If Not Now, When?

I can tell you the perfect recipe for a ruined life, for the complete destruction of the great light within you; the one sure way to put out your fire, to shrink your wild life, to dim your sparkle to one faint flicker: Settle.

The moment we allow ourselves to settle is the moment we start agreeing to live a mundane life.

I often wonder what it would be like if we all just lived the life we dreamed of, if we all woke up and did what we wanted to. If we put an end to the excuses. If we put away the stories we tell ourselves that allow us to keep living small. If we walked away from the settling that keeps us in jobs we hate, when we know what we are really meant to do is out there waiting for us. The settling that creates a home for fear and lets it stop us from pursuing our soul’s purpose; the kind that stops us from chasing our dreams.

What would happen if you made all your decisions from the very center of your being? If you lived a little bit more selfishly and effectually started living more honestly. A little bit more passionately. What if every choice you made, from how you take your tea, to where you work, live, and who you spend your days with— all of this, from your core? There would be no mediocre friendships; there would be no living in places that do not make every cell in your body absolutely come alive, no jobs that make you feel insignificant and ordinary. There would be no soul sucking. Period.

As soon as you start settling you start living just for next month, just till the semester is past, you can't wait till winter is over so you can feel alive again. You find yourself just waiting for a mystically assigned date somewhere in the future when you will be free to do wondrous things. You start craving a new life outside desire and wishing.

Beyond the carefully reasoned methods we all talk and scheme over about why we shouldn't do something, why we can't do something, why we aren't good enough, there is a simple door waiting for us to walk through and on the other side are new feet. Go there. Roll there, crawl on all fours if need be. Stop talking and obsessing, just go.

Even if you're not ready, even if things are undone. Even if you're sure today is the day your ship is coming in-- you have to return to the core of everything you are and start living from there. Not because you feel like it, or because today is a good day to go, or because life is all nice and tidy. Newsflash: there is no nice and tidy time for anyone.

Making choices that keep us comfortable, that keep our lives ordinary, decisions that keep our daily routine predictable is living life 'lukewarm.' You have to make the choice to start existing brilliantly. You have to make the choice to grab life by the collar and fly. No one else can make that choice for you.

You see, we have a choice in where we live, and who we live with. We have a choice to spend our days watching TV or get outside and pursue something greater. We have a choice to work for others or work for ourselves. We have a choice to go to college and incur 20,000 in school debt and we have a choice to not go to college at all. We have a choice to break up with friends who we no longer connect with and find friends who excite us.

Who make us laugh until our cheeks hurt. Friends who grab us by the hand and motivate us to spend our time doing things that make us tick. We have the choice to recognize that we are stuck and do something about it. We have the choice to move. We have a choice to stay in a job we hate or quit and start occupying our time with stuff that lights our soul on fire instead. We have the choice to speak up and voice our truth if we feel silenced. We have a say in our relationships, our occupation, our lives.

It is essential that you get right down to the seeds and bones of everything in your life because that's exactly where your pleasure is, that's where your joy is, that is the place where there is time and freedom to be, wander, wonder, write, sing, create, and to not be so afraid. The way I see it, whatever revivifies balance and brings you to your center is what is essential. You were placed on this earth to exist brilliantly. You were created to shine. So start doing what you love and leave everything else, because that is what happiness is.

You can do this, dreamers. Today is your day. Besides, what are you so darn afraid of?

If not now, when?