How to Find what Fits in your Life

Ep85: How to Find what Fits in your Life with host Paula Jenkins

This month’s focus on the podcast is all about “Finding What Fits,” and this week I’m sharing my own thoughts on how to find what fits in your life in a solocast episode. “Finding what Fits,” is all about looking at connecting the dots in your life, and finding the “what” behind what brings you joy. Finding what fits is finding your way to feeling content, satisfied, and fulfilled in your life – which all leads to more joy, too. I love that we’ll be talking about life, careers, and money, which is a topic that hasn’t been discussed on the show before.

How to Find what Fits in your Life

In looking back over the past few years, I can see how I’ve followed a few through-lines to get to a place where I feel truly joyful often. As I’ve said on the show many times, joy is a choice. When looking back at finding my way here, I find myself looking for ways to make joy and fulfillment a repeatable event for you: How do you get to that place, where you can follow joy on a regular basis? How can you find the thing that feels right for your life, and find your way back there when things get hard?

In my own life, I’ve seen that four things really come into play during that search. Whether it be from a higher up view (like the three to five year plan), or the day to day, there are at least four things that I keep repeating in the search for what fits, and how you can pull them into your own life:
Inspiration – look and listen for the whispers of inspiration in your day to day. What is that thing, or things, that have been calling you, that you’ve been trying to ignore? What lights you up? Take the time to notice what inspires you.

Intention – following inspiration, and noticing where it strikes for you will take practicing mindfulness, and being present and curious. Where is the inspiration striking? How can you mindfully follow that inspiration? How are you feeling about the things you are doing in your day to day life? The suggestion here is to take notice of what you are doing, and making a mindful choice to make room to follow the things that inspire you.

Action – taking action is an integral piece in bringing more joy and fulfillment to your life. Many of us wish that things were different in our lives; and we can see and notice what kinds of change we’d like to make. Action is what makes it happen; mindfully taking the steps to bring what inspires you to life. Action can begin with writing down what inspires you, and what you want in your life. From there, taking real, brave (baby) steps to act on your inspiration is what moves it all forward.

Courage – throughout this process, you’ll be practicing courage as you go. Courage is the realization that there is something more important that fear, and taking the steps to move through it (and, there’s a whole month on courage, if you want to listen to more ideas on this click here).

Resources
Some of my favorite books on the topics in this episode:
Inspiration
The Declaration of You! How to Find it, Own It, and Shout it From the Rooftops by Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift
The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul by Danielle LaPorte
Big Magic:Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Intention
The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer

Courage
Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead by Tara Mohr

Trying to figure out what fits in your life, and how to get it? Paula Jenkins shares about how you can use inspiration, intention, action and courage to make your dreams come true. Click to listen to the podcast, and Save for later. www.jumpstartyourjoy.com/episode85