Exercising Your ego-RHYTHMs™

“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.” ~ Clementine Paddleford

Now that we’ve examined several of the important egoRHYTHM™ cycles in live, I’ve got an exercise for you to create a list that identifies those that you’ve already completed.

This list will be separate from your want-it-all list, as it pertains to past events and not future wants. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we’ve already done with our lives, we need reminders of our accomplishments. This exercise will do that. If you’re like me, you tend to forget what you’ve already achieved and focus on all that remains ahead.

How to do this exercise:

Your objective is to imagine yourself flying over your life, taking a bird’s-eye view of it. Sort your experiences into the appropriate ego-RHYTHMs™. This exercise is easy if you begin by first listing all nine ego-RHYTHMs™ and then thinking about which apply to you.

You may find that you have more than one life event that fits into each ego-RHYTHM™. That’s okay. You may also recognize that some of the events you are using for this exercise are also on your want-it-all-list.

What does that mean? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean that this part of your life is over because you’re not done experiencing everything there is for you in life. Remember, an ego-RHYTHM™ can come around more than once (such as with me and career). A check mark at love in your past does not mean that you cannot ever give or receive love again. Just as career can be an important part of your life more than once.

To give you an idea of what your list might look like, please take a look at the following example. It’s my own list (and I’ve included some personal notes). I added the ego-RHYTHMs™ I’ve already covered, some more than once, and some that I still want, some that I know that are coming – and also the ones that were unavoidable.

Example:

Want ego-RHYTHMs™:

• Love – First husband – did not work, working on getting it right the second time – it’s promising

• Mom – check (Gina)

Friends

• Zen – check (at 23 I did a lot of soul -earching and something tells me this might come around again)

• Career – first in Germany, then selling my company in 2006

Me

Unavoidable ego-RHYTHMs™:

• Tragedy (I am glad it’s over) – the death of my father

• Bad Luck (did that twice and have no desire to do that again) – lawsuit, Gina having had Asthma

• Health – dealing with IBS

Neutral ego-RHYTHMs™:

• Transition –emigrating from Germany, after acquisition of Beateworks, integration, full-time job, writing.

Can you see the pattern? So, begin with yours and good luck! But first, tell me, what ego-RHYTHM™ do you feel you’re in now, and is this the first time you’re in it, or is it a recurring one? I’d love to know. Thanks for sharing!

 

Image by Michael Albany Photography