Thirteen weeks ago, I posted a list of my personal commandments and my advice on how to write your own. Once a week for the next twelve weeks I posted about one of those commandments. Sharing these helped me understand them more deeply.
Here they are again, with links to each post.
In revisiting the list to write each post, I spotted similarities I hadn't noticed before. At first I thought this meant I made a mistake when creating my list, but then I realized it's an important insight into who I'm trying to be. I think this list reveals that I'm ready to turn "maybe" into "yes" and "someday" into "now." What an important realization!
There are always benefits to finding the theme, whether it's a theme in your life, a theme in your career, a theme in your relationship, and so on...
Several years ago, I realized I was stuck in a self-inflicted cycle of guilt and resentment in my marriage. Once I recognized this pattern, I put a lot of energy into fixing it and our relationship is much healthier as a result.
Another time, I reached out to a business leader I respected greatly and asked her to be my mentor. During our first chat she asked me to tell her about each job I had held, and within 30 minutes she was able to spot several patterns in my career path, which helped me figure out how to approach my job search.
A few weeks ago I was scheduled to be the Sister of the Month at a Sisters U meeting. My job? Share my story in 10 minutes, which is not a lot of time to sum up 40 years. Since the keynote speaker that night was a parenting expert, I decided to tie into that theme, so I spoke about two lessons I learned from my parents and one I'm trying to pass along to my children. It worked!
Take time to reflect on your goals, your worries, your arguments, or your dreams. Can you find a theme? What can you learn from that theme?