What are we waiting for? What are we not seeing? What are we holding onto for dear life?

It’s time to clear the table (metaphorically, that is) to make way for all new questions and actions. What I love about this season is that we get to set the table anew.

My facilitator friends and clients at General Electric in their Leadership Practices program call this table setting, forecasting the future. What will we choose to dish-up next?

What’s on your plate for 2013?

In our world of information overload, we find ourselves getting overwhelmed. My “overwhelm” looks like a jumble of too many ideas and plans, too many wants and wishes, and thus way too many starts and stops. Edit our enthusiasm into less is more. This will force us to be more selective with our wish list. We know that the Chinese menu approach only confuses us. Let’s decide to do less that is meaningless and more that is consciously chosen.

The new year is a time to open ourselves to a new self-image. We can begin to imagine the new by asking key questions like: What matters most to me? How might I see the greater possibilities for my life? What is my higher purpose? How might I align my life with my passion? On what road do I wish to travel and with whom?

Asking questions is a curious practice. The asking intuitively invokes a response that guides the way for receiving new direction. The questions become the turnkey, the nudge, that primes the pump for a response. We must ask the questions.

These are not fluff questions. These are questions worthy of asking and listening for the answers. Answers can come in dreams, from the lyrics of a song, in a conversation or through meditation. The key is not to doubt what we hear. We often get these moments of inspiration and then discount them by saying, “That would be great, but I could never do, or be, that.” Ouch! We are given guidance when we listen with the intention of hearing. Why not try on the information to see how it fits and how it would feel to be living your purpose?

What is awesome about this questioning process, is that we don’t have to have all the answers about how something will come to pass. This is our most
difficult challenge – to stand back. As my partner often says when I’m impatiently waiting for his answer about this or that, “wait for it, wait for it.” Initially, I wasn’t so excited about (disliked) this “wait for it” idea. And yet, as I’m reminded to take a deep breath, it has grown on me. My enthusiastic nature wants to know it all - now, right now! And, it’s exactly this impatience that kills the needed pause in order for the genuine spontaneity and the synchronicities of life to appear.

Impatience is not our friend. If we already know how the journey will unfold, where is the adventure? How limited life would be if every step was prescribed. Who wants to take that trip? Sometimes, not always - don’t panic - we wait for years before we are shown the answer; but when it arrives, it is sweet, satisfying, and surprisingly… exactly on time.

I so appreciate the week between Christmas and the new year when there is no agenda. I barely leave the house except to get some fresh air at the mailbox. Stepping back, I see my dining room table stacked with plans, ideas, books, and nameless stuff. Now is the hour for a major clearing. Out goes the worn out and uninspired. It creates a bit of fear for the future as I dump what previously felt was so important. Breathe. Wait for it. The “it” in this case, are the fresh insights and refined ideas. Here they come.

Time is our most valuable currency. So how will we choose to spend our being, doing, and having in this new year? What will we create, share and inspire? What am I creating in this moment? Is it worthy of my attention and those around me? What am I sharing? Does it benefit others, or does it hurt in some thoughtless way? What can I share that will motivate change? Like it or not, what we think, say, and do, consciously or unconsciously, speaks to who we are.

What has my soul consented to expressing in this lifetime?

The time for hiding from it has passed. If do not we ask for that which we seek and do not commit to following our dreams – what we are creating is a long life of waiting…for what? The dinner bell is ringing, has table been prepared? Make this new year yummy, make it juicy with meaning, and make it sassy with of a kick of olé. Happy New Year.