Finding inspiration in the discomfort

Lately, I have been thinking about this quote: "There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher." ~ Robin Sharma

I have spent the last decade or so deliberately designing the life I want to live, focusing on the whole as opposed to the professional because I believe that life is about more than work. It has come with compromises and challenges but has also been fulfilling, although it feels like I have aways to go.

And, being in the middle of a bit of a health crisis, I am being forced to become even more deliberate about how I show up in the world and why I do the things that I do. I realise that I have been coasting along over the last couple of years, doing things without thinking about why I do them. It is an interesting place to be. Nandi Dlepu, in a recent episode of my podcast, Listen To Your Footsteps, talked about finding inspiration in discomfort and I am taking that to heart.

One of the things I have been wanting to do is write more, for myself, even if I eventually put it out into the world, yet I still procrastinate in putting time aside to just write, outside of my Morning Pages journalling. While I have built a career as a writer, the act of writing was more a form of therapy, a way of making sense of the cacophony in my mind, a process of being. I feel like I have lost that along the way as I ventured further into writing as a profession, as a tool to pay the bills, keep a roof over my head and the family fed.

I have gotten caught up in a world that says everything must be monetised and lost sight of the power and benefit of doing things for the sake of doing them. At the same time, I have forgotten the lessons I learned from Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals which I reviewed on 702 last year.

I have no answers, yet, just thinking ‘out loud.’