My pen flowed and when I was done, I looked back and read an amazingly beautiful verse that had no cross-outs, no changes, just perfection. Anyone who writes knows that our journals are filled with all kinds of marks, deletions, cross-outs, and changes. Not this time… this verse is about liberation, letting go, and finding safety in the uncertainty of moving forward. (Read the full verse here)

Less than three days after I returned home from this trip I lost my job due to company reorganization. At that moment I saw the same gulls that guided me in my writing on the cliff and I knew in my bones that it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. Was I…

Uncertain?

Yes.

Fearful?

Absolutely.

Emotional?

You bet.

Yet I knew I created this opportunity and the power of my intentions and desires had a hand in this chain of events. (I might add I was the only one affected by this reorganization. Coincidence? Doubt it!) I was ready to live into what I said I wanted.

What I learned is that no matter how hard you work, how much you do, or how long you try to figure something out, it cannot happen unless you also let go and surrender. You can't transform a circumstance or your experience unless you can marry action ("make it happen") with allowing ("allow it to happen"). It's like igniting a fire. You cannot light a fire without allowing for space between the wood and surrendering to the power of what happens when the right combination of substance, air, and spark combine.

Are YOU willing to give up figuring it all out? Are you ready to let go into what you most want to create in your personal and professional life and stop worrying about what you "should" do or what "others will think"? If so, call me at 215-450-2549 or email paula@thepaulagcompany.com to set up a complimentary Get Acquainted Session to explore how you can re-ignite your own life.