What are You Becoming in 2021?
Over the summer Violet and Isaac’s mama lent me a book that stirred my soul: Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I know that her hubs is getting all the press right now… and I’m reading his book too! But let me tell you: for anyone who’s feeling a little stir crazy in their year and in their life, Becoming is what you need to read.
I took this book to a cabin in the woods over July 4th weekend and devoured it. While Dave and Dax did their thing, I read and cried and gasped and dog-eared many pages (sorry, Mindy!).
I wouldn’t attempt to summarize the breathtaking writing, personal narratives that illustrate why inclusion is so hard for our country today, nor the arch of the memoir. This book is simply too rich. But isn’t there some quote about, “You may forget the taste but never the flavor?”
The theme – the flavor – that has lasted for me, is this: it’s never too late… things are never too bad… you’re never too old… to become something new. Maybe this is obvious to some; but to me, it’s an idea I’ve really had to wrap my head around over the past few years. That life and work aren’t linear. It’s not just a ladder you continue ascending. In fact, I may even suggest that that a truly, deeply interesting life – one with meaning – shouldn’t feel so vertical. If you’re only moving “up” – and not taking any turns, slides, and side steps – you’re missing the complexities that really let you live.
I used to have this yoga teacher in Boston, Marc. He taught Ashtanga. His classes were fierce; they were among the hardest in my practice. But the difficulty didn’t stem from forced complicated, advanced poses. The difficulty was woven into the intentionality between poses. Marc would always preach, “The practice is in the transitions.”
And my gosh, when you’re mindful, slow, and skilled in your transitions from pose to pose, they are a BITCH. My muscles would scream. Sweat would flow. And I would resist – until I arrived at the next phase in my practice. One where I could sit, soaking in the work and feeling what my body and mind were becoming.
The year of 2020 was a reckoning. The meaning I see is that it was delivered to clear the clutter. Force us to question everything we’re doing, from our work, to how we raise our kids, to how we treat the world around us.
For those of us who have used it well (I hope that I’m one of them), it has the potential to be the greatest transition of our life. Though we do have the power to do this at any moment, it does feel like now is the time to become something new.
For as Michelle Obama says,
Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self.
It’s all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done.
Next week, I’ll be so excited to tell you about a course we’re launching in January, to help you and your small business loved ones, map out the path to what and who you’ll become in 2021.
