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48 Days to the Work You Love: Chapter 12 Questions

Chapter 12: Conclusion

1. What action can you take in the next 48 hours to put you on the path for what you want to accomplish? I can eat well, sleep well, and smile. I can trust that God has a plan for my life and in due time that plan will become known to me. This year I have already made massive progress toward what I want to accomplish: independence of finance, body, and spirit.

2. What idea have you gotten while on the beach or mowing your yard that could be worth more than a lifetime of hard work? I don't get ideas so much as delightful turns of phrase. Now, if only I could discipline myself enough to sit down and create a narrative around the perfection of those words I'd be on my way to writing an eloquent work of fiction. (Or maybe I'll start that housesitting/petsitting business I thought of once when a friend asked if I knew anyone willing to stay at her wonderful Sam Hughes house for two weeks while she and her partner vacationed in Italy. If I could line up enough gigs I wouldn't even have to pay rent!)

3. Are you a creation of circumstances or a creator of circumstances? I'm a little bit of both, and I believe we all are. If you plant yourself too firmly in one camp you can't cope in the other.

4. What seeds did you plant in your mind 5 years ago that brought you to where you are today? The seeds in my mind lay dormant under a thin scale of ice for years and years. Several people have quoted Anais Nin to me as I weather these self-inflicted transitions: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." This B&D (bankruptcy and divorce) is the first step on a long road toward a life I love, not just work I love.
Do not look at circumstances or past history with regret, but simply learn from them as you create a clear plan for the future. Everyone has events that have helped to make us what and where we are. You simply must look at where you are and then create a clear plan for the future you want. That process of seeing 5 years out and clarifying what you want that to be will immediately begin to lessen the uncertainty about any current situation.

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