At the beginning of the year I heart a presentation by Arthur Brooks on professional decline that was given at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Just a few days ago I ran across an article by Brooks laying out the same principles, but adding some different “takeaways”.
The thoughts stirred me in January, and this recent article is doing it again. I am at a place in my life where I need to grab hold of these ideas and develop them in my own life. How do I TRULY live in this time of my life?
Some ideas from Brooks (in the Aspen Ideas presentation):
- Don’t rage against change
- Teach others
- Take away the parts that aren’t you
- Surround your self with love
I have gone through massive changes in the last 2-3 years of my life. I am still in that process. When it first stirred me, I raged against it. I have also found I tried to manufacture my own change (as a compromise) and it was not healthy at all!
But through these past two years I have sensed the leading of the Lord and have learned to calm my spirit and see what the Lord has next.
The biggest lesson these last few months has been #3. It is the discipline of seeing what doesn’t belong and getting ridding of it in my life. I have needed so much stripped away, and that process is ongoing. There has been the stripping away of physical “stuff” when we made a major move. There has been a stripping away of emotional “stuff”. Identity has been shifted. I have to hold things loosely.
It is now up to the Lord as to what needs to be put back in my life.
This is a time of learning. It is a time of shifting. It is a time to refocus and learn to FINISH WELL.
The article I linked to has four more ideas from Brooks’s research and I need to consider them further. I hope you do as well.
