If you've been following along this month, you know we've spent the last two weeks talking about the past and present. If you haven't heard those episodes, we encourage you to go back and check those out!
After reflecting on your present moment, and doing some examining of your past to see what's brought you to this moment, we're going to now ask the question, what's next? You've probably been asked this question by someone after a major life shift. Got married...when are you having kids? Got a new job...when are you buying a home? There's a lot of emphasis placed on what is the next big thing and needing to have it all mapped out. But what if we focused on the next best step? Where might that take you?
Mentioned In The Episode
FREE Workshop: innerworkout.co/whats-next
Hey welcome back to Inner Warmup where your inner work begins. I'm Taylor Elyse Morrison, host of this podcast and creator of Inner Workout, and you, as always, are our expert guest. Thanks for being here today. We are approaching the question, what's next. But I have a couple of things to tell you ahead of time.
First of all, if you haven't listened to the two previous episodes, the one on the present reality, and the one on the past what brought you to this moment, go ahead and listen to those two first. This month more than usual, these kind of builds on each other. And so I encourage you to have the whole picture together.
The next thing that I want to share is that I'm teaching a workshop that's actually also called What's Next, the myth of certainty and what to seek instead. It's a free workshop. You can RSVP at the link in the show notes. And let's get started with the show.
So we've been talking about our relationship to time: the past, the present, here we are at the future. And I find that the question that all of us have been asked, even if it isn't with these exact two words is what's next? It's a very large question, one that looms really large. It's sometimes kind of annoying. Like, as a kid, the whole time of childhood. It's like, what do you want to be when you grow up? What's next for you, even though you're like, I don't know, sometimes I eat glue. But let's fast forward through all of that and talk about graduating high school. So as you near the end of high school, more and more, you get asked the question, what's next? Are you going to college? If you're going to college, what are you majoring in? If you're not going to college, what's your plan? Are you going to a trade school? Are you going to join the Peace Corps? And the question doesn't stop when you get to college? Because then almost immediately, people start asking you what's next? Where are you going to intern this summer? What class are you taking next? Where are you going to work when you graduate? And then again, you think you graduate? And almost immediately people are asking you what's next? Are you going to go back to school? Are you going to get a promotion? Are you going to switch jobs? How are you going to keep moving forward? And that's professionally, but it also can be what's next? Have you found a partners if partnership is something that you seek? I know, the evening of my wedding, I was literally just freshly married for probably less than an hour. Someone already asked me. So what's next 20 minutes, you're gonna have a baby. It's like, can I be married for an hour without already being asked what's next.
And I think this constant, asking of what's next that can be internally motivated. Maybe we're constantly wanting to find what's next for ourselves, but honestly, is driven in the culture. This orientation towards the future, this assumption that what is next is better than what is right now can add a lot of pressure. It's something where I'm always having to give myself space, so that that pressure isn't as built up. Because otherwise, I'm just operating in it assuming that I need to I need to be chasing the bigger the better, the more interesting the next milestone. And then that next milestone is never enough because I need to go to the next milestone or figure out what the next milestone is. And what I'm finding is that, in that pressure of what's next, it feels like we have to have an entire plan mapped out. And for some of us, we did kind of have a plan mapped out for a while. You go to school, and then you do something after you graduate high school and then you transition into a career and then you start establishing yourself more. And then the older that you get, the more opportunity there is for choice if we want to accept it. And sometimes it's hard to accept it because we spent most of our life being told what our next step is being told the answer to what's next.
You don't have to have everything mapped out though. I actually think that approach is becoming less and less wise. Because you've lived through the past two years that I've also lived through There isn't a lot of certainty. We can make plans for years down the road. But there are so many variables that we can't even think to consider. I know having a global pandemic was not on my bingo card for 2020. It wasn't in my plans. And I'm really grateful that I had flexibility that I was willing, instead of having a whole plan mapped out, to just focus on what is my best next step. And that's something that I've held on to for for years at this point, is instead of thinking, Okay, where do I need to go long term. Not that having a vision is bad, but just knowing Okay, let me focus on this best next step, this micro movement that I can make this bite sized morsel that I can save her. And recently, as I'm going through my coach training, my coach, Martha Beck, she talks about turtle steps, which is not only slicing something off to make it really small. It's also about making it manageable. And understanding that moving slowly, and with intention will still get you where you need to go and probably be a lot more enjoyable in the process.
I think if you've done the work of the previous episodes with me, but you're really well equipped to answer this question of what's next, in a different way than maybe you would have previously you're grounded in your present reality. And you can consider, okay, what are the things that I want to double down on? Or what are the things that I'm not content with and I want to change? You spent some time thinking about your past. And you can ask yourself, what can the past inform me about my present and my future? And again, the goal here isn't to spend a few minutes reflecting and have a whole life plan. It's just to say, Okay, what's your best next step? What's my turtle step? What's my tiny thing that I can do today or this week? And then I can find another tiny thing. And I can be present with that step. Instead of constantly asking myself what's next? I can be present with okay, this is, this is what's at hand here in my season of life. And when that's fulfilled, I can trust myself to find another tiny turtle step, or best next step. So I want you to think about that. What's next for you? What's next for you? How can you answer that question without it being daunting, but have it be something that is exciting, and energizing? Okay, I'll let you go. What's next?
Hope that time of reflection got you excited about what's next. And I'm excited about the opportunity to talk more about looking towards the future in the what's next free workshop happening next week. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your expertise and take care
