Is there something you want to do? Something that burns inside you, or maybe just quietly pops up now and then, softly clearing its throat before whispering to your soul? What is it? A job change? A complete career change? Perhaps leaving a relationship that no longer works, even though you and your partner aren't actively at war?
Maybe you are aching to try something you've never tried, live where you've never lived.
What is it that holds you back? The belief that you can't do it, or that it won't work? The desire to please someone else? A bunch of big, fat "shoulds" stamped all over whatever it is you want to do? Do you find yourself taking a few steps down the path toward what you want, only to let a miserable 'something' cause you to turn around and go back to where you started?
Complacency may seem the easiest route but it is not. If you settle for less than what you really want, you will never really know yourself, nor will anyone else. That restlessness will not go away; you will only learn to live with it. You may choke it down, ignore it, shove it aside and keep smiling for years. You might tell it to take a long walk off a short pier, and maybe you can do this for years, perhaps even for your whole life.
But I can guarantee that you will not be happy, and although plastering that smile all over your face might make other people think you're happy, you can never fool yourself.
You see, you have to live with yourself. You cannot escape those quiet rumblings or the big screams from your soul that demand to be heard. You can drink them away, you can numb them out, you can shop till you drop or busy yourself with 24 million things, but those thoughts, that desire, your spirit will keep coming up to show you what you are meant to do and you will never be happy or at peace until you do it.
Think about this: If you knew that something you were doing was holding back someone you love, keeping that person from being truly happy and all he or she was meant to be, would you feel good about that? You couldn't if it was real love. Anything less is only selfish need.
No double standards allowed. If you would want others to live their lives, find their happiness and become all they're meant to be, then you must do the same for yourself. I'm sure that if you look at whatever is holding you back, there will be the word 'fear' in there somewhere. Fear of disappointing someone, fear of making a mistake, fear of being a failure, of looking silly, or fear of something else entirely.
I can assure you that nothing good will ever come from a decision that is based on fear, for it is limiting, restrictive, destructive. It steals lives and happiness. It robs dreams and creativity. It allows you to create your own prison.
What is it you really want to do? Push away any thought that has anything to do with what someone else needs, wants or expects from you and look only at your desire. Just allow yourself that, at least. Shove away the 'shoulds', and most of all ignore the fear. Just look at what you really want and enjoy how delicious it feels to immerse yourself in it.
Now...take that first step toward finding a way to make it happen and allow your spirit to soar. That's what you were meant to do and no one else's happiness should be more important than that.
I welcome your comments below.
For more from this author, visit www.powerofselfhealing.com