Lately I’ve been battling back and forth between fear and excitement. Fear because I’m moving out of the country for a while, and excitement, well, because I’m moving out of the country for a while. I’ve been questioning if I made the right decision because I don’t know if I’m ready to leave behind my home and my comforts. Every relationship I’ve built I’m walking away from. Every dent I’ve made in my home I’m leaving behind for the next person to clean up or destroy. Every part of this town I’ve laughed and cried in, will become someone else’s new place to find comfort in.
As much as I might not feel ready to leave it all behind, it is something that must be done. To me, the sole purpose of life is to take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to us, even those that scare the hell out of us. It’s in those moments that we learn how strong and how brave we really are. It’s the times when we leave behind all we know that we learn more about ourselves than ever.
Some people might tell you life should be lived comfortably, which is fine if that is what makes them happy. But those are the same people who will probably never live to do anything incredible. They will never do anything that forces them to make a difficult decision and learn from it. They might never love their job or the city they decided to plant roots in, but to them at least they are surviving. What matters to them is that they are getting by and they are doing it comfortably.
As humans we don’t change anything until life becomes too uncomfortable and all we’re left to do is make changes and adapt. There are an abundance of ways to survive in this life. Going through the motions, never pushing ourselves, never wanting more, all just scratch the surface. Ultimately, we settle. We wake up every single day and do the same thing, and that is enough for some of us, but I don’t think it should be.
I will not disagree with anyone who says it’s easier to just avoid something that scares you. There are things I will avoid myself. I will avoid heights at all cost, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t pushed myself to do things I’m uncomfortable with involving heights. A few weeks ago I climbed a ladder on a ropes course that went 25 feet straight up in the air. I was absolutely panicking, but I made myself do it because as scared as I was, I pushed myself to a new level and I was proud of myself for it.
Just like it is easy to avoid something that scares you, it is also easy to not put yourself out there. If you live in constant fear you will be rejected or told you are not good enough, you’re right. You will never be good enough if you don’t try. The greatest way to become successful is through failure. I am a firm believer you will fail your way to success. No one became a superstar over night; it takes years and years of hard work and failures to become incredible at something. Take someone like Michael Jordan, who got cut from his high school basketball team and turned out to be one of the best basketball players in the world.
You can easily go with the flow and, follow a timeline, but the problem with time is that we think we have an unlimited amount of it. Time slows down for no one. It’s like that phone call you’ve been meaning to make or the bill you keep reminding yourself to pay, day after day seems to get away from you. Pushing things off is what makes people miss out on life and leaving their comfort zones because they always think they have time in the future when life is happening right now.
Surviving is easy; it’s living that is hard. It’s breaking down the barriers that you have barricaded yourself in and parting from your comfort zone. The people who feel no need to do this might be happy, but they don’t know what else the world has to offer. You can create your own life, anyway you wish. You are the creator of your own happiness and your own destiny. Taking the step out of your comfort zone is the best thing you can do for yourself because you might love the person you find when you break free, don’t let another day pass you by living mediocrely.
Featured image via Minh Pham on Unsplash
