Dear Reader,
Growth is not a straight line.
Most of us know this somewhere inside, and yet we still catch ourselves measuring our progress like it should be.
We look at where we are today, compare it to where we want to be, and quietly wonder if all the inner work we've been doing has actually amounted to anything.
I had a conversation with a client last week that reminded me just how easy it is to lose sight of how far your soul has actually traveled.
What he discovered in that conversation changed how he saw his entire journey.
Now let's get ALIGNED...
Inspirational Quote
"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another."
- Anaïs Nin
The Story
Not long ago, a client told me he felt like he hadn't really progressed despite years of inner work.
He told me he'd spent years doing therapy, reading, journaling, and trying to grow. Yet when he looked at his life, all he could see was how far he still had to go.
I listened, and then I pulled out a map of the Hero's Journey I recently used in a workshop and set it in front of him.
I asked him to take a look and tell me where he thought he was on it.
He studied it for a moment, then pointed to a spot somewhere in the middle, in that part of the journey that feels long and uncertain, where the initial excitement has worn off but you can't quite see where you're headed yet.
That's when I asked him a different question:
Not where are you now, but how many times have you already completed this journey?
At first he shrugged.
Then he started naming them.
One.
Two.
Three.
A career change years ago. A relationship that ended and taught him something essential about himself. A health scare that shifted his priorities. A season of grief that eventually opened into something new.
By the time he finished, he had counted four complete cycles. Four times he had heard a call, faced resistance, crossed a threshold, gone through the challenges, and come out the other side a different person.
He just hadn't been seeing it that way.
The Spiritual Lesson
The Hero's Journey isn't a straight line. It's a spiral.
You don't walk it once and arrive at your final destination. You cycle through it again and again, each time at a higher level of your own unfolding.
What looks like the same territory is actually new ground, because you are not the same person who walked it before.
That's what my client couldn't see from where he was standing.
He was measuring himself against where he wanted to be in his current cycle, without recognizing all the cycles he had already completed.
When he looked back at the full distance he had traveled, he saw his whole journey from a different perspective.
He hadn't been standing still. He had already become someone his earlier self wouldn't fully recognize.
And that is true for you too.
One more thing worth naming. We are rarely at the same place in the journey across every area of our lives.
You might feel clear and grounded spiritually while something in your finances still feels unresolved.
You might be in a season of exciting new beginnings at work while navigating something much harder in a relationship.
That's not inconsistency. That's the complexity of being a whole human being on a multilayered journey.
(If you'd like to explore one of the stages of the Hero's Journey more deeply, you can read my last issue on The Resistance here.)
Your Call to Action
This week, I want to invite you to do something simple.
Look back.
Not at where you want to be, but at where you started.
Think about who you were five years ago, ten years ago, at the beginning of a particular season of your life.
Notice what you were carrying then that you are no longer carrying now.
Notice what you couldn't see then that seems clear to you today.
That's not nothing. That's the evidence of the journeys you've already traveled.
May you find peace in noticing how far you've already come, and may that peace give you the courage to keep going.
Abundant Blessings and Namaste.
Abundant Good News and Notes
One-on-One Coaching: Sometimes the hardest thing to see is your own growth. That's often what people bring to coaching. Not a lack of progress, but a lack of perspective. That's exactly the kind of conversation I have with clients. Together we slow down, look at the full picture, and help you find your footing on your own journey. If that sounds like what you need right now, just hit reply and let's talk.
Thanks for reading ALIGNED!
If you have any questions or want to share what you thought about this newsletter, hit reply and let me know.
Abundant Blessings,
Joselito Laudencia
Spiritual Life Coach, Teacher, Speaker
Author, The Creative Impulse: Answering the Highest Calling of Your Heart
www.abundantgood.com
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