What’s Next?
It’s simply not true that we have to look at a particular stage in our lives as an ending – we should continue to explore life, challenge ourselves, and look around the corner to see “WHAT’S NEXT?” I would like to invite you to use this forum to share with me and with each other your own “WHAT’S NEXT?” stories. Change can often be a scary thing, and we can all benefit by supporting each other through difficult or challenging times. Life is so much easier when we feel that we are not alone and when we realize that others have been down the same road. If initially you think that none of the following have ever happened to you, take a moment to look back and reflect. Upon closer inspection you will find that there have been any number of times when you have made a change or responded to a challenge. So often when we look back, we tend to see only the areas where we haven’t done as well as we would have hoped, but if we change our perspective, we can also remember times when we’ve met the challenges and have enjoyed great success!
Please feel welcome to share your experiences or thoughts and to add new ideas to the list:
Stories of actions you may have taken to create the next chapter in your own lives
Stories about opportunities that have come along
How did you recognize them?
How did you handle them?
What did you do about them?
Did you seize them? Fail to recognize them? Back away from them because you were afraid to take a chance?
Experiences that turned out to be life-changing
Challenges you’ve faced and overcome
Risks you’ve taken
Life changes you have made
That is part of what i would like to open the doors of communication to; however, there’s another side of the coin here that is just as worthy of discussion, and that is when we desperately want a “WHAT’S NEXT?” in our lives, but fear is standing in the way.
How do we deal with that? How do we overcome the fear and move past it?
What do we do when the fear paralyzes us and keeps us from thinking rationally, preventing us from moving forward?
Or perhaps it’s not fear, but simply that we don’t know how to uncover that “WHAT’S NEXT?” opportunity. How do we find it and recognize it?
Creating the next chapter can be more difficult for some of us than others. There are varying degrees of hardship and those of us who are navigating particularly treacherous waters need the networking support of a community to help work through them.
I believe that one of the most powerful forces in the universe is that of networking, of reaching out and communicating with other human beings. Men and women both are usually, (but not always), excellent at this – but they do it in very different ways. Men generally communicate in an intellectual manner with the goal being to isolate a problem and work out a solution. Women are much more feelings-oriented. We develop special bonds with other women, readily sharing our souls, fears and dreams. Women talk to other women in a way that we would rarely, if ever, talk with a man, no matter how wonderful our partners are or how much we love them.
Connecting with other human beings is one of the most satisfying, worthwhile, important things we can do. It’s good for our mental and physical well-being and it’s definitely good for our hearts and souls. It truly is one of the things that makes the world go around.
Uncovering “WHAT’S NEXT?” can be a very scary thing, particularly in these economic times. It usually involves challenging ourselves to take on new ventures we’ve never tried before or thought we could never do – but oh, the headiness of success when we discover that yes, we can do that!!!
I would like to reach out to all of you as I gather information from others who have been down this road, (and we all have at one time or another), and to open up a discussion on it. I welcome your stories, or if you don’t care to share them here, please e-mail them to me at val@valerieramsey.com. With your permission, some of these stories may even end up as substance for my next book!
I am excited as we start on this whole new “WHAT’S NEXT?” chapter in all of our lives! Thank you for joining me in this new venture.
Love,
Valerie
10.12.2008
