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I originally intended a different post for today. A technique I adopted last fall, scheduling blog and social media posts a month in advance, serves me remarkably well. However, who could foresee what this month would bring? I certainly didn’t when I scheduled March’s posts in February.
As I considered my original idea, it seemed inadequate for my experiences this month. However, written across the bottom of the page, beneath my list of posts for Cindy Goes Beyond, this phrase stood out:
“Living life beyond the edges…”
I came up with that tag line last year, as a natural expression of the growth the blog and I are experiencing.
In its expanded form, living life beyond the edges of fears, comfort zones and limiting beliefs wonderfully captures my ongoing journey as I become the person I am created to be.
This past month, as the whole world groaned under the onslaught of a pandemic virus, this is how living life beyond the edges guided me.
100 Big Ideas
An interesting thing occurred at the end of last month. Looking at my vision board that hangs in my creative studio, the middle section suddenly stood out to me. The magazine cutout boldly proclaims “100 Big Ideas”. My word for the year, curiosity, appears above that phrase, with my symbol the key pasted next to it. I felt an inward shift, staring at those words and symbols that seemed to say that curiosity is the key to 100 big ideas this year. Powerful emotions increased my heart rate and I knew I’d just received an important invitation, from a board I created at the first of the year. (I also realized that the board is mildly prophetic, but that’s a post for another time.)
I accepted the invitation to dream bigger than I’ve ever dreamed before. And I entered wholeheartedly into a game of coming up with 100 Big Ideas this year.
Then boom. A few days into March, everything changed. On my board is the sentence “Change the World”. Perhaps I got the order of words wrong. The world changed and we are being called upon to change as well. Is it the wrong time, the wrong year, to come up with 100 Big Ideas? Not if I’m living life beyond the edges…
Living Life Beyond the Edges
So these are the ways this past month that I’ve lived life beyond the edges, of fears, comfort zones and limiting beliefs, in connection with creating 100 Big Ideas. So far, I’ve jotted down 29 Big Ideas, several of them birthed from my 62 Outrageous Things to Do for My 62nd Birthday. That fun game certainly ramped up my entry into 2020 and I’m still experiencing the impact.
Create Digital Vision Boards
While I enjoy looking at my physical vision board and receiving inspiration from it, I’ve discovered the benefits of creating mini digital boards, using the creative app, Canva.
These digital boards change as opportunities, goals and visions are accomplished. In February I made a digital board and used it as my wallpaper on my phone. I added big ideas from my birthday game that scared me a bit such as applying for a writer’s residency, submitting a travel story for a two week travel writing class in the Caribbean and writing chapters in my non-fiction book, “House H(a)unting”. I included a long term goal….visiting the Christmas Market in Edinburgh, Scotland in December…plus a fun idea I had for a blogger award.
By the beginning of March I posted an updated digital board, showing my accomplishments, then created another board with several new goals. This is an ongoing idea for the year.
I am extremely proud of myself for writing five chapters in the book and for applying for two writing opportunities. Those opportunities may never occur, with the current bans on travel, however that’s not the point. For me, the point is that I challenged myself with big ideas…and I carried them out.
My current digital board continues to challenge me with ideas that stretch me and take me beyond the edges…and yet they are very doable.
Fix Her Crown Award
I’m also so pleased with the way this idea turned out. I created an award for bloggers, built around the quote,
“Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown, without telling the world that it was crooked.” Unknown
What a joy to pass on the Fix Her Crown Award to women who exemplify those words and then watch them pay the award forward. I’ve connected with amazing women around the world and experienced the sisterhood of encouragement and support that exists.
A Time of Reflection
With the arrival of a virus that has shaken the world, March became a time of deep personal reflection for me. Watching hoped for trips disappear like wisps of smoke, my attention turned to inner journeys. I’m finding that living life beyond the edges is possible, even when the adventure is a solitary time of reflection. As a result, I’m discovering more about who I am and what I am here to offer.
I believe the world reflects back to us our beliefs. Fear has no place in my life and I refuse to live in it or broadcast it. The stories of heroism and people creatively reaching out to each other while in isolation inspire me and reveal to me the heart of humanity and the state of my own heart.
Living Beyond
And finally this month, living life beyond the edges is not only reshaping my blog, it is reshaping my life. I’m trying new things, like learning how to use Tik Tok in my marketing. Thanks Aubrey for the patience and the lesson! And I’m measuring what I desire to do, to write about, to offer, against those words, to see if I truly am living beyond the edges.
It’s not just about living adventurously, traveling or taking risks. Living life beyond the edges propels me past my own perceived limitations and helps me to live a bigger life than I would otherwise. It prevents me from playing small or hiding or giving away the power I have to live an extraordinary life. By whose standards is it extraordinary? My own.
Okay with Not Knowing
I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow or next week or during the summer months, for the world or for me. However, I know that we will come through this time together, stronger and wiser. We’ll emerge with deeper gratitude for life and stronger appreciation for others.
As this month transitions into another, I am committed to living life beyond the edges. I do so with compassion, with hope, with quiet joy and fierce determination to ever move past the boundaries that attempt to contain my soul. There are more big ideas out there, seeking me even as I seek them. I am open…and ready…to receive.
Journals to capture your feelings:
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