Today let’s pull into the station for a while and take a look at all that goes into staying on track in your life. Let’s imagine that we’re in the stationhouse museum and the windows are to our left of all that we deal with in our daily life. The first window is your childhood. It’s a lovely place or maybe its rather dreary. The scenes can include loving family or folks who had significant dysfunctional issues. As adult you have additional instruction and knowledge, but you still have to work with the memories, and teachings that someone shared that may or may not contribute to your wellbeing as an adult. What is your strategy for healthy self talk thinking?
Next display has your learning years and formal training. Maybe you were brilliant there, best of the class. Maybe you were the one who caught everything the teacher taught the first time, or maybe you didn’t. Perhaps you felt dumb or ridiculed by the “clique” that was in. School rankings both socially and academically leave their mark on us. What will be your strategy to continue to learn in life? Have you recognized how you learn? Do you know how best to receive instruction for your learning style? Are you seeking consistent growth in knowledge and skill base? What is your strategy for consistently keeping up with your goals and your resources?
Down the hall you have been intrigued as you watched your early adulthood. Things surely seem different than you remembered them. Perhaps you thought you struggled with weight, but you didn’t know the meaning of the word compared to what is a struggle now. Perhaps you ran fast and free and now are faced with different circumstances. Perhaps your courtship was amazing and rivaled Camelot, but you step back and realize that the two lovers have gone their separate ways. Perhaps you are sad for that young adult and you wish that you had known all that you know now when you were spending hundreds of hours working in dead end goals. How will you give meaning to your experiences? How can you adapt and adopt your youth and young adulthood in such a way that you honor and respect your actions as part of what has made you you?
The final room is filled with people in the church type pews. They seem uncomfortably waiting. Waiting for someone, something, or some situation to effectively move them onto the train. Some have dressed up, then sat down. Others are pacing the room suspicious that others will take their spot on the success train. Yet others humbly seem to hear the doors open, calmly walk through the doors and before the others get there….whooooosh! Their train has left and gone to the next destination. The train stops often though, there are many destinations, and it really is up to us to step up and get on the platforms that will lead to us riding the train of our focus. What will you do to be ready for the All Aboard call? What will you do if no one is working the ticket boothe? How will you choose which train to ride or to take? What will you do if you’re stopped at a wrong station house?
Where are you now? What do the museum rooms of your mind look like? What were in the rooms we’ve already visited that are affecting you today? List them…think them through..get them on paper…
Stop and own what you think about yourself….really…listen to what you’ve said…
is it accurate? affirming? articulately truth or someone’s cruel words?
What are you hearing?
Awesome symmetry Sweetie which provokes much thought.
So many things came to mind as I read through your post and it is an amazement to me the experiences and memories that make each of us who we are. What and who you are hearing make all the difference. For me, I hear different voices at different times. Most of my voices are affirming…but that solitary voice that consistently made me feel bad about myself chimes in at the oddest moments.