What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do Next

It's been a day in my world.

• Colleagues laid off.
• Personally fighting illness.
• The unexpected loss of a friend's best friend/dog.

What do you do when there's so much going on and you know your words don't hold the weight you wish they did?

Sometimes life puts our plans on hold and the first thing we do is search for a way to get them back on track.

• Send out hundreds of resumes
• OD on Vitamin C
• Stuff our grief because there's no time to feel

Today, I'm feeling something different.

It's a rarity to have life put on pause. Thankfully, most days are pretty "normal" even if they don't go exactly as planned.

I'm starting to see these pauses as a blessing, a chance to ask some questions.

• Why am I doing what I'm doing?
• Will it matter to me in 10, 20 years?
• If I lost something or someone who matters to me, would this (career, goal, identity) still matter to me today?

In reading, Enjoy Every Sandwich by the late Lee Lipsenthal, I'm reminded the death rate is 100%, one per person. While that could be considered morbid, the more I live, the more I'm finding it powerful in a quest to reset my values.

I used to go after:

• titles
• pay
• influence
• visibility

But through moments of humbling and recent events, I want:

• Faith
• Family
• Community
• Service/Sharing

If you have been affected by a life pause, or don't want to wait until you are, taking time to ask these fundamental questions is a beautiful opportunity for a life reset.

When you are experiencing hard circumstances and don't know what to do, rather than follow the instinct to "get back on track", savor the pause.

This is not a dress rehearsal.

Enjoy every sandwich.

And evaluate if there's more to life than what you've been pursuing.

Be a change of pace for those around you who just want to dive back in.

Other books I'm looking forward to in this season:

• Illogical, Emmanuel Acho
• What You're Really Meant To Do, Kaplan
• How Will You Measure Your Life, Christensen

Upon your paced reflection (avoiding being antithetical to what I've stated above), if you need help with the next thing, be brave in asking.

We all need help with something.

We all have something to give.

Tell me, what have you discovered, in your maturation, matters most to you?

I'm excited to share in this journey with you in the comments.