You don't have to learn your destiny -- you already know it -Martha Beck
Recently, a headline caught my eye: 100,000 Live Salmon Spilled Off a Truck. Most Landed in a Creek and Lived. I do love a good news story. Also, a quirky one. But there was something about the article that stuck with me. I kept on coming back to it. Why was I so compelled? To be honest, it really didn’t come to me until this morning as I was journaling about how to help clients tune into what matters to them. In my work, I focus on 4 elements of awakening and purpose: Attunement, Orientation, Alignment and Execution.
The salmon story is all about Orientation. Like the great flocks migrating north and the whales circumnavigating our oceans, the salmon move with an instinctual flow from fresh water to the ocean and home again. On this day in early spring in Oregon, tens of thousands of salmon were unceremoniously and accidentally dumped on a rocky embankment after the truck they were being transported in skidded and rolled off the road. More than 70,000 of them flopped their way to the river. It’s pretty incredible when you think of it. They were literally fish out of water. And yet, they kept to their orientation and moved toward it.
That idea of orientation, of purpose is natural to us as well. Unfortunately, we let “reality” or “authority” figures get in the way or talk us out of dreams. But having a dream and figuring out how to make it fit or work with your life is not impossible. Not living into it and with it is living smaller than you need to.
I had a discussion with a client about this the other day and asked her point blank: “are you worried that if you do identify your orientation (i.e., your north star) that you will blow up your life?” She got quiet and then nodded. She is still hearing the voice of the authority figure from way back when who told her to behave, to take care of things. You probably have similar voices in your head. The voices that caution you; that told you not to take a chance in the first place.
But it is possible to align yourself to a central purpose. And it matters. Research shows that people who have identified a purpose in life tend to live longer and experience less stress. I know, for myself, that in times of confusion or even when a new opportunity arises, I am able to go back to my core purpose and check in – is this aligned? Does this help me achieve my mission?
Those salmon. They flopped and gasped. I cannot imagine the chaos. And every cell of their being was pulled to the clear water; to the place that would take them home to the sea. That impulse is within you as well.
Reach out to me if you want to take the next beautiful step (or flop) towards your orientation.