Do you wish you could change a decision you made years ago? Maybe you can!

Have you ever made a decision in your life that outside, looking in, appeared absolutely crazy, but inside, looking out, you knew it was the very best one?

There are so many things that we do in life where we simply go through the motions. Ticking boxes. Doing life the way it’s “supposed” to be done…

For me and for many of you, it will have been – go to school, graduate, get a job, marry someone nice, buy a house, have children, go on annual family vacations, save for your retirement, buy a bigger house, choose a good school for your kids, enroll them in everything possible until you can’t fit in one more thing…

And the list goes on.

This is a good life, don’t get me wrong. And often a happy one.

One of the decisions that I rolled through in my life without too much thought was “move across the country and never live near my family ever again.”

When I married my husband and he wanted tBuild a Life You Are Proud ofo move across the country for better work opportunities, I was open to the decision and moved too. I actually didn’t think much about this big life decision until about 15 years later when I realized…

Did I make the decision to move across the country and never move back home ever again? Ever? Did I make the decision to quietly drift away from my family heritage and all that I loved about my place of birth? Did I make the decision to grow distant with my family and extended family who still live there and not really be a part of their lives in any meaningful way – and vice versa?

Are those the decisions I had really made?

They kind of were.

And as I watched my children grow up and it became harder to pile into the old family home and have a comfortable holiday sleeping on floors and pull out sofas; trucking the children through endless family dinners and nostalgic trips down my memory lane that they didn’t really care about, and trying to get them to spark friendships with cousins they only saw once a year, I realized that this was not the decision I had intended to make.

So this is a story of how I challenged the norm and came up with a radical idea to turn an old decision on its head and make it new again.

I wanted to make that old decision work for today.

Now, I wasn’t going to desert the life we had built up for ourselves and move back across the country again. It was a good life.

But we could do something completely radical, and instead of building that cabin we had been talking of building near our home in Calgary, we could build it near my family on the east coast and make it our summer home!

What a crazy idea!

What if I built a place near my family, that we could visit every summer and Christmases too if we wanted?

The idea seemed far-fetched at first, but my heart was so immediately in it that I knew the idea had legs.

What if that family cabin we wanted to have for ourselves, was actually near my family so we could cultivate those relationships in a deeper way?

What if we no longer had to sleep on the floor and pile on top of each other and actually have a holiday when we visited my family?

What if we built a place we enjoyed being in, for the longer term, with a view to living in it more of the year when we retired?

What if?

And the crazy idea was born.

This past summer was our fourth summer enjoying our summer holiday in this cabin. And it has turned out even better than I could possibly have expected.

  • My parents can no longer travel like they used to, so we now come to them in a lengthier, more meaningful way.
  • My children get to know the extended family, and their cousins, in a deeper way as they spend more time there.
  • My family gets to create memories with a part of the family that could have become quite distant.
  • And I get to reconnect with that part of my life and my heritage that was slowly slipping away.

We have built a place to grow and cultivate family memories that transcend generations.

It is meaningful and my decision to move away and build a life elsewhere has now been reversed without giving anything up.

Are there decisions in your life that you wish you hadn’t made? Click To Tweet

Are there decisions that you’d like to “right-size” for today and modify the impact they have on your life now?

Here are three ideas to explore how you can make those old decisions, new again:

  • If something doesn’t feel right about an old decision, what needs to be done to make it a decision that fits now? What can you do to modify the outcome so that it doesn’t feel wrong anymore?
  • What norm are you going along with, that actually doesn’t feel right to you at all? What could you do to change it and make it your own? What decision would you be proud to live with?
  • Do you have a decision you made in the past that you wish you hadn’t made? What can be done to reverse it or make it better now?
How do you make an old decision new again?Click To Tweet

For me, that meant reclaiming valuable connections with my family that were slowing slipping away.

 

What could it mean for you?

If you have a past decision that you need to reverse, or a new one you need to make and you are stuck. That’s what I’m here for. I invite you to reach out and schedule a complimentary strategy session with me – we can develop a plan together to move forward, so your decisions of today match your goals of tomorrow.

I look forward to hearing from you!

To your success, in business, and in life,

Susan Elford

P.S. Are you a new business owner and seeking a kick-start to your fall to really get things done in your business? Applications are now open for my Accelerate! Mastermind program for new and emerging entrepreneurs. Cultivating new entrepreneurs is one of the things I love to do most. I invite you to join my community to gain the support, skill and structure you need to get you to the next level. Click here for more information and to move your business forward, today!

Alignment Equation

Susan Elford is a Leadership Coach and Business Mentor who especially loves to work with women who want it all: a fulfilling career or business while living a full and satisfying life. Through powerful career coaching and business mentorship to get their career or business to the next level, Susan helps her clients get real about their strengths and celebrate and promote them so they get more of what they want: success at work; success in business & success in life.

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