Expanding - While Narrowing Your Path

I'm back and today, I want to write about how a self-actualizing person must continue to expand their life and their beliefs while at the same time narrowing their path.  What this means is that a well lived life needs to incorporate many different aspects while at the same time continuing to fine tune the whole thing.  Because the truth is that if we are open to everything, then we become scattered and fragmented.  Being open minded and free spirited is a great thing, but at some point we need to focus and begin to narrow our path to the things that are indeed important, that is, key to our self-development.  Let me give you an example – let’s say that you are this open minded person and love to learn new things and while you are at work, or with your friends, someone mentions some new thing and you go home and start Googling it and for the next few days, weeks, even months your mind is filled with this new information, but then one day you wake up and realize that one of your important projects has been left unattended and you have missed an important deadline or have not called a certain person and when you do – they have moved on, chosen someone else to work with them or the time has simply evaporated in terms of getting this project done.  In other words, you missed the boat.  Now what?
First Things First – And You Are First
The first thing any self-actualizing person must do is discover who they are and what they love and need to do to make their life meaningful and purpose filled.  Therefore, beginning today figure yourself out.  What do you love to do?  What brings you joy?  What information or skills do you love employing?  What brings you a sense of satisfaction and meaning?  I met someone recently that said he loved knowing things, but what I saw with him was that he did indeed know lots of things but he had not actually connected the dots of these things together to form a unified whole.  In fact, I felt like he was all over the map and didn’t really know where he was going or even what his target was except that he wanted to be successful.
Success Requires a Concentrated Topic That Can Expand Within that Topic
If you are like this man and tend to enjoy learning new things, you can reign in this with a decision to learn only new things that are related to your self-actualization topic.  This of course, you will do in the First Things First action of this post.  When you figure yourself out, part of that is, figuring out what moves you, what pings your heart strings, what really and truly means something to you.  What this means is it's time to figure this out and stop letting the Internet and Google run your life.  Instead let Google and the Internet expand your knowledge of your particular topic.  As Malcom Galdwell said in his book, Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of working at something to become an expert so until you have spent that many hours at your topic, then stay off the Internet looking at things unrelated to it.  
Let Your Expanded Topic Feed Your Curiosity  
Since a self-Actualizing person is naturally curious, this can, of course lead to all kinds of new ideas, new concepts and new ways of doing things within your target topic, therefore it is important to let this feed your curiosity, rather than some random curiosity feeding you may have done in the past.  BTW, most self-actualizing people are a bit ADHD, but we are also conscious enough to take our lives in our own hands and not let the world run us ragged with all kinds of flashing, loud and turbulent message from the Internet trying to get our attention.  If you have trouble with any of this or any other self-actualizing aspect of your life, give me a call or take one of my programs.    I would love to help you become your best and most authentic self possible.  

Blessings

Lorraine 

New Visions - Wellness Within

www.lorrainebanfield.com

720-258-5963