Set your hair on fire

There comes a point in life when the way you are doing things just doesn't work anymore. You go through the same motions, but they don't offer the same satisfaction. You try to enjoy your successes, but they don't seem as successful. It is realizing your palate can not longer taste what used to be your favorite foods.

The problem with this moment for most people is the stress and worry associated with making changes. I can't quit that, people are depending on me. I can't do that, I don't know how. It puts us in a trap of not being happy with our current state, but even more scared of moving into something unknown.

There are many complexities to this trap, but the first the idea of lost investment. If I have sunk two years into an activity, I can just quit it, even if I hate it. What will I do with all the associated stuff I have bought? I don't want to "waste" my time and money. The truth is, for the most part, an illusion. The money you have spent has been spent. No matter what you do with it, you can't get it back. The time you have spent is in the past, you can't get it back either. Those investments have no weight either way. What those investments give you is only an opportunity, but if it is opportunity to do something you don't like, or even hate, the investment can't be the reason to hold you back.

The second element of this trap relates to the first, which is if you have the opportunity to do something and you have a history of doing it, you should do it. There is some pride in that consistancy. It is similar to that investment of time and money, but this is that investment into yourself, who you are. If you stop doing something that defines you, who do you become? Do you fall into nothingness? No. The truth is you become something new, you become associated with that new adventure you embark on.

The problem is that third element of the trap, which is while we like the idea of adventure most of us like the comfort more. We don't choose not to adventure, we just choose not to do it now. Why rush? After all, we can enjoy the idea of what we could do, almost as much as doing it, while we stay in the doldrums of what we have always done. The problem with this is the rigidity that comes from this, which can mean you never make the leap, you just become someone who doesn't like themselves.

So, how do you break out? How do you declare independence from you past? Personal revolution? The truth is, you need to have a sense of urgency. Without a sense of urgency it it hard to overturn the status quo. Pressure yourself, tell others of the change you are going to make and let them hold you to it. Quit. If you want to move, you can always set your hair on fire.