Are You Surviving or Are You Living?

Did you know you are a certified Sharp Shooter?

You are laser-focused on meeting the demands placed on you by work deadlines; bill due dates; an active social media presence so that proof exists of how busy you are and how well you’re doing. 

And you hit your targets with 98% accuracy, because you’re just that good.

This hyper-focused precision of executing your priorities is understandable, because meeting these demands is necessary for survival.  In order to survive, the work has to be done (and sometimes off the clock), money has to come in (and on time), and the machine that is your daily schedule must grind away, cogs meshing together dutifully to move you forward.

Because you are a master at maintaining that machine, you keep your eye pressed to the scope and constantly at the ready for the next target to hit. 

But what’s necessary in order for you to live?

Your focus on the Survival Checklist can cause tunnel vision, blacking out the aspects of life that make your soul soar.

I spent this past weekend co-hosting and hosting two major creative events back-to-back.  It was physically demanding, it was emotionally stimulating (sometimes more than I could bear), and my creativity machine was firing on all cylinders.  I formed powerful connections with other creatives and strengthened the bonds of sisterhood with my clients.  

My cup was overflowing, which is not always a phrase I understand until I’m in the thick of experiencing it.  (Isn’t that the irony? Ideas and ideals float so abstract and under-appreciated around us until the moment is completely enveloping us, and for an instant the meaning of it all is in divine alignment.  This epiphany is fleeting, and we spend much of our time chasing these moments.)

I was so far removed from the pressure of what I “have to do” as part of my job and instead fully engaged in what I needed to do as an artist and creative to thrive.  Above and beyond trading my time for money - because this is what corporate America requires of us - I was transforming time spent into art and experiences whose value will increase exponentially over the course of the future.

I lived in my purpose, and was reminded of what exists beyond simply surviving.

Your time is not worth only money.  It is worth peace.  It is worth joy. It is worth fulfillment, if you invest it into the qualities of life that are necessary for you to live.

Pull your eye away from those superficial targets for just a minute.

Now look around you.  Who are the people and what are the things waiting for you in the peripheries of your life that deserve more of your focus?

Your loved ones need more memory-making with you.

The wide open arms of Mother Nature wait to lovingly embrace you- even if it’s a day trip to the next town over.

Your creativity machine sits, impatiently anticipating the afternoon that you decide to dust it off and create something: paint, write, sketch, sew, dance, photograph, model…

Your soul knows everything she needs to step out of survival mode and into life.  

Just listen to her.  

Give her space to engage in conversation with you.  She misses you on the days, weeks, months that the Survival Checklist has spoken over her.

Is survival through this one precious existence necessary? 

Yes.

But so is living.