What if I told you that while you were living your content (or even unhappy) life, that all your real happiness and joy passed you by? Because you never really reached out for it. You never tried. You never thought it was a possibility. That great job, amazing relationship, and all those opportunities. You missed it. But let me tell you that there are more opportunities coming. Are you ready for it? Do you want it? I think it’s time to figure that out.
The Picture Perfect Life
For me, I was coasting through life doing what I thought I should. Finding well-paying jobs, traveling, getting married, buying a home, buying cars, accumulating friends. Everything that looks great on the outside. Everything that looks “successful”. But I was miserable. Deep down I knew it, but it took me a long time to realize I could have better – that I deserved better. I deserved to have the life I wanted. A life that didn’t include my husband and the misery he caused me. That didn’t involve the constant travel for work that I’d grown weary of. A life free of all the debts I had accumulated. And a life that included friends who “got me” – or at least friends who supported who I wanted to be and not the fascade that I was putting on.
Making Changes
It took time though. And I had to make one change at a time. Sometimes they were abrupt and shocking changes, and sometimes I took baby steps. But when you really start to see where you’re going and you can almost taste all that happiness – you want to get there. You can’t wait to get there!
That said though, I certainly had my times of denial, procrastination, and excuses. We all do it at some point. Sometimes we just decide that good enough is fine for now. Or we go into victim mode thinking that we are trapped, or we can’t do better than this, or we aren’t worthy of good things. Or for that matter we are intimidated by the huge changes we would have to make and the work it would take, the emotional drain, the upheaval, etc. Changes can take a toll short-term for sure. It’s always challenging too when others around you don’t understand the changes you are making or don’t agree with them.
Reassessing Life Along the Way
Change should really be an ongoing thing though in all of our lives. I think you need to be assessing your happiness, your goals, your work, your relationships and your desired destination all along the way. When I look back to just 5 years ago, I thought I had achieved everything I wanted at that point and was really happy. But since then things have changed for me. I want something different now. I want something more. Deeper friendships, a great man who is my best friend and to get married again, financial freedom and abundance, and I want to venture off on a new path and help people in a new way in my business.
I’m working on finding and achieving all these things right now. And despite the fact that I can currently see where I’m going with all of it, that vision might change over time. That’s normal. As your GPS says, “recalculating route”. You go a different way than you thought you would, and the vision might change – the path might change – and even the destination might change. Heck you could stay on the path you plan and it still might all change for you. But my point is, you need to step back and decide if you are happy where you are at or not. You also need to follow inspiration or passion if it strikes and makes sense for you to follow.
Let Inspiration Lead You
I recently had very strong inspiration and gut feelings that I needed to change where I was living. I was being nudged toward an apartment when I’d lived in a house for a long time. The fact that I felt strongly inspired to look at a certain apartment almost appalled me. I love my house, why would I even consider that? And then it became clear to me that it was part of my path. To be honest, I’ve been very quiet, alone, and introspective here for many years. There is nothing wrong with that, but I felt like I was ready to get out in the world again. To meet friends, find my man, and develop some new aspects to my life that I hadn’t given any time or attention in a while. The Universe was nudging me, and I followed the signs.
You can truly have a magical life if you are open to it and move towards it. Don’t get lost in “content” and “routine”, unless good enough is really fine with you. I invite you to dig a little deeper – like into the depths of your soul. Ask the difficult questions of yourself. Don’t talk yourself out of your gut feelings either. And for that matter, don’t let go of the things you want in your life.
This is really what The Wheelhouse Project is all about. Get on course in the direction of your dreams. You are the Master of your Fate, and the Captain of your Soul. Isn’t it about time you take the wheel?
Also see Are you Following your Dreams? and Purging your Life
You might also enjoy this book – Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
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