What is the true measure of human limit and belief? I find myself contemplating this question, when observing how so many young, ambitious, talented, beautiful people are so disillusioned by the world, they are confronted with.
So many dreams, businesses, relationships, never started, because the world never truly accepts us. Too young in our time is to struggle with concentrated restlessness – torn between our dreams and the expectations of the world, completely betraying our dreams and aspirations in every choice we make.
I sometimes think the world was never ready for us – that the illusions of promise handed to us to become change agents and the way the world is structured are misaligned. I for one, know this feeling – slipping into complacency and blind acceptance.
We are constantly confronted with choice – attempting to make informed decisions on a daily basis, sometimes scary, sometimes painful, sometimes impulsively. If you’re anything like me, then you’ve consistently abused the right to make decisions about the trajectory of your own life. Countless re-examination of steps never taken – thoughts that remain only, just thoughts. ‘Grandiose’ plans that never came to fruition. Plans and ideas that never truly became reality because overwhelming fear.
A life run by fear.
Has the icy embrace of fear ever placed such great limits on your beliefs? Leaving you only discontent, indecisive and dissapointed. I sometimes think that we forget that indecision is also a decision -that to merely do nothing is the safest option – to fall naively into comfort.
Many a time, we have fallen into fear, almost periodically. Fear for losing what we have. Fear of unprescedented faillure. Fear of what others may think or say. Fear of our own greatness, perhaps?
They say that insanity is the process of doing the same thing time-and-time again, and expecting a different result. Against our better judgement, we have consistently ignored the sinking feeling in our hearts and adhered to the ‘reason’ of others… I realised that I am not others and I do not want what they have.
Psychologist, Debbie Millman once exclaimed, that “if you imagine less, then less is what you undoubtedly deserve”. We eventually come to a point, where we are no longer willing to tolerate fear in our Lives – an emotional tyrant. This has come with making decisions, which many would not dare to take, without certainty. Like leaving your job without the certainty of another. But, chance favours the brave, the ones who have made a life out of making unfavourable decisions – choosing to pursue things that make us come alive.
These decisions almost immediately remove the heaviness in your chest – finally regaining your freedom to actively make decisions that contribute to your own well-being and personal development. Many will exclaim, “they’ll be back with their tail between his legs”, but I for one, am so tired and weary of humbling myself to the wills of others.
To step into courage, is to take responsibility for your life. We must remember that to be alive is a marvel, at least occassionally, with a shimmer of visceral wonderment.
What I’m talking about , are improbable paths that lead us back to our true-selves. Is it not perhaps crazy to think that with each tedious choice we make, so too does that choice have an enormous ripple of which we may never truly be conscious of – are we unwittingly blind to the invisible graces that await us?
The most curious part of this ‘accident of all life’ is the nature of chance – more specifically the nature of which we are being pulled toward a future – toward a path unbeknownst to us in this present moment. This should excites us, for I should never want to be robbed of the freedom of my own choice, nor would I not want my fate to be altered by fear.
All we have at this very moment, is right now. And right now we must exercise our privledge of choice to be fearless in pursuit of what sets my soul on fire.
So start over. Be brave enough to find the life you want and be courageous enough to chase it. Then start over and do the things the way you were born to do.