Falls in the moment
The world hasn’t ended.
Since you’re still here if you’re reading this, you might take this opportunity to create some change for the better.
Change begins in your mind. That is, the genesis for positive change can be found in the very thoughts racing through your head now.
I know, I know. You’re trying to still your mind and not ramp up its activity as you read this.
But the mind is capable of multi-tasking. Just consider that while you read this, the prospect of change for the better in your life is very, very appealing. Is it not?
Quite often we easily become victims of circumstance and base our inaction in not wanting to rock the boat.
Rocking the boat is a negative perception of when your mind is actually reacting quite aggressively to things that just don’t sit right or jibe with you.
Many of you refuse to acknowledge your mind’s thoughts and seek to quell them due to either insecurity, fear of the unknown or both.
I’m no psychologist (although like the role of doctor, I occasionally play one on weekends), but internalizing and not expressing somehow what you are excited about at any given moment good or bad, is something I’m quite sure you do not want to do long term. You don’t need to go to the other extreme and start yelling and screaming, either. You just need that safety valve pass made like a quarterback who has checked down every one of his receivers, needs to get a pass off, and flicks one out in the flat to his halfback who takes a three-yard lob and turns it into a big gain.
Dusk on the levee
Now that I’ve been in my new digs (both professional and personal) for two months, I can see that embracing the feelings of change my mind had been telling me to act on, has been a good thing.
I’ve been able to see that I’m not meant to lead a solitary life. I am not a social butterfly perhaps, either, but somewhere in between. I thrive on engagement socially–personally and professionally. One might have thought I was somewhat of an introvert working nights for over a decade and seeing my friends disappear one by one for lack of regular interaction.
I used to justify my unsocial existence on the fact I was making a living working a demanding job and it took place at night when other people were out doing things together. A decade of doing this seemed to go by in the blink of an eye.
All during this time I kept thinking about making changes but I never did until I did. It took me ten years to get it done. All the sacrifices and isolation endured reinforced that although I was able to live that life for that long, it was not the best kind of life for me to be leading.
I relearned what I used to always know: I’m a kid who enjoys the playground. You can’t be on the playground when you’ve cut yourself off like I did. I need interaction; I need to engage with others.
This holiday season I am doing just that.
Making new friends is one of the great joys of living for me once again. As I make new friends, I am thinking about friends and family I left behind.
The sadness from leaving these people behind geographically has been lessened since we live in the digital age.
Although I can rail and poke fun at our lack of privacy these days, the fact I can email, text, instant message and Skype makes the privacy concerns at the lesser edge of the spectrum for me in terms of modern living.
While we cannot control some things like the state of the economy or even the weather, all the contemporary tools for communication and keeping in touch make change for the better in our lives more easily and likely accomplished, than ever.
Storm of ideas
You can start out by forgetting about planning the next five months or five years, too. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
John knew (like I do now) that good change happens when you live the next five minutes as well as you can.