Are you living a life that you’re passionate about?
How often do you choose to settle for what is convenient, instead of what truly excites you? In times of crisis and lockdowns, introspection leads you to question the choices that you have made in your life thus far… can you honestly say that you have never settled for less than you know you could possibly have?
For some reason, fear holds us back from going after what we truly want. The fear of loneliness, the fear of financial or spiritual poverty, the fear of failure, all of these are contributing factors that force us to hold back from reaching our potential. Fear can stem from trauma that one may have experienced in the past. Attempting to try something new, only to fail. Attempting to love someone new, imagining a future with marriage and kids,, only to have it end before it could truly begin. If we hold on to this fear, we are only doing so because it is comfortable. It is known and it is easy to endure. How do we therefore let go of our safety net in order to reach our potential? How do we make a conscious decision to live our best lives, if we’ve been living under the covers and insurance of fear and failure our entire life?
“There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” — Nelson Mandela
Honestly, it is not an easy task to take on. It’s a step in the right direction that is going to challenge every single fibre in your body. Your bones are going to fight you from moving forward, your lungs are going to tighten with anxiety and panic at the thought of doing something that has not been personally tried and tested before. Your eyes are going to well up with tears, because to try something new, is scary. However, your heart is going to jump for joy, it’s going to pump harder with adrenaline, it’s going to beat loud enough to push you forward, beyond the barriers that the rest of your body is putting up. Your brain is going to force you to think thoughts that are so positive, it’s going to sound foreign to you. Your facial muscles are going to twist in ways that it hasn’t done in a while, it’s going to force you to smile.
Trying something new and exciting, to work towards something that we know we want and deserve (in a non-entitled way) gives our life meaning. In order to live our best lives, we need to find what we’re passionate about and work day and night towards reaching that goal. We need to learn what drives us to want to live each day and if we have not found something that excites us from the moment we wake up, to the moment we retire for the night, then we are not living our best lives. We are settling. Is life honestly worth living if you’re not doing what you love?
I don’t mean career wise only. You can surround yourself with people who inspire you, you can find a hobby that makes your heart leap with joy. You can find a book that makes you feel good about yourself. You can find a place in the world that feels more like home than your actual home location does. You could meet a person who listens and understands your soul, to the point that you feel most alive. All of these things exist. We are just too scared to put ourselves on this path of adventure towards finding what makes our hearts sing.
To put yourself out there, requires baby steps. Regardless of what you’re choosing to push through with first, you will have to leave your comfort zone completely. You’re going to have to understand that it takes baby steps to gain confidence in yourself. It’s going to take achieving little things to give you the courage to do something big and great. It’s going to take patience and time, but in the end, its going to be worth it.
If your goal is to find people who set your soul on fire, start by making new friends on social media. Look for people who share the same interests as you and strike up a conversation. If your goal is to move to a place that feels more like home, start a savings plan and look for jobs in the area of your choice. If your goal is to work in a profession completely different from yours, research the field, speak to professionals, read about changing careers and then take the leap.
Making a change doesn’t mean going all in, with your eyes closed and praying for the best. It means doing what is best for you in a capacity that feels safe. Leaving your comfort zone is not easy, but living your best life comes with risks. Taking chances is what gives you rewards. Do your homework, put yourself out there and you’ll start to realize that living your best life doesn’t mean going into the unknown completely unprepared. It means understanding what you want, knowing the risks and going for it anyway. The more prepared you are, the more likely you’ll start to feel comfortable with trying something new.
It was my therapist who told me that often times the things we want most seem scarier in our minds than it actually is. We put these things on a pillar the size of a mountain and look at the summit, feeling that we are incapable of ever reaching the top. Well NEWSFLASH: you can summit any mountain that you may come across, literal or figurative. All you need to do is realize that a little preparation can go a very long way in reaching your goals. If you take out the “unknown” aspect from the equation, you’ll take away the fear. Take away the fear, and you could live the life that we both know you truly deserve. The first step may be scary, but its worth it.
