comfort or change?
I’ve been thinking about things that work and things that don’t work. It’s easy to complicate something you want to achieve with endless approaches because the tried-and-true seems too “boring.” Often, though, “boring” works. Consistency and simplicity are the magic numbers.
Humans lean towards comfort and the removal of all problems and friction, but if we can train ourselves to strengthen our mental capacity, grit, and courageous willingness, we’ll be more successful in getting ourselves into the rumble of a hard-working life of significance.
Chasing comfort will not make us happy. Merely choosing things that seem entertaining, less boring, or like the path of least resistance will not help us travel to destinations unseen or experiences deeply longed for. Our journeys of truest wholehearted living will be marked by the rugged, determined, repetitious, “boring” willingness to walk back into the arena time and time again.
Sometimes it’s a thrilling, exciting, blast of an adventure. Sometimes it’s a drag.
All together, it adds up to a beautiful, substantial, magic life. Every piece has its place. Each moment strings together individual lines of melody that combine for rich harmonies.
Seth Godin asks us to “make a ruckus.” Your ruckus will be uncomfortable sometimes. You’ll have to fight the evolutionary human urges to listen to the voice of fear or to choose whatever will be less painful. You’ll have to lean into bravery, heart, and a decision to engage. Build your mind and biases towards action. Do that which will make your life better.
I’ve been thinking about things that work and things that don’t work, in the context of giving in to the object-at-rest-staying-at-rest, choosing-comfort-over-impetus line of thinking… The impetus will spark something new. Instead of only choosing comfort and stagnancy, give yourself the gift of a spark that makes a change you want to see in your own life.
Often, the changes we want to see come from a start we don’t always want to have to be on the hook for making. But we can. We can.
Put yourself on the line. I’ll be right beside you. We got this.
P.S. Sometimes this is really big, like having the guts and follow through to apply for better jobs and find somewhere you really want to be, making a massive change in your career and the quality of your life. Sometimes this is really small, though still meaningful (frequently the gist of everyday magic, right?! tiny things that are big), like feeling a bit globby and deciding, against the voice in your head volleying for comfort, to get up and tackle a chore or two, which can lead to getting a whole bunch of little, cumbersome things done, clearing the docket in your mind and spaciousness for enjoyment in your environment! That’s a small thing that makes a big difference in the trajectory of your mind, your feelings, and the rest of your day (or even a more prepared week ahead)!
The big matters. The little matters too. Either way, get up, be a spark, start some kind of action, make a ruckus.
P.P.S. Everything has a cost. Do you want it badly enough? If so, you can realize it’s not so difficult to see the cost as the opportunity, the worthwhile price of passage into where you want to be.
