Valerie Sjodin

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HOW? The Question Growing Out of My WHY

Asking myself the simple question, “How?" Is leading me in a life-changing evaluation of how and where I spend my time and energy.

My “how” needs to be an outgrowth of knowing my “why.” How is the way we live out our Why. I am grateful to know who I am and why I do what I do. However, sometimes I get confused on “how” to move forward from the deeper place of who I am and knowing my why.

The simple yet elegant block letters of HOW were done in the method Mary Brack's All in All Signature Journal e-course. Mary is my friend and co-facilitator, along with Bernice Hopper, of Living Your Word of the Year.

Having an online presence, teaching etc. are all things I am evaluating right now, asking how do I do it? How do I balance and integrate my actual face-to-face life with the virtual one? How should I spend my focus, time and energy?

As I stopped to ask the “HOW” questions, a Ted Talk I watched a number of years ago came to mind. It is about knowing your “Why.”

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A repeated quote from Simon Sinek’s talk is, “What you do proves what you believe.” So I revisited what I believe that relates to the questions I asked above:

5 Things I Believe

  • I believe every person is uniquely creative and made in the image of the Great Creator

  • I believe we can connect with ourselves, God, and others through creativity

  • I am passionate about learning and pursuing excellence

  • I am made to create and to help people express themselves in a visual way

  • I know I do not have all the answers nor have done everything right, but I am growing and becoming the person God made me to be

Further Questions

  • How I am doing living out my why and being true to who I am?

  • How will I measure the effectiveness of my effort?

  • What am I going to do now?

Here's my "HOW" question beginning page in my Word of the Year, everyday journal. It gives me a pleasing framework to journal questions and insights. The visual aspect marks the importance of this time for me and holds a record of my process.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This video below was sent to me by

Bernice, my friend and co-facilitator of our Living Your Word of the Year Facebook group. It shows how knowing our Why makes a big difference in what we do.Bernice also gave me some extremely wise and caring advice regarding living my word of the year (Light): "In ‘light’ of your stress levels, have a look at whether you can write ‘less’, research ‘less’, make your pages simpler - work on  lightening your load."

Sometimes we need a little help from our friends.

Thank you Bernice! I am so blessed.

So be very careful how you live,

not being like those with no understanding,

but live honorably with true wisdom,

for we are living in evil times.

Take full advantage of every day

as you spend your life for his purposes.

- Ephesians 5:15-16 TPT

This post is full of questions. It is where I’m at right now. How about you?

What do you believe?

How are you going to live it out?

How am I doing living out my word of the year?

How am I going to keep on living my word of the year?

May you have a blessed and fruitful New Year!

Love,
Valerie


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