How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar. (Trina Paulus)
Whoa, that’s a powerful couple of sentences, eh? You have to want something so much that you’re willing to give up the safety of your current existence to go for your dreams and never look back. The transformation will not be quick and painless, but the payoff is being able to let go of that fear of the unknown and embrace the possibilities in the future.
That’s a hard pill to swallow for most people. The (sometimes misleading) comfort level we all experience, from the job we work but don’t enjoy to the marriage we’re committed to but secretly resent, the idea of being comfortable can truly keep us imprisoned within that which we are trying to escape in the first place.
I’m not in love with my husband, but I’m safe here. I know what to expect on a daily basis. It sure beats having to date again. I couldn’t even imagine having to do that all over again. I’m sure we’ve all heard this sort of statement from someone in our lives. Or, some variation of it. The sad thing is while this person basks in the glow of being comfortable, they’re missing out on possibly finding their soul mate. All because they were too scared to take that first step, to leave behind the life they’d sustained, in pursuit of the life they’d always dreamed of.
I hate my job. I wish I could (insert career / hobby) for a living. If I didn’t have a wife/husband, kids, loans, (insert other excuses, er, reasons), I’d go for it. I’d support myself doing that. I know we’ve all heard this from someone we know, and we’ve all probably said it at least once in our lives. Oftentimes, people are so paralyzed by their fear of not having “stuff,” they forget that wonder and excitement during our childhoods when we speculated and toyed around with the many ideas for what we wanted to be when we grew up. I doubt any of us sat around in the 5th grade and talked about being a slave to a corporate giant or sitting under florescent lighting in a claustrophobic cubby for eight hours doing meaningless tasks whilst wishing we could just catch a glimpse of the sun or a whiff of fresh air.
It seems really sad to me. Perhaps no one is ever told they have the power to choose their path. Perhaps no one is given the tools to sustain such hope and passion. At any rate, if you really, truly want something, then you’ll leave behind all the reasons why you can’t, look forward and go for it!
Where does that desire for living our dreams go? Is it sucked out of us by society and its rigid adherence to the normal way to do things? Why don’t we all grow up to be exactly what we truly want to be?