Having the freedom to sit inside and write on a cold, rainy day like today is about as good as it gets. My little cottage is warm and cozy and the cat and I watch the wind swirl outside.  It is almost too easy.  So my mind wants to find a challenge. 

This week at the Wisdom at Work luncheon we had one of the best speakers ever.  Steven Tomlinson, who teaches at Acton School of Business and is an accomplished playwright, spoke to the group about finding our calling in life.  One of the things that struck me about his presentation was the inherent challenge in finding that calling.

I believe that I have a good sense of the direction of my calling, even though there are probably infinite possibilities for tweaking the specifics.  Yet the challenge of getting lost in the possibilities is a constant thorn in my side.  I tend to prefer ideas to action, so I can get caught in the endless loop of colorful ideas without getting anything into reality.

Steven spoke about settling for the accomplishments that we have made and choosing a path of least resistance. Now I appreciate the fact that energy tends to move into the opening, into the area with the least resistance, but I believe this is a more subtle reference to the act of choosing the path that may challenge us to think bigger, to accept more work, to push ourselves to the levels that we know we are capable – even WHEN we encounter our own internal resistance.

It is time to look at that resistance and ask, “What am I afraid to see or hear or be?” Just identifying it releases much of the tension. So rather than avoiding those things that I am resisting, I am now going to examine the resistance with curiosity and be grateful for the opportunity to grow from it.

Fortunately, I do not feel called to go out into the rain and build a garden today.  But I will challenge myself to move through my list of tasks and action steps with a renewed sense of blessed determination.