Following Through

Deciding to follow your HeARTwork is a huge step. Living it and following through with it is another. I love how Steven Pressfield describes it. He says that as you are about to reach another level, you are met with resistance of some sort. Paulo Coelho mentions a similar experience in “The Alchemist”. He writes that when you are about to discover your personal legend, you are met with lots of tests to see if you have mastered your lessons. It is at this point that most people run away.

Both Pressfield and Coelho, and many others as well, describe a time when it does get difficult. The most important thing they both recommend is to keep moving forward. And that is what we should do.

I know that in my own experience, it took me years to finally step forward and not turn away. The last seven years were when I was closest to my HeARTwork. I was confused, uncertain, lacked confidence, was lost, terrified, broke, etc. There were lots of reasons I turned away. I did not realize my dream was around the corner. I still had a lot of learning and growing each time I did turn away, apparently my lesson had not been learned.

It’s important not to be discouraged that we turned away. Part of us was not ready to accept and fulfill our HeARTwork and that is OK. But as Coelho describes a few times throughout the book, we can get stuck and in a loop of not following through with discovering our dream. And then we’ll be in our last years looking back at our life and realizing those lost dreams and wishing we’d had the courage to follow through. That is what I wish to avoid…regretting not following through.

Where are you in the process? Have you been met with resistance? Fear? Doubt? Is your HeARTwork around the corner? Have you turned away and created a little space between you and your HeARTwork?