STOP Shrinking
Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in with…well life?
You have seemed to outgrown your current life, yet you are still in the same old life as you’ve always been in.
You go to work. Same people, same daily tasks just like every other day, every other year. You have done it so often that you often find yourself on autopilot. Your days are spent either zoned out, bored or stressed. Water cooler talk is always the same. Your schedule is so routine that you don’t even question the path anymore.
You hang out with friends and you find yourself answering the mind-numbing question of, “What’s new?”, with the response…”Nothing.” Not because there is nothing new, but because you aren’t surrounded by people that can handle a conversation about growth. So, you hang out, have the same stagnant conversations about jobs, kids, economy and retell the same stories that everyone knows.
Through all of that, you feel the square box you are in starting to close around you. The space is getting tighter, the air is getting thinner and your mind is starting to scream obscenities at you.
Your dreams are gasping for air, begging you to stop shrinking into the box you’ve allowed yourself to be placed in.
Do you go home at night and dream of what your life could be like if you’d just make that change? That one change you have kept locked behind the bars of your fears.
It’s time to outgrow the constraints you’ve put yourself in.
It’s time to live loudly.
It’s time to outgrow your current life.
Scared? Yeah, I bet you are.
Me too. I’m scared every day of living the same life, never expanding to my true potential.
Stagnation has become more terrifying than living a comfortable safe life.
My box has closed in, claustrophobia is at an all-time high. Safe and comfortable is now the prison on my dreams. The only way to get out is to break the box, dig deep into my souls’ power and fucking grow.
How to live a life with purpose:
- THE BIG PICTURE: Picture what you want your life to look like? Really dig deep to the minute detail of what kind of life you’d love to wake up to every day. Don’t worry about what people THINK you should want for your life. This is yours and no one else’s’, you have to live with whatever life you choose. Remember you can either CHOOSE and CREATE the life you want, or you can ACCEPT whatever life you’ve been given and TOLERATE the outcome.
- SMALL STEPS: You don’t have to make huge leaps into the new life you want. Sometimes trying to make large changes can become too overwhelming, causing us to stay exactly where we are forever. If you want a life full of travel and new experiences but can’t afford that trip to Europe, do a few things. One, start saving so that someday soon that dream can become a reality. Two, just because you can’t do that big trip doesn’t mean you can’t find new experiences closer to home. If you crave adventure outdoors, find new hiking trails to explore. If you enjoy fine dining, get a friend or your partner to go with you to try new restaurants. Art, architecture, landscaping, thrill rides…doesn’t matter what it is, find a small step you can take towards doing things that bring you joy.
- DON’T STOP: No matter how busy life tells you that you are, take moments to slow down and check in with your list. Has it been a few months since you did anything on that list? Check in with your joy. Are you feeling stagnant again or like the box is closing back in on you? Pay attention to the warning flags that you are settling back into the life you don’t want. If you aren’t actively striving for this new life, you will sit back down into your comfortable prison.
- TELL FEAR TO FUCK OFF: Through all of this, you will be faced with the fear of change. You may be afraid you are moving too fast or not fast enough or of others not understanding your new choices. You might feel like you are alone in your fight for a new life. That’s ok. Let others feel or think how they want, it’s not on you to manage everyone else’s emotions. You are the priority here. You will have to sit with your fears every minute of the day and have tough conversations. Look in the mirror and tell fear to fuck off. I tell you to look in the mirror because YOU are the one creating the fear. Fear is a creation you have adopted because someone or something caused you to have a negative response in your past. You created that fear as self-preservation. You created your own prison. You’d be surprised to know that your cell door has been open all along.
Fear can’t hold you back when fear its self has scared you into action. Now fear gets transmuted, it becomes the motivation, the fuel to your dreams. Fear of being mediocre can be the shuttle that takes you to the galaxies.
I know you’ve heard it before, you are going to hear it again. Really listen…
Nothing changes, if nothing changes.
What you aren’t changing, you are choosing.
Think on that. Now take action.