Some days our actions flow easily and some days every step feels like pushing a boulder up a hill.
On those hard days, making things happen requires more of you. Even things you might WANT to do!
I read a blip about a young corporate executive named Lisa. She loved her job even though it meant spending a lot of time on planes and in hotel rooms. One day during a flight delay, she found a children’s art exhibition in the airport. As she looked at each painting, she remembered how much she had loved to paint as a child and made a decision to be a painter again.
Lisa started taking classes on Saturdays, getting up early a few days a week to paint before work and carrying her sketchbook everywhere with her, even on work trips. Eventually she found a way to travel less and paint more.
You may wonder about the Saturdays Lisa was jetlagged from travelling, or the mornings she just didn’t want to get up. How did she get herself to her canvas? Desire? Discipline? Maybe. Another explanation is self-devotion.
Discipline gets you to things you know you have to do, reluctantly, like dishes or mowing the lawn.
Self-devotion is an intense devotion of oneself to an activity, field or profession such as art or science (dictionary.com). With self-devotion you are willing to do something in service to yourself, even when you don’t feel like it.
There will still be days you want to crawl back in bed and binge watch Netflix. There will still be days you doubt your dreams. This is normal! Self-devotion helps you to push WITH and not against your deepest motivation, even when it’s uncomfortable.
What do you feel devotion to? How can you bring more of it into your life?
“True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.” - Henry Miller
Make it a good week!
P.S. If you want to experience how working with a coach can be one tool for increasing your self-devotion, click the button in the lower right corner and we’ll set up a complimentary session!