While going through LL21-23, I've been taking actions and thinking about actions. One of my personalities is being industrious. My to-do lists are always long, and I always have ways to keep myself busy, so action is not a problem. It's just what and how.

If it's not more actions that are required, then what is it that I can get out of these life labs? I listened to the audio of LL23 three times, and tonight I had some discoveries.

Although I always keep myself busy in all the aspects of my new business, my mental attitude seems to be more on working on checking off my to-do list. No matter how much I do, I still feel I'm having more in planning. Since I have this feeling, no matter how much I have accomplished, I always get this sense that I am not doing enough.

I've chosen a career that I so enjoy. I have enough energy and drive to take actions, however, that sense that there is never enough time lingers at back of my mind that I don't like at all.

I wonder if I could just stop that self-talk and start a new one, such as "success is accumulative. Every night I go to bed knowing I've done my best and I've done enough for this day, so I'm more than ready to receive my CMI now. I don't need more actions 'tomorrow' to deserve to receive it."

I am still trying to figure out which actions are "inspired" and which actions to take! Have been trying many different things and so far, none have worked out as I thought and/or hoped. Hmm! I am continuing to give it my best shot as to what to do as to how I feel...something will finally work. Of this I am certain.

kemila-I was recently discussing something somewhat unrelated but the topic of 'feeling tired and always behind b/c of all the fun I was having' was a constant nagging feeling I had..... My mentor in the study of LOA said to me 'you have plenty of time of energy---you've either been trained or trained to yourself to believe otherwise and since you do believe that-you don't! Now all you have to do is re-train (or focus) on the feeling of having MORE than enough time and energy to be/do/have all that you want and you will.' Honestly-since I've been focusing on that-that ever present nagging feeling of the lack thereof has shut up and gone away.......I'm still having LOTS of fun and getting lots done---it's really been an amazing realization.

I have had some of the same experiences.

When I focus on my to do lists, I nearly always get the feeling that I'm not doing enough -- no matter how hard I work -- since I can always think of more things I COULD do.

I've had questions about the nature of inspired action, too.

I also have had lifelong chronic feelings of exhaustion/ feeling overwhelmed -- even when all my energy is focused on fun stuff.

Here are my current thoughts on these subjects:
To do lists: throw them away or at least pair them WAY down. I now limit my actions to two categories;
1) fun stuff
2) anything that is immediate and obvious (like paying bills, servicing customers, etc.)

I've found that the huge list of "stuff I probably should do if I want to be successful" is mostly just stress inducing. For me, it seems to feel competitive and controlling. My greatest successes have happened when I wasn't even trying to build my business, and I've wasted a lot of time on projects that "inexplicably" failed.

Rebecca says that inspired action is stuff that is so exciting to you that you CANT WAIT to do it.

Sometimes I do something that I might have normally considered "work" -- like a follow up phone call, for instance. And I don't even notice I'm doing work until it's done. I just get and idea, do it. Then I think, "Wow, that was easy and painless. That must have been inspired action." It's a huge contrast to the same phone call I might have forced myself to do because it was on my to do list. It's about letting go of my need to MAKE it happen and ALLOWING it to happen instead.

The feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted is something I have just noticed. I have felt that way so much that I've only just realized that I could address it. It's been a welcome relief to learn that I don't have to feel that way. It's not because of my diet, or my age, or my fitness level, or lack of sleep, or any other external factor. It's a feeling that (up to now) I've allowed because it never occurred to me that I could change it.

A-H says that sleep is mainly an opportunity to relieve us from the burden of our perceived limitations. (or something like that.) I take that to mean that any time we like, we can let go of -- forget, in a way -- all the stuff we think is wrong with us. We can just forget that we're tired, or sore, or confused, or poor. We can just release it and let our true selves shine out.

Phil's exercise about imagining that you are rich and fabulous and without limitations is an awesome way to let go of all that other stuff.

And of course, when you feel like that -- you can do no wrong.

Love and blessings,
Rachel

One quick tip to throw into your ponderings:

For those actions that do seem to need doing but are not particularly interesting to YOU or don't make best use of YOUR talents, I find it often extremely useful to stop asking HOW and start asking WHO.

WHO could take care of this?

It's amazing how often when I head my thoughts in that direction someone will just offer to do something for me. And if that doesn't happen, I can ask someone to do it -- sometimes I pay someone to do the tasks and sometimes they're happy to do them for me for nothing or as a swap.

Also, I used to feel oppressed by my to-do lists, but now I just write them down so I don't forget something. I no longer feel beat up by the list.

Have you done the exercises in recent editions of The Certain Way -- the "brain dump" and so on? It's great to get everything down on paper because that stops your brain from just spinning it all round and round. Then it's also most enjoyable to see how much you can just cross off the lists. Doing that every few months can bring great clarity (and an enjoyable and useful sense of accomplishment, too).