Each week in The Wisdom of Change blog series, I share the original artwork and unpack the insights and meaning behind one of the 44 cards in The Wisdom of Change oracle deck.

This week’s card is 40 Gifts In Disguise

This week’s card ‘Gifts in Disguise’ contains invaluable wisdom for the over-achiever/ perfectionist types among us. I don’t mind holding my hand up to being a recovering one of those! For years I was convinced that I knew exactly how I wanted things to be and why. I saw it as a personal strength. The idea that I could conceive of a goal and move sequentially towards its achievement delivered a sense of certainty and confidence in my abilities for the many years that this approach delivered results.

Then one day I woke up to the realisation that what used to work wasn’t working anymore.

Personally derailed, and seeking answers to questions that I didn’t even know I needed to ask,  someone explained to me the perils of being ‘attached to outcome’. Being attached to an outcome happens when we are trying to micromanage everything that happens to and around us. I wasn’t even aware that I had been doing this, but a wiser woman than I pointed out to me ‘Wendy you are not your mind’. ‘Well, what on earth am I then’? I thought. I started to realise that we can’t control everything just by thinking it so. Hot on the heels of this revelation, she encouraged me to ‘resign as General Manager of the Universe’ and to be available to follow my intuition.  Reeling from the shock of this double whammy, I was curious to uncover  other new ways to make sense of my life

I learnt that it is fine to have goals, but to see them as a direction of travel that can alter in the light of new insights. This rather pleasantly relieved me being so hard on myself when my original intention had been superseded by something more fitting.  I no longer felt like I had to chase a goal to its end point or see myself as not good enough/focused enough/anything else enough. That felt better for a start. Next, I came to understand that when we declare a goal/wish/desire, it has been heard. The universe begins to reorder things to deliver what we want, but it will do so in the best way for us (not the way we think is best for us). This is a subtle but very important difference.  We are so loved, so divinely protected, that we will not be given what is not in service to our highest good. Our job is the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, not the ‘how’. Our job is to show up and take inspired and aligned action, not to dictate the timeframe, order or nature of the outcome. The universe has something so much better in store for us if we would only trust and surrender.

And that’s why we sometimes miss the gift that we are being given.

If we remain too focussed on how we think something should look and cling rigidly to our expectation of how our good will arrive with us, we miss the delivery date. We don’t think the gift is for us because we are fooled by the wrapping. I didn’t think my husband was for me because he was married to someone else at the time. I didn’t think being pregnant was for me because I didn’t think I was ready to be a Mum, I didn’t think entrepreneurship was for me because I loved my salaried role, I didn’t think a life in Dubai was for me because I don’t like the searing heat, I didn’t see the birth of my card deck coming because I was focused on writing a book. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea and can relate it to your own life. Not a single one of those would I change with hindsight as every one of them contained the combination of experiences and insights that led me perfectly to my next step.

Once we let go of the way we think things should be, the universe can weave its magic.

Stay attuned to the good that it fighting to get to you. Believe that the world is conspiring to do you good and remain open to the many gifts and blessings you are being offered in every moment.  Follow your heart and use your head for what it is great at. Don’t steal all the magic out of your life by believing that you know how everything should be. Tune into what feels right and gives you that yes feeling even when it flies in the face of convention or your personal expectation of how you thought it would be.

When we fixate on things, we push our good away. We become rigid and life become dull and difficult. Lighten your load and look out for the gifts in disguise and I promise that the path of exciting experiences and life changing insights will open out ahead for you.  The journey is the destination and life is a series of gifts in disguise.

I wonder what you will be taking delivery of today.

You’ve got this!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s connection to your inner wisdom.

As always, I’d love to hear your comments below.

If you’d like to learn more about The Wisdom of Change oracle deck you can find out more here.

If you'd like to find out more about a Wisdom of Change reading with Wendy please click here.

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