Last year, I declared May 16th ‘Take Back Your Life’ Day, because that’s the day that I took back my life from that evil beast, Cancer. It’s so important to me that this year I’m declaring the whole month of May ‘Take Back Your Life’. (Or in the more hip and with-it format: #TakeBackYourLife.)
Along with April’s theme of Fully Alive we’ve talked a lot about life’s wake up calls coming our way and being forced to choose to make a change in your life. The reality is that these little wake up calls are not only forcing us to choose Fully Alive, they are waking us up to what is important. Like, really, really important.
We don’t have forever, but we do have NOW. And there are two things that that makes me think of. One is making NOW count, not frittering it away doing things that are important only to other people, doing things that aren’t true to us or our hearts – that aren’t how we would live if we only had one more day, one more week, one more month or one more year left.
Make NOW count! 
The other is to consider what decisions or action do we need to make or take now, today, in order to set ourselves up to live a life of meaning and value, a life we are proud of because it is a full expression of who we are and what we stand for. A life where people will remember us for being on purpose, and true to ourselves.
Take Back Your Life is about finding those areas in your life where you are playing small, being less than your full self, and then taking back your life from them. There are so many facets of your life this could be happening in. Some ideas of places you might be playing small:
- tolerating a crappy relationship (or crappy behaviour in the relationship)
- tolerating a job where you don’t get to bring your best talents
- tolerating ‘filler friends’. Friends to pass the time with, but they don’t really call you forth to your greatness.
- not speaking up about something in your community that is important to you
- not saying “No” to the grown-up version of bullies
- not honouring your own magnificence
Okay, okay, maybe you’re having a hard time figuring out just when you might have been selling out on yourself in any of those ways. But let me ask you this: have you ever done any of these things?
- quit your job
- left a crappy relationship
- declined a promotion
- battled a difficult diagnosis
- spoke up about something you believe in
- said “no” in tough situation
- moved to a new community
- chosen a healthier lifestyle
- paused your career track to take time for family
- started a new business
- went back to school
And if you haven’t, maybe you need to?
There is a moment, not surprisingly I call it a Signýficant Event, in which your whole world pivots, and you can’t help but change, in fact it is inevitable. It might be the moment in time when you “wake up”, when you get it, you become achingly aware that something needs to change, or it might be the moment when you DO something about it, when it shifts from idea to action. Either way it is something that makes you sit up and go “Holy crap!” and from that moment on, you change the way you are living. Suddenly you are required to live for the things that matter to YOU. In that moment, during that Signyficant Event, you take back your life!
For the whole month of May I’m going to be featuring amazing people who have chosen to take back their lives. Watch for a new feature every Tuesday and Friday (with the first Friday in May being my story, yes, that is 4 days from now!) in which these powerhouse people let us know the areas that they have taken back their own lives, and just how they did it. What could be more inspiring?
#TakeBackYourLife is happening all of May! Incredible people & empowering stories.
Okay over to you:
Have you taken back your life? How did you do it? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.
P.S. I’m currently working on designing a new E-Program all about making the most of the precious little time that you have. It’s set to launch very soon. Sign-up here if you’d like more information!
XOXO
Most of my childhood and adult life I was told I was not pretty, and later in life, too fat, and not very smart. At age 50 I decided to leave everything behind (my kids were older and now established) so I sold everything, packed clothes and shoes and headed for university. I attained my goal of a PhD, and managed to have enough time left in my career years to use it to make the lives of the students I taught or administered a better place. My motto was to make college or university an open door, not a closed gate.
Judy,
This is such a great story! You are an inspiration! Keep it up.
Much respect to you.
Signy