31 Jan Navigating Your Life: Destiny
Moss Jackson, PhD
Psychologist and Success Coach
Hi, and welcome to Navigating Your Life!
I am having a great time putting my Navigating Your Life Video Series Together. Faced with media choices that include the limited, but comforting use of my iPhone camera and the grand possibilities of my new MacBook Pro video capabilities (which I am currently learning to use), today I choose the middle ground of my familiar companion, my iPad Facebook posting. My theme today is “DO YOU HAVE A DESTINY?”
Life goes by quickly and, at some point in time, most of us pause and reflect on how our lives are turning out. Have you been living the life you dreamed about as a youth? Are you going for challenges and new opportunities? Are you growing, emerging and generating your future? Or, instead, do you lament your choices? Do you regret the lost moments of adventure and risk taking? Have you played life too safe? Is that ok for you?
I remember reading some time ago about the “Dangerous Age,” a time when Japanese men in their forties confront the contour line of their lives and reflect on whether they are living lives worth living or just existing and getting by. What a powerful moment that must be for these men to pause and reflect on their lives. It takes courage to take the time to evaluate how your life is turning out. Are you living into your Destiny or have you given into the pressures of the everyday life and given up your dream?
In my work as a Psychologist and Success Coach, I have focused on helping clients over the last fifty years to create and live into destinies that excite them. Inside this life pursuit, there are always the demons and obstacles that dissuade us from “taking the shot” and “going for broke!” It can be frightening to step off the path of safety, doing what is expected and fitting in. From my perspective, having spent thousands of hours listening and witnessing firsthand how people are going through life and coaching them to create personal destinies worth pursuing, I think only a sparse minority live their lives in active pursuit of their Destiny. Maybe ten to twenty percent choose this path and take the actions required, win or lose, to live out their visions.
I so respect people like Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, Opera Winfrey, Dick Vermeil, and my niece, Rachel, who stepped off the path of playing it safe, instead creating personal visions and learning the principles and best practices of Navigating Life that opened up futures worth living into. I think they are the inspirational sources, along with many of my past and current clients, who keep on proving that it is possible to create great personal destinies to live into. Whether it is overcoming a physical disability, giving up a secure job to take a risk starting out as an entrepreneur, or leaving a high paying job to take on a nonprofit position, I have seen the challenge and adventure that lure many of us towards creating uncertain but desirable futures to live into.
This is why I so enjoy my work. I do not get bored with my clients. I get excited and encouraged by their personal dreams, their trust in working out a roadmap for success and their ability to learn as they go. Navigating Your Life is an astounding path to travel on, given its distractions, vicissitudes and pitfalls. There is always the threat of failure, social criticism and self-doubt. It is the Hero’s Journey, as Joseph Campbell so beautifully described in his writings. Yes, there is the Dream but also the painful Fall into failure, followed by the Heroic Path or the Failed Path. There is no certainty, just the surrender to one’s choice of Destiny.
So, tomorrow I wake up to another day of therapy and Success coaching. What a great way to travel through my life, working with courageous clients who choose to dream big, take risks and trust my coaching to help them live lives of Success, accomplishment and happiness. They make it hard for me to be complacent, play it safe and just fit in. I choose instead to create my own Destiny, take my chances and learn along the way. Perhaps, one day I will stop and evaluate how I am doing. In the meantime, I have a big path to explore. It is great living as a Life Navigator.
I hope great success for you in 2017. Live into life and navigate with passion, focus and courage! To learn more, check out my new webinar “Our Three Brains” February 13, 1:00pm (Meeting ID: 815-177-829).