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
When we think of what we want most in life, getting stuck is probably not on the list . . .
We all understand the dissatisfaction we feel when our lives aren’t yet an accurate reflection of our goals, our dreams, and anything else we’re trying to create . . . there’s that impatience that feeds our striving. But what about the dissatisfaction we feel when we’ve outgrown an old life? When our spirit is in fact, too large for the container we’ve created to reflect it?
We can get stuck, not because we wanted to, but because we hadn’t created enough space in our life for the person we were becoming. Sometimes it takes mishaps or a constant drain on our energy to realize, our habits and/or our environment are no longer supportive. It can be the end of deep relationships with people we thought would be an intimate part of our life forever, that makes us realize we’d outgrown the dynamic. Maybe our job has become a passionless pursuit that feels like drudgery. Sometimes, more often than not, it’s more akin to inexplicable restlessness and an inner urge that yearns for a more exuberant and expansive expression of Self: we long to really feel alive again!
What betrays us, keeping us stuck, are the falsehoods we perpetuate about ourselves . . . shedding the excess baggage, we consciously expand!
While our reasons for getting stuck are different in the particular, they’re overwhelmingly the same in the abstract. We settle for living a diminished life, not by choice, but by the slow, incremental, and mostly unnoticed, movement away from the contentment we once felt. It’s only when we become aware of how our comfort with the status quo has bred complacency, that we realize our motivation ceased at some point. Often familiarity lulls us into safety, making risks seem daunting and inciting fear. We often have to start feeling the extremes to realize how far we’ve vacillated away from the goals we set . . . and when, or if, we actually achieved them. With this realization, is the opening, the opportunity for the kind of self-examination that leads to positive transformation.
The necessary way out, is through . . . to the heart of our own authenticity.
When we live from the Essence of who we are, everything else is window dressing and can be tailored to best reflect what’s bound to blossom. Getting there means honestly peeling back the layers of what no longer serves our life, reflects our values and ideals, generates joy, and leaves enough energy for us to feed our passions. We strip away the excesses to uncover the necessities, the priorities, the ways living in alignment with our authentic Self leaves us feeling joyful, grateful, curious, and abundantly energized.
