Updated January 6, 2024 by Renata Fulawka

You are here.

We're all on this journey of life and at times we find that our way is more of a maze rather than a straight clear path.

Sometimes we are fortunate to meet our earthly angels who in their simple and gentle way help us make sense out of our life’s maze. I am fortunate to have many amazing people in my life who have been my angels, have shone light into darkness and clarity into confusion. The other day I had lunch with a colleague of mine, Wendel, who shared with me his amazement and appreciation of the mall directory sign that provides the mall visitors directions to where they need to go.

We all have been to a mall and at some point or another found ourselves walking around aimlessly in hope to find a particular store, yet were not able to find it on our own. The mall directory map is your best friend in that moment. All you have to do is look at it and notice that the first thing you see is “YOU ARE HERE”. How interesting! The process is rather simple as all you have to do is familiarize yourself with the store names as well as all the paths that you can take to get you to the store. Once you take a closer look at the map you will know exactly what path to take in order to reach the store of your choice. After spending a few minutes looking at the map you know exactly where you have to go from “HERE”.

On the other hand, what happens if you don’t know what store you want to or should go to? Well, you have two options, namely:

1. You don’t make any decisions at all and leave it to chance that you’ll know the right store when you get there by wondering around which requires time.
2. You will take few minutes longer and apply some strategies on how you want to tackle this decision making processes. Part of the strategy will be deciding what specific products do you need, what kind of store you are looking for, what’s the name, what path can you take that will get you there the fastest or longest, which will give you an opportunity to see other stores along the way that carry items of interest.

I realized that the same applies to our life. At times when we feel lost or can’t remember exactly how to get to our goal, we need a reminder of our own “YOU ARE HERE” sign. More often than not, when we feel lost or face challenges more frequently we may choose Option 1 as we are in overwhelm with all the decisions and choices we had to make so far. Even thought, Option 2 may initially take a little longer to start, however the final outcome will be better and faster due to strategies that were defined and applied right at the beginning.

What?… you may ask. It’s a great question especially that some of you may say, “Renata, there is a big difference between direction in a mall and direction in life!” The truth is- No there is not!

For some reason we tend to make our life choices, directions seem so much more complicated when we feel lost rather than treating it as a mall directory map sign whose purpose is to provide a way out. Whether you are looking for a direction in a mall or in life you have to start somewhere. That somewhere is right at “YOU ARE HERE”. In the mall, same as in life, you are at a certain location, which is your starting point in that moment. That starting point is necessary in order to know what path to take in order to reach your destination. Also, whether you get lost in a mall or in life there are two common denominators, such as a Starting Point & Direction in order to be able to move forward and reach our goal. I’m sure you can now notice and appreciate the magic of this simple yet extremely powerful sign does not only work in the mall but also in life.

Recently I’ve been faced with many life changing decisions and directions that had an unclear path and no matter what I did the outcomes were less favourable, to say the least. Actually, there seemed to be one failure after another. In those moments filled with disappointments and confusion the path forward was very unclear and sometimes, I didn’t even see any path at all. It is in those moments that I needed to be reminded that whatever decisions I make, whatever direction I go the only way to find clarity and move forward is right from were I am.

“I AM HERE” and I am standing here redefining my path to reach my destination and my only starting point is HERE and NOW. And so are you!

Balance & Joy

R

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Updated January 6, 2024 by Renata Fulawka

"You, as much as..."

You, as much as I, happen to live in this reality where we need to do things as part of our life and mostly because most of us do not have little Elfs to do it for us and don’t have a magic wand. I don’t know about you and how easy or difficult it is for you to motivate yourself, stay focus and keep on moving, I know I had my share of surprises along the way.

As I geared up for the brand new year, I owed it to myself to sit back, review things and look at the challenges I have faced through which I was divinely guided, to say the least. Yes, last year was charged with lots of old, lots of new and lots of ‘ are you serious’ or even ‘WTF!’ As we already know, all work is inside work and no one can do it for me or for you. So the ‘curious Betty’ that I am, I set out to look for something that would help me to make sense of this undefined reality fog that I was facing.

Working in the holistic and energetic space I see things and look for things on the brighter side and I believe that there is a reason why we experience things that we experience. This also means that I look at things outside the box and outside the normal view of things. Why you may ask…. ‘because if it was that obvious everyone would be doing it.;)’

Surfing YouTube for information is my favourite activity. I absolutely love it and you’ll be surprised how much one can learn and how fast the time can go by. I get swallowed up in the vortex of endless information. There is so much great knowledge that it is a sheer pleasure to learn and get curious. Try it, you may like it too.

In one of my search modes I came across a video that talked about motivation and it took me by surprise.

You may recall a YouTube video by Mel Robbins, author of 5 Second Rule, where she strongly expressed her view on motivation. Namely that ‘motivation is garbage’.

Initially, when I watched the video I agreed with most of her views with the exception of motivation. I felt her view and opinion on motivation being garbage was slightly strong and possibly over the top.

Then I thought about it, because internally I knew I rejected her view rather strongly. Knowing better, I asked myself why I had such a strong reaction. To my surprise I noticed that my reaction to her video was not because of what she said or how, but rather that she was absolutely right! All of a sudden I realized that I’ve been totally unconscious about my view and belief system regarding motivation. Simply, I never paid attention to it.

Fortunately, I’ve made rather good decisions in my life, for the most part, and have done what I wanted to do, however I never really looked closely at what made me do it, when or how. Least of all, the meaning and purpose motivation had in my life.

As such, it is only natural that some things happened by chance, bit of luck and gut feeling rather than a planned conscious approach to taking action.

The other part of it came from having amazing people in my life who happened to be smart, driven, talented, accomplished and most of all kind and supportive who also had dreams of their own that they took ACTION on.

So simply by association some of their greatness robbed off on me, ignited my own greatness and the concept of motivation never even entered my mind. I either did things or deliberately took time off from being an active participant in life, whatever that may be. And those were my conscious choices.

Even when life threw a few curve balls and gave me a massive wake up call, the notion of motivation was never part of my thought process. A shocking realization, and I hope I’m not the only person on this planet that has learned that.

In my contemplation on the topic of motivation I noticed that unconsciously I followed only 3 steps. To me the ONLY option, my thought process, and therefore my motivation has been and is to:

1. Evaluate & Learn - Pause and take a look at what’s happening.
2. Plan for big picture – Focus on what I want vs how shitty things are at the moment.
3. Action in the now – This too shall pass and will bring me closer to where I desire to be.

These simple points, while challenging in execution, presented a new set of challenges and personal realizations. It is by far not easy as you go through it, however it is THE best thing one can give to self. By taking the time to look at my decisions, actions, shadow side of my persona I learned about the good, the bad and the ugly that are all part of me. This is where the personal development, healing and growth takes place.

Because, at the end, no matter how big or small, the actions were, I have set the wheel in motion and have created movement. It is the movement that creates my motivation in creating something new, in following my dreams and in creating my INNER drive to achieve things I want.

Now I know that my motivation comes from my strength of being reflective, having a positive outlook, being resilient and looking at the big picture vs focusing on the momentary challenges that have derailed or side tracked me right now. And since everything passes, this too shall pass and the new shall arrive. Focus on getting ready for the NEW that you want and practice letting go of the OLD that no longer serves you. Learn, take courses, read books, attend workshops, start a business, get a new job, quit a job, end a relationship or start a new one…. DO SOMETHING!

So sunshine, I too believe that motivation alone is garbage and it is taking action that creates the motivation. Joy, inner happiness and satisfaction are the direct derivatives of taking action and making things happen, which creates effective motivation.

Yes- Motivation is garbage and Action is motivation. Try it and you may be pleasantly surprised. 

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-R

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© COPYRIGHT GET TO KNOW YOURSELF. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

info.gettoknowyourself@gmail.com

647-326-8981

2238 Dundas St West, #215, Toronto ON, M6R 3A9