If I’ve heard one common comment from friends and colleagues over the past year it’s been “I’m figuring out what’s next”…
Although that seems like such a benign little comment, it isn’t. For many of us, figuring out what’s next has meant so much more:
It’s meant losing something we thought we’d keep forever.
It means we’ve watched as our feet have been dragged upward, through our body, and back out of our head. Leaving us completely upside down and twisted.
It means that promises we thought would be kept; weren’t.
It means that what we once loved is no longer a place of love.
It means people we knew and laughed with are now laughing with others, without us.
You see, when we say “I’m figuring out what’s next” we’re really saying “I’m ready to say good bye.”
But, when you’ve believed one thing for a long time, it takes a minute to catch your breath. It takes courage to pick your head up and look around you for the first time. It’s strange and scary to realize there is a whole other world out there.
What if I don’t find my place?
What if they don’t like me like they do here?
What if I can’t make it work?
What if …?
So, to figure out what’s next, you need some help.
You need to think about four things:
- What do you really, really, really want?
- How do you tell that story?
- How do you make the connections that help you achieve your goals?
- How do you build a plan that gets you into action?
I know this, because I’ve done this… Because I’m doing this.
I’ll teach you what I know. Because that is ultimately what I learned as I was figuring out what was next…
I learned that despite the unkept promises and the painful, twisting of my spirit,
I know that I have so much more than I thought I did.
There’s so much more in a goodbye. Goodbye isn’t an end.
Goodbye is a change, a transition, but not an end.
You leave, but you keep it all… well, just the good parts.
And a part of keeping the good parts, is reaching your hand back
To help others.
To pull them up, dust them off, and show them how to
Figure out what’s next.
