Wake-up Call to Slow Down
Do you notice the wake-up calls in your life ? Wake-up calls can take many forms and they always make you stop whatever you do to spend some time reflecting about what you do – rather than staying busy “doing”.
Sometimes, they come in the form of something someone says to you, or something you pick up reading. Sometimes it is an unusual event. For myself they seem to come as health issues. I am starting to see a pattern of wake-up calls in my life. All asking me to slow down, I believe. It seems that every time my enthusiasm carries me away to work more and more, schedule more and more meetings something stops me – usually my health. Even though I would see myself as a very healthy person who eats well and exercises regularly, I have this tendency “to overdo things” as my husband keeps reminding me. The bizarre thing is that I am not doing the things I overdo because I have to (for the money etc.), I do them because I enjoy the stuff I do so much. I am a life coach as you know and I develop and hold workshops and run networks to bring together people who can help each other. I love this work to bits as it is hugely rewarding and meaningful to me. Maybe that’s why I am so surprised that I am getting my wake-up calls even now.
Right now I am recovering from one of the worst types of flu I have ever had. I was in full flow working with my clients and a major new project after a long summer abroad, when I got struck by it. I chose to ignore it at first and just continued my work, expecting it to just go away. It did not just go away. Instead it became so bad that I was forced to cancel all my commitments and relax. I am convinced this is a wake-up call. I had them before. I had cancer when I overdid my corporate career, stress-related illness when I tried to be supermum and be both a high-flying brand manager as well as the most caring mother and now it is a bad flu that is being sent to remind me to slow down. All those meetings I would otherwise never cancel for the life of me, had to be cancelled this week. So it shows that the word “can’t” is relative. I am quite intrigued by this latest wake-up call because I am actually living my life purpose. I had not expected to be stopped in realizing my purpose. Or am I meant to review the way I am going about it ? You see, the power of wake-up calls that slow you down and force you to think lies in the many questions they bring up….questions you would not otherwise think about, let alone find answers to. Here are some of the questions that are coming up for me:
Am I still going about my purpose in the right way or have other objectives crept in ?
How can I stay more present everyday, enjoying each moment rather than getting into achievement mode ?
How can I cut down my activities to the core, ie. the few most important activities, the 20% that make 80% of the difference ?
The questions will be different for you and it almost does not matter as much what specific question you ask yourself. The most important thing is that you stop and reflect, i.e. ask yourself, at all !
What shape or form do your wake-up calls take ? Do you hear/see/feel them ? If you don’t notice them at the moment, it won’t be because they are not there, they are. You might be too busy noticing them. I believe this is what happens to me all the time, which is why they return in a different, more drastic form I am more likely to notice. Ultimately, I seem to be getting them in the form of health issues. These are impossible to miss and hence force me to stop and think about my life. How do you notice your wake-up calls ?
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