When Your Strut Has To Change
[This is a repost, but I think it is relevant for the moment of time we are currently living in!]
I know when you read the blog title, it may be a bit perplexing as to what I mean when I say, “your strut has to change.” Most of us know that “strut” is synonymous with “to walk.” The point of this blog is to discuss how, at times, you will need to change how you navigate and maneuver in life. I chuckle at myself as to how I came up with the title of this blog. I am compelled to share it, because well for revelatory purposes if nothing else. I knew my last eyebrow pencil was at its end, so I went to the MAC counter in the nearby mall to make my very necessary purchase of replacement eyebrow pencils. When asked what I needed, I responded with my usual request of two eyebrow pencils in the color of “Strut.” The young woman assisting me replied, “I am sorry, but STRUT has been discontinued.” I felt my world spinning as I stood there in disbelief as I repeated, “d-i-s-c-o-n-t-i-u-e-d!!!” Oh, the horror of it all... I engaged the young woman for just over ten minutes, in deep conversation, trying to convince this representative how MAC could not do this to me. Yes me! As far as I was concerned, this major event was an individual burden that I had to bear. After discussing all of my options, the nice young woman shared with me an alternative color I could purchase with another brand. So I gathered myself up and spent the next few days wrapping my brain around the need to change my strut.
No Wishing and Waiting!
As I scraped the last of my brow pencil the next morning, I began to think about how often we need to make changes in our lives. I find that as I have done my own work, I have spent the last few months, “course-correcting.” I look at how I handle various circumstances and people and the need to examine how I respond and interact each time. When we spend our lives operating on autopilot, we are not practicing accountability for our actions. When not paying attention to our mental chatter and our patterned behavior, we continue to engage people on a level that keeps us limited and, most times, stagnant. There is no way one can “strut” when stagnant! It is just about impossible, awkward even. That motionless space we operate in prevents the progression we say we want in our lives. We can want something all day long, but until we are ready to put corresponding actions to these desires, they are no different from an Amazon wish list. We move items there in the hopes that someone will show benevolence towards us and send that item our way. In two days, preferably. Let’s hope they are a Prime member. Your waiting for someone to bless you from that wish list is no different from you waiting for what you are hoping for to manifest in your life magically. It is just not going to happen.
Vision: Where You See Yourself
You do not need another vision board party to try to get the universe to send to you what you have been wanting. I do whole-heartedly believe you need vision because it is what provides you a blueprint to find and walk or strut into your purpose. However, you can’t just see it in your head and expect it to show up in your life. Your vision, blueprint, needs to be in written form. Writing the vision is what helps to solidify it. Creating action steps is what provides momentum for your vision. Breaking down your vision into daily action steps is necessary. And this process also helps to create intention in your life. When you are intentional in your daily living, it eliminates not only mindless interactions but also it helps you from switching back to an autopilot existence. Your autopilot strut and your intentional strut vary tremendously. Autopilot is attached to old patterns and behaviors, as well as old stories you use to tell yourself about you and others. Your intentional strut is one that is unapologetically confident about your divine purpose and the trajectory of your life. It has the inability to be negatively affected in any way. After struggling for so long to know who you are, when you come to realize the need to change how you show up in the world and how you walk in your purpose, you make sure to guard it.
What Change Brings
Although some people find change difficult almost to the point of being debilitating, change can offer you new possibilities and new adventures. The discovery of hidden treasures in your unmined life is something to wake up for every morning. It is something to look forward to with deliberate intentionality. I am reminded that in order for me to show up in the world in new and effective ways, I may have to change my strut. Just remember there are always more ways than one to skin a cat and pencil in eyebrows! Okay! You better strut!
Until next time... Be empowered!
DML
