It’s easy to make safe choices, because they appeal to our default survival skills.
The safe option could be your meal choice, your career choice, or your sock choice.
Sometimes this is a good thing. We don’t want to get sick from eating shellfish before a big meeting. We want to know we can support ourselves with the work we do. And we want to look and feel good about our appearance while we’re doing it.
And if someone else has made similar choices and appears to have succeeded, it might make sense to follow that same path. Right? Maybe not…
If you let your choices be made for you… Or choose a strictly “beige” life path, out of fear of the unknown… Or choose to do work that doesn’t help you find and fulfil the potential in you… Then are you really making the best choices?
Safe choices can result in mundanity.
And the road to mediocrity is where you choose to make a living, over making a life.
So, how do you gather the courage to step away from what you and “everyone else” typically knows and does, to instead live a more committed, fulfilled life?
According to Danielle La Porte…
You cancel your reservations!
I’ve been mulling over this #truthbomb for the past few weeks. It’s a simple but powerful idea! And never too late to implement. I’m not saying it will be easy. Only that it is possible.
When we let go of the fear, the self-doubt, the indecision, the lack of faith in ourselves, then we open ourselves up to new possibilities. As the Stoics pointed out, it’s not the experiences we face that make our lives, it’s how we respond to those experiences.
It’s the choices we make:
- So, instead of thinking you *must* eat a giant pizza – because you *need* carbs to deal with your stress – why not go for a walk to clear your head first? Growing your headspace is healthier and more effective than growing your waistline.
- Instead of regularly burning the midnight oil, because “that’s what expected”, why not focus on a decent amount of deep sleep at night, so you can be more effective in your days? Burnout is game over, not game well played.
- Instead of playing on the sidelines of what you “really want to do” – because you’re not sure if you’re good enough – why not put yourself out there and see what happens? Failure is feedback, a key part of creating success.
- Instead of holding out for some day when you’ll be in a better position to be the future person you want to be, why not start putting in the work it takes to get you there, today? Incremental change goes a long way towards helping long-term goal attainment.
When we are willing commit to making different choices, that help us live in a more honest way, then things start happening. Because we open ourselves up to possibility.
And believing in possibility leads to increased probability.
So, instead of dabbling in your dreams, why not commit to them fully?
Having faced fear and death several times over, rock climber and Gym Jones fitness legend Mark Twight has wise words to share on living a more committed life.
“Live with commitment. With emotional content. Live whatever life you choose honestly. Give up this renaissance man, dilettante bullshit of doing a lot of different things (and none of them very well by real standards).
Get to the guts of one thing; accept, without reservation or rationalization, the responsibility of making a choice. When you live honestly, you cannot separate your mind from your body, or your thoughts from your actions.”
Mark Twight – Excerpt from “Twitching with Twight“
Making a living and making a life don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
What choices are you making that are keeping you from living your life in full HD colour?
Holding out means losing out.
So, cancel those reservations and let’s blow this popsicle stand!
It’s time to make progress in a better (head)space. :)
Make the choice to start your week on a better note!
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