You can, but you won’t.
It’s a hard truth, but a necessary one, especially if I’m going to help you become the person who will make you happy. Because truthfully, no-one else can make you happy. Not me, not your partner, your parents, your children, your friends, nobody. It’s all on you. Just you.
And that’s the terrifying responsibility of life.
There’s so many things you could do with your life. Things that will inspire you, terrify you, uplift and empower you. And the naked truth is that you can do these things, but you have chosen not to.
Why? Well, that’s the question isn’t it.
Why, when there is so much of life that can be changed, are you still sitting where you are, playing it small, and keeping your head down. Why, when you have so many possibilities to look forward to, are you wasting each day in a futile attempt to find a meaning in avoiding your purpose?
You are never going to find unspeakable joy singing a song that wasn’t written for you.
The sad part is that your clock is ticking. It’s ticking with each breath, each moment, each choice. Every time you choose to be less than the very best you can be, you are dying a death of mediocrity, wallowing in a despair of your own choosing, waiting for the ending that you are so afraid of.
The one where your story ends in screams of regret, knowing that your chance has gone, and gone forever. It all comes down to what you can do, but what you are not currently doing.
When I lost 140lbs, I found that I COULD lose weight, I just had to find a way to make it happen.
When I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, I discovered that I could face my worst fears, and retain my identity in a moment of terror.
When I began writing, I found a voice that was always within me, but that I had never allowed to come forth.
When I left a country, friends and family to marry the woman who owned my heart, I learned that sometimes, you find a person who is worth giving up everything for.
I never achieved any of these things by playing small, and safe, and easy. That’s not how you find yourself.
If you want to be happy, truly, madly and deeply satisfied, then you have to push yourself beyond where you are. Will it hurt? Probably, but not as much as you are afraid of. Will you be scared? Absolutely, but you’ll find courage that you never knew existed. Will you have times when you want to quit? Of course, but you’ll keep going anyway.
You CAN do all of these things in your own life, but you have to start now, because that clock is ticking my friend, and time waits for no one. It never has, it never will.
It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what you are willing to do, and I can’t do it for you. I can help, but you’ve got to put in the work.
But it’s worth it. Really it is.
And so are you.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings