Boundary Lessons from a Horse and More

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?  How does that work for you? Have you heard of the concept of selecting a word for the year instead?  Have you experienced progress in your life because of the word you chose?

Following the model of business coach, Christine Kane, to select a word for the year, I chose clarity in January.  Actually, the word chose me, and it has been quite the potent one on this path to honor my soul’s longing to spread peace and joy.

It’s been a year full of stretching, growing, and becoming aware of all that can evolve with clarity, including the topic of boundaries, something that literally nipped me on the hand in the form of a horse in July.

As the topic of boundaries and the bruise arise, I realize what a beginner I truly am, since life has seated me at the foot of so many situations where folks fractured boundaries when I didn’t have a voice.

How about you?  Are you practiced at setting boundaries? Do you have voice to oppose others when they’re stomping through boundaries you failed to define?

In this toddler phase of understanding boundaries, life finds me setting some, and then making a new decision.

May this short tale offer you a layer of awareness for your own journey, light a hallway you’re entering, or illumine the path of a friend.

I decide to hold Open Houses for Joy on Your Shoulders ™, and I seek clarity, wonder what hours to hold them, ultimately choosing long hours to accommodate busy folks, giving them a choice of times to stop in.

During these longer hours, I learn that the intent of the sign-up book for the free meeting room is to reserve it for a couple hours, and I see my mistake with the long day challenging my energy reserves, besides.

Leaving the second Open House, I realize I don’t have to be rigid or perfectionistic to stick with what I’d scheduled, that I can make a new decision for the next weekend by choosing new days and times.  I can replace flyers, post the revision clearly on Facebook, and send new e-mails, holding open houses for two hours at a time instead.

My inner critic attempts to chime in about following through with what I said I’d do, and that folks who noted the first flyer may attend when I’m closed; I assure her it’ll be okay.  Can you relate to those voices piping up from time to time?  Bless our egos trying their best to protect us.

With new hours in place the second weekend, I realize this is a much better plan!

I’m in line with the intention of the meeting room guidelines, and I don’t wear myself out visiting with guests.  Amazingly, the same number of Joy on Your Shoulders ™ gifts are purchased in two hours that were bought the previous weekend in 11 hours.

Oh…the joy of clarity, boundaries, and making new decisions!  I highly recommend all three.  Invading the personal space of a horse…that I do not recommend, unless you don’t mind being nipped.

Then again, some great self awareness may result for you.  Boundaries!  Where do you have too many, too few…?