In a recent article, I mentioned how I felt like I wasn’t living my best life. I came to a realized that there was so much more that I wanted to do.
At the beginning of the year, I made a “40 by 40” list — a comprehensive list of promises I wanted to explore or execute before I turned 40 this year.
I felt very proud and confident about my list. I would look at it as a reminder of what I was working towards and I even started to cross off some of the items: See The Lion King live – check! Go to a state I’ve never been to before – check!
I started to feel confident in business and the next phase. I could feel the energy of productivity surging through my veins and I felt alive.
Then I found out I was expecting. I would be lying if I was to say that I was 1000 percent excited.
Here I am 39, with a 7 and a 6-year-old having to start over. It felt like a weight had fallen on me and I became overwhelmed immediately.
I was grateful but at the same time, the little voice in my head made me feel as if life had come to a halt and now those dreams would not come to past.
Have you ever felt that way? Like you are finally on the right path — finally getting things accomplished and then out of nowhere something happens that throws a curveball.
Thank God for my husband snapping me out of that mindset when he said “it doesn’t mean you have to stop what you’re doing; just adjust. Make the list for a year versus by your birthday.”
He was right. Just because I‘m a mom doesn’t mean life is over. And just because I’m starting over in one area of my life, doesn’t mean life is over in another area. It just means I must adjust. And so, I did.
Starting with my thinking and my heart, I started to reflect on what it means to have the gift of raising another child when there was a time I couldn’t have any. I reflected upon the positive things I had already accomplished and what else was to come.
Finding out I was expecting did make me realize that I did not have to live by a checklist but to make that list, which represented how I truly wanted to live, a lifestyle.
One of the other items on my list was to travel out of the country and I had an opportunity to travel to South Africa for business.
I couldn’t do anything but smile because it reminded me that life can be manifested when it’s written down and when God is in control of it.
I released the control of my list and made it His list, understanding that I am in control of nothing. When I did that, I started to see more of my list come to past.
Today, I challenge you to release the pressure of meeting “this by that age” timeline because life does get interrupted. You must remain flexible and understand that success truly is a journey and not a destination.
So, learn to live in the moment of now and savor every second of your life.
