Creating what I want in my life requires understanding who I am. Reflection is key to self-insight, and it is hard work. I make time to look inside, slow down, and explore. It’s easy to busily move through my day, making lists and checking things off. There’s little space in all the hurrying and scurrying to consciously create life.
Try This!
Questions are the engine that drives powerful reflection. I love questions because they make me pause and think and they are about what’s true now. The right ones connect me with what’s important. I am using the questions below to bring the life I want into greater focus. I discover where I am in the present moment and use wisdom from this place to guide me. Clear answers enable me to move toward a place where I thrive and feel alive.
- What do I want?
- What matters to me?
- What would I like more of in my life?
- What makes me happy?
- When do I lose all sense of time?
- How do I like to feel?
- What am I passionate about?
- When do I get into a state of flow?
- What do people say I am good at?
- What are my strengths?
- What would I like to accomplish?
- What do I value?
- What gives my life meaning?
- What choices do I have?
- What behaviors do I want to cultivate?
I read a quote recently that got me exploring all the different ways I might finish the statement: “I AM…” As I’ve played with it, I’ve discovered all sorts of ways to complete the phrase. I can use verbs: I am making thoughtful choices. I can use nouns: I am a writer. I can use adjectives: I am courageous. Each statement is like the stroke of a brush, painting a picture of the life I want to live into.
Wordle
Quotes to Contemplate
- Our vision of where and who we are is the greatest asset we have. ~Royale Scuderi
- I AM. Two of the most powerful words; for what you put after them shapes your reality. ~Positive Inspirational Quotes
- There is no limitation to the self except those you believe in. ~Seth
- Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives ~Vernon Howard
- A man’s true state of power and riches is to be himself. ~Henry Ward Beecher
- To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
- An original is always worth more than a copy. ~Unknown
- It takes courage to grow up and become who you are. ~e e cummings
- Your future depends on many things, but mostly yourself. ~Frank Tyger
Calendar
Click on the link below to access the March calendar featuring highlights from this post.
March 2013 I am Try This! Calendar
Thanks to Hector Bird for his enhancements to the featured photo, which was taken from the Hotel Costa D’Or, Mallorca, Spain in September 2012.
© copyright Vicki L. Flaherty, Leading With Intention, 2013
Leading With Intention 
Vicki, your questions are always thought-provoking! I am trying to sort through all these things as I begin the chapter of my life called Retirement. I want to be sure I create what I really want, not just keeping busy or (worse) doing nothing but relaxing! I would like to hear from others — what have you created in Retirement?
Ginny! Oh, what a delicious chapter to be sorting out! Keep editing and crafting so that you find yourself living into the best part of the book!
Vicki, your questions always come ‘on time’ … I am waiting for Spring to come (finally!!) to Europe and the question ‘who I am?” just brought that ‘spring’ feeling to my life.
It is the time for me to bring focus, to ask questions, and to re-new myself. Thank you for pausing me from ‘hurrying and scurrying’ to think about it.
Love, love the idea of opening to ourselves the way spring opens to us each year. Glad you are pausing and consciously renewing…may you find yourself rooting and sprouting and growing in abundance as that warmer weather comes!
An inspirational and timely post, Vicki. Thank you.
Thanks, Hector! I got your correction to the photo and will fix it soon. Sorry that I didn’t actually post the one that you had touched up for me! Oops! Thanks again for your wonderful and artistic skills!