The Life You Live
& The Life You Want to Live
by Julie
Broad
 Resistance ...
Is there something scratching at your insides saying "This isn't enough ... this isn't the life I want to
live? There's more to life. There's more I want to do?"
I felt it everyday when I worked for someone else. I thought maybe I just had to give more money to charity or
devote myself to a few good causes. But, even when I would raise thousands of dollars for Breast Cancer, ALS or the
SPCA I would still feel uncomfortable that it wasn't enough. I sat on the board of the Heart and Stroke foundation
for awhile and that still didn't satisfy the itch.
I thought maybe the resistance was a desire to achieve more career success so I applied myself 100% to my job. I
learned what I needed to learn and I worked hard. And I rose up within the organization to hold two different
positions as Vice President. Short of taking over the company from it's owner and operating President, there was no
where else to go within that company. Yet, the itch was still there.
In fact, the more I tried to address this incredible feeling that there was more to life, the worse it
got. Just like when you allow yourself to scratch a mosquito bite... even just a little bit ... the
itching gets ten times worse.
The problem was that none of those things were really causing the itch. None of those things were really the root
issue of the resistance I felt in my life.
At the time, I didn't really see it clearly. I sort of knew but I wasn't certain. I had ideas but not a real plan.
Until one day a series of events unfolded in my job that led to me sitting across from the President of the company
discussing a single piece of paper. This piece of paper had the 3 objectives I was to achieve. The very specific
financial results that he expected of me to champion as Vice President of Sales and Client Services. And under each
objective were the the things that I had to do to achieve those objectives.
This probably would have just been a bad day on the job, not the day of my epiphany if it weren't for the fact that
he also told me these were the ONLY things he wanted me to do to achieve those objectives AND I felt very strongly
that it wouldn't work. I believed a very different plan needed to be made to reach the goals he had.
So there I was ... fully responsible for the financial results but totally powerless over how I achieved (or
didn't) achieve them.
I felt like someone who had to go into a knife fight with my feet and hands tied together. Sure you have wiggle
room but so little that unless you're Jason Bourne you're probably not coming out of the fight victorious.
At that very moment I understood the resistance I had been feeling for years. Like I said, I had always known but
never really allowed myself to see it clearly. I had ideas but not a clear vision. But at that instant I became
completely calm and certain. I understood what I had to do.
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