There's a 1993 movie called "Groundhog Day".

It became super popular.

The writing, cast, and storyline are a delightful convergence with an intriguing concept.

For those who've not had the fortune to see it, the plot line is a man stuck reliving the same day until he learns the lessons life is teaching him.

He becomes the best version of himself because he's afforded the eternal timeline to learn what he needs.

I bring it up because of a thing I heard yesterday.

Someone asked, "If you live like the last 14 days of your life, where do you end up?"

(I adore this type of thought experiment. Being triggered by it is a possibility though.)

To answer that question, I break up my priorities into five categories:

1- spiritual
2- physical
3- relational
4- mental
5- financial

And then I review each of these.

Did I progress?

For the sake of time, let's look at two of them.

PHYSICAL- For the last 2 weeks, much of my heart and life revolved around making Legacy Artwork. Happily, I steadily worked on those pieces. Also, I started a 20k steps-a-day challenge with my husband. And because of eating whole foods, staying hydrated, wearing sunscreen, and solid sleep, my answer is 'Yes'. I feel extremely proud that I did progress in my physical goals.

Phew! Check!✅

MENTAL- I've had some battles mentally. Yet, I feel that I've been aware of and overcome many of them, too. For example, for two days I struggled with feeling guilty. It was a completely made-up struggle that my mind produced. I didn't violate my ethics. I didn't say anything mean. I didn't entertain bad thoughts. No. I struggled with feeling guilty about how GOOD things were! If that's not the dumbest reason to oppress oneself, I don't know what is. However, I was aware of it. And that awareness allowed me to address my ego, forgive myself, and move on. If we can't enjoy life when it's good, that's a sad existence. So, for mental progress over the last 14 days, 'Yes', I feel that I DID progress. And I'm thankful for that.

Again, Phew! Check!✅

You see, the beautiful and scary part of doing a thought experiment like this is that we can easily miss our marks. If I happened to have a terrible past two weeks, I wouldn't necessarily be clearing each of these categories.

However, if the last 14 days were not so bright and shiny, would I still be able to see positive progress?

We still have choices.

We choose our beliefs.
We choose our thoughts.
We can observe and choose emotions.
We choose our actions.

Even if life was in a really bad place, I'd still have those same choices.

If I was sick and didn't get a lot of physical exercise completed, did I still choose to take good care of my body in other ways like rest?

If an acquaintance lied or cheated me, did I still choose to live in grace? To create boundaries and forgive?

I don't know.
I hope I would choose well.

On the flip side:

There are some parts of life where we don't have options.

Maybe we don't have a choice about the place to work, or the availability of food.
Not everything is a personal choice.

So, there are balances.

As I reflected on my last 14 days, I grew an awareness of the details in my daily life.

What if we had the time to learn everything we needed to learn? Like the character in Groundhog's Day?

What if we knew our timeline? Would we change anything we're doing?

And what if we could see the impact we're making by our choices? Would we be making different choices?

My encouragement for today is to create a vision for the future. And then, tap into what must change/not change, to get to that vision.

We might not get the chance to relive a day until we get it right. But we can observe our beliefs, thoughts, actions, patterns, and emotions. We can make positive changes.

Our lives can be designed by our vision for a purposeful goal, followed by the choices we make to lead us there.

SO…

Cheers to you and your journey!

May your path open wide and give you the perfect challenges.

May you learn quickly, love fully, heal completely, and run your course in joy!

You're not stuck in one day, on repeat.

You can write your BEST version of yourself into your own story.

You have so much beauty ahead.

~Jesse Burgardt
https://www.jesseburgardt.art/
https://jesseburgardt.substack.com/

P.s. the trailer to “Groundhog Day”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/?ref_=tt_mv_close