Life is births and deaths.
Hidden in every birth is the death of something old.
Hidden in every death is the birth of something new.
Each transition in life holds both a birth and a death, however small or large they may be. As we’re being born at the very beginning and at the end as we draw our last breath, we face the biggest transitions of our lives. But a baby’s first act is always to cry; it’s worth considering if birth is actually experienced like death in that moment.
Graduation, exciting as it may be, marks the death of an era. A wedding day, with all its beauty, marks the death of singleness for two people. Each new opportunity
means you need to set down something else, often parting ways with things we love and people we love in the process.
At the same time, the loss of a parent marks the beginning of a deeper understanding of oneself. The loss or change of a job begins of a new life in potentiality. Moving across the country or even just across the street comes with both anticipation as well as sorrow at saying goodbye to a house and sometimes a city that had become your home.
During moments of substantial transition, there are two possible errors we can make.
For some of us we tend to only focus on the births, ever hopeful, never taking the
time to experience the gratitude and grieving appropriate as something dies. We need to learn to mourn each death. For others we may only wallow in endings, never allowing ourselves to feel excited about the new life that is coming precisely because of a death. We need to learn to dream and to rejoice each new birth.
The difficult invitation is to fully experience both the birth and the death that we’re
currently facing, whether that be just a new year, or a significant transition.
All the best,
Steven Lawson
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
GOING DEEPER
5 Questions to Help Your Employees Find Their Inner Purpose - Harvard Business Review
Many of us have gone through stretches of our lives, whether short or long lived, where it feels like we're constantly walking up an escalator that's going down. We know that we're putting in work and getting things done, yet ultimately, it doesn't feel like we're going anywhere. If you've ever gone through a period like this or are in one right now, these five questions by Harvard Business Review may be just what you need to ask yourself to reengage what that sense of inner purpose that turns the escalator from going down to up. LINK
5 Questions to Weigh When at a Career Crossroads - Adobe Creative Cloud
When we zoom out in life, breaking down the core elements of the different parts of our lives we live, they often are much more similar than they are different. Many lessons learned in personal can life translate into one's professional life, and vice versa. With that in mind, consider these 5 questions meant for major decisions made in one's professional career and think about them the next time you have any important decision to make in the next step of your life. LINK
The Mistake Smart People Make: Being In Motion vs. Taking Action - James Clear
Have you ever had a day where it felt like each hour you were going from one thing to the next trying to keep your productivity up, only to look back at the end of the day and realize you didn't actually get that much tangibly accomplished? Often times those that feed off of productivity the most end up falling into the trap of being in motion and preparing instead of actually being in action. This excerpt from the New York Times bestselling book Atomic Habits goes deeper into this idea with some suggestions of how to know when you've fallen into this trap and how to fall victim to it less often in the future. LINK
Featured Art: Bust of Louise Brongniart, Jean-Antoine Houdon (1777)
