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Continued from Manifesting a Job You Actually Want (Step Three)
One of the final critical pieces of manifesting a job you actually want is measuring the new opportunities you generate against what you actually want, and following the path that’s most aligned with your vision.
In this stage of the game, people sometimes experience a pull to settle for professional opportunities that may seem outwardly consistent with their vision, but that fail to resonate on a gut level. Another way of saying this is that people often follow the path of least resistance, when they should be following their heart, and trusting their intuition.
Following the path that’s most aligned with your vision not only requires strategy and open-mindedness, it also requires intuition, and the resolve, or discipline to resist the temptation of settling for the path of least resistance.
This may seem to contradict my earlier coaching about accepting an opportunity as a strategic step toward fulfilling your vision, but there’s a difference between settling for something and making a strategic decision. The difference is often lost in the subconscious machinery of our brains, but the two are distinctly different.
One of the differences is that a strategic decision is made after fully confronting the potential risks of that course of action, while settling for something usually involves minimizing or ignoring the potential risks in order to justify a course of action.
Another difference is that strategic decisions are future-based, while settling is past-based. For example, your strategy may be to accept a job offer that positions you favorably for another move 3 years down the road. Strategic thinking requires looking ahead and seeing where you want to be in the future.
By contrast, a decision to settle for something, or take the path of least resistance, is usually the result of either wanting life to be like it has been in the past, or wanting life NOT to be like it has been in the past. Either way, the focus is on the past.
Since the subconscious has a slimy way of confusing the two paths, it can be easy to settle for something without even knowing that you’re settling. One way to catch yourself in the act of settling is to look back through your life at the times when you’ve faced similar circumstances, and see what decisions you made.
If the decision you’re about to make looks like decisions you’ve made in the past, smells like decisions you’ve made in the past, or feels like decisions you’ve made in the past, there’s a good chance that you’re on the path of settling. If it feels familiar, it’s probably more of what you’ve always done in the past.
In order to manifest a job you actually want, you have to be willing to say goodbye to the past. You have to be willing to find yourself making choices you’ve never made before, and taking risks you’ve never taken before. If it feels unfamiliar, you’re probably right on track!
Possibly related:
Good Point: Making a strategic decision that will ultimately take you on a path towards your desired end result is much different than settling for something and telling yourself it’s only temporary. In both cases, the immediate outcome might not be optimal. The big difference is that the former is made with the end result in mind (as a stepping stone), while the latter decision is made looking at the past (familiarly) and taking the path of least resistance. It all starts with being clear about and committed to your end purpose.
How timely. Two hours ago, I was asked to consider doing something that would be of “least resistance”. Strangely, it didn’t quite resonate well inside. Not sure what. But the old me would have jumped at the opportunity.
Thanks!!
Evelyn