Retake: Get In The Director’s Chair of Your Life!

Remember how cool it was entering high school or college and knowing it was a fresh start? You could leave the old behind (especially if you went to an out-of-area school) and start anew.

No one knew you and you could become anyone you wanted to be. You had your whole life ahead of you and only possibilities on the horizon. After school came work. After work came family. And the layers of life sediment began to accumulate!

The daily grind is like an undertow; it drags us under its familiar frustration and messy monotony. We live with less-than-wonderful. We give in to the status-quo. We drift further from the shore of our dreams out into the waves of life, often struggling to stay afloat.

When did we trade in the endless possibility of reshaping our life for the stifling prison of disorder?

If you feel stuck and could use a fresh start, it’s time for a retake!

Here’s a news flash: as crazy as it seems, you still have your whole life ahead of you! Anytime you want, you can use the clapboard of life and start a new take.

After all, you are the director of your dreams. That’s right. You sit in the director’s chair. It has YOUR name embroidered in the back. You call the shots. Out of the overflow of your heart proceeds the direction of your future.

And that means you can snap shut any take that didn’t go well. You can call it. You can move onto a new take. Move from Take One to Take Two (or even Take 132!) I invite you into a retake of your life.

How does a retake work?

How do you start? You just do. You make a decision that the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change. So you make the leap. You snap down that clapboard on Take 1 and start over. You rearrange the players (starting with yourself). You choose to get out of the ocean of overwhelm and put yourself back in the director’s chair of life. This may mean a job change, a relationship change, or simply a perspective change. A retake is a decision to live empowered instead of disempowered.

Does it require sacrifice? When you decide to start anew, you will likely have to trade in some wrong thinking and attitudes (like “stuff = success” or “it isn’t fair” or “doomsday is coming”). You may also need to trade in stuff, overage, or old systems. But the good news is: a retake is a trade UP! When you let go of self-limiting thinking and suffocating stuff, you will begin to hear the music of your dreams playing again, and the horizon, which seemed so far off, will come into view again.

Will it succeed? Well that depends on you. Some make that brave move into the director’s chair, only to succumb again to the waves of wallowing. Those folks end up as spectators in theater chairs, watching life go by. But that will not be you. You’ll finish this Take Two scene, and the next (because now you’re enjoying this unfolding epic of your life!); and eventually direct the beautiful, inspiring movie of your life.

Will it sell? Believe it or not, this very first retake is very important. It will determine whether your life show is in production or on pause.  Your decision to start anew (with whatever needs refreshing – your relationships, family, career, faith, or dreams) will attract throngs of people because a life lived joyously and well is a magnet for others. When you trade in obligatory living for possibility, it’s incredibly appealing . Others want what you have. Isn’t it time to make your life one that folks would buy tickets to? And I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided to live every scene to the fullest before my curtain call!

Your fans (many yet undiscovered) are waiting for this retake. Won’t you join me in reframing your life, one exciting scene at a time?

Yours in production, waiting with bated breath and popcorn to behold the magnificent YOU!

~Vicki Norris

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