Is there something you’ve always wanted to do, but it just doesn’t seem possible?
Not because you don’t deserve to be happy or because you don’t want the thing badly enough, but because you’re surrounded by seemingly immovable circumstances which restrict your every move.
Maybe you even told yourself to get over this longing, to forget about it and accept the things you cannot change. But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
I mean, how do you reconcile that the things which are most meaningful to you or the dreams you have for your life might never come true?
Well I know exactly how that conundrum feels, and what it feels like is torture. Like a gnawing pain you can’t tend to. A heartbreak you’re unable to soothe. Like being shackled to a heavy weight and no matter your efforts, you’re powerless to break free.
Take this example for instance. For the last 18 months or so, I’ve been wrestling with a big dream of an idea. It’s a project I want to do. Something that could be amazing and fulfilling and in every way great.
But every time I’ve silently pondered this idea, my internal dialogue has slapped me in the face.
“There’s no way you could do this with your level of health.”
“You can’t see properly or speak properly and your energy levels are much too low. “
“You’ve never done anything like this before, you couldn’t learn everything you need to know”
“This is something other people do, not you.”
But yesterday … was different.
As I sat in the kitchen ruminating once again, feeling bound, frustrated and forlorn, I stopped my monkey mind mid-thought, paused … and then spoke out loud to myself and said.
“That’s it … I’m gonna do it.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But I’m going to do it.”
My defiant words, silencing my inner critic in an instant.
Here’s the thing. I can’t predict the future.
This might be the best decision I ever make or the worst. I might fail … miserably. I might struggle to make any progress whatsoever because of my eye sight problems, difficulty speaking due to respiratory muscle fatigue and low energy levels. Plus, let’s not forget, what would take someone else a couple of months to knock out, might take me several years!
But even so, because I know all too well what the torture of an unlived life feels like, I’ve decided I’m not going to allow this idea of mine to exist only within the confines of my mind or as a ‘what if’ in the depths of long-full heart.
Just because I don’t see a way, doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Just because it seems impossible, doesn’t mean it has to be.
So … I’m going to give it a try. I’m going to plug away at this dream no matter how long it takes.
Now, what about you?
Have you been telling yourself a similar story? A story about what you can and can’t do?
What if you put a stop to that inner negative self talk and made a gutsy decision like I did? A decision to launch that project, build that bridge, solve that problem, write that book, travel to that place, make that dream a reality and create your masterpiece you have within you to create.
Decide right now that you too will somehow find a way, even if you can’t see one.
Decide that maybe it is possible, even if it appears like it isn’t.
You’re going to take that meaningful, worthwhile ambition or goal … whether it’s a big idea or something small … and make the first step towards it.
You might not know how you’re going get there or what it will take to achieve it, but you will not allow the circumstances of your life to dictate what you can and can’t do anymore.
