A challenge

How often do you step back and do a real hard, critical examination of your life? Do you open yourself up for others to take a look? I am in that process now. Here is a couple of things that I am learning.

• I don't have it all figured out. Duh, right? But I often pretend that I do. Reality is that I may be farther down the road in understanding some things than others due to my experiences and the way I'm wired, but that doesn't mean I have arrived. Ever have one of those moments where you are pretty confident of something and then someone will offer a different perspective or opinion and your internal response (maybe even out loud) is "Oh, crap! I never thought of that." Seems to happen frequently with me. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people who are constantly doing that for me. They widen my perspective and help me to see things from another angle. I don't have it figured out, but I need to keep at the process of learning.
• Tackle the tough areas. You know that area that you don't want to deal with because you know it will be messy. Dive in and deal with it. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't solve anything either. This is the area where an outside perspective is needed the most and probably the hardest to let someone in. It will be awkward. It could be a painful process, but how is ignoring the elephant in the room going for you? I think the scariest thing for a lot of people is letting down their guard and risking letting someone see the stuff we like to push to the back corners - the selfishness, the addiction, the fact we are screwed up.
• Don't wait until it is convenient because it will never be convenient. Are you too busy right now? Wonder who controls the choices of how we spend our time? I often try to convince myself it is out of my control, but reality is my choices are what lead to where I am at on the path. It may be painful to change direction or take a step back, but often that discipline is what is required if I truly want to change. First step in changing is evaluating where I am at. Honestly and brutally sifting through it all.
• I can't do it on my own. As much as I want to convince myself that I can handle it, I need others to help. I need someone to challenge me, someone to encourage me, someone to ask the questions I want to ignore. I can lie to myself and not feel bad, but it is a lot harder to look someone else in the eye and do it. It is painfully obvious when someone needs help and won't ask, so why do we think we are any different?

So those are some of the things I have been wrestling with recently. Probably not anything new to you, but are you willing to dive in and do some examination in your life? The challenge is there. Your choice.