ENJOYING THAT RIDE YET?
Remember where you once were going?
Are you enjoying that ride yet?
You were going to make a difference, going to live a life with purpose, going to be a millionaire before you were 30.
Maybe you were going to travel the world,live in a beautiful home, find the perfect mate and have model children?
Are you enjoying that ride yet?
Remember when you were going to eat healthy, exercise consistently and sleep regularly?
Ever promised yourself next time would be different?
Ever said you were finally going to take a stand and do something about it?
Did you make up your mind way back when you can’t even remember not to be stuck in the same circumstance?
Are you enjoying that ride yet?
What about when you thought you had time, energy and resources and even when you didn’t you felt like you did?
Maybe you had time for hobbies, a social life and vacations and you didn’t need a planner because all your time after work was “free time.”
Are you enjoying that ride yet?
Remember when:
YOU loved life and lived it to the fullest?
YOU felt like you called the shots more often than anyone else?
YOU had only YOU to worry about?
YOU didn’t always feel late, rushed, over-scheduled or drained?
YOU had dreams and plans and believed you could achieve your goals?
Remember when, life seemed much less stressful, far less complicated, much more FUN?
Remember when you didn’t feel constantly under the gun to meet or exceed productivity levels, to bring your A GAME to every project or to burn the candle at both ends just to keep a job?
Rmemeber when the most difficult decision you might make in a day was which game to watch or where you should eat?
Rmemeber when you actually had time to watch a game or eat?
Remember when you could actually CHANGE the way things were going on your terms?
Are you enjoying that ride yet?
Those were the days, weren’t they?
Maybe they seem gone for good, lost forever, just some mirage you imagined before real life kicked in.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Life happened. Some of it was good, some not so much and now the only thing you know is that you need to hit the snooze button more often than ever, you spend a lot of the day exhausted before it’s even noon and an exciting evening means getting into bed before 9 pm.
Maybe you look in the mirror and think, “This is not the life I signed up for.” or maybe you think, “How did I ever let this happen?”
Then you look around and you discover YOU are in really good company. So many of your friends and colleagues are right where you are, facing that overscheduled, over committed, overworked and burned out existence they refer to as “doing life”.
YOU feel more comfortable now, after all, maybe this is all there is. You’re just like everyone else.
BUT, WAIT. That’s not what you ever wanted. YOU never wanted to be just like everyone else.
YOU were going to be different.
So, what do you do? Get back into that wheel going nowhere facing more of the same?
Most people do. They don’t enjoy the ride because they don’t recognize when it’s time to stop moving forward or to change vehicles. They learn to tolerate unconfortable, unsafe and unproductive because they don’t know where to start to make it better.
Let’s face it, when we think we are in good company, we resign ourselves to feeling successful just because everyone else is in the same boat.
But if you are NOT enjoying that ride, that is really not success.
Every ride starts with a decision.
Where do I want to go?
If you don’t want to keep wandering around aimlessly wondering how your ride ended up with little adventure and not much change in scenery, you need to go back to the drawing board.
Your life GPS is not meant to go in one direction. You have options and choices.
A lot of people get on at point A and just keep riding. Before they know it, everything is too familiar and much of it is not something they want to do again, but they get on that ride every day and instead of planning a new trip, they take that same journey over and over again.
So, are you enjoying that ride yet?
Are you where you hoped you would be, doing what you hoped you would be doing, with whom you hoped you would be doing it?
Real life is an adventure. It does not have to always be exciting or thrilling but it should be moving you into a direction you are looking forward to going.
There will be obstacles, detours and less than stellar views but each one should still be part of a journey you want to take.
If your life looks a lot like the hamster’s maybe it’s time to stop and revisit your life’s GPS.
That hamster is stuck until someone gets him out, you’re not.
Make the right choice. Get a new ride.
Kathy Brunner is a coach for people who want to move from earning a living working for someone to earning one working for themselves.Want a COMPLIMENTARY BLUEPRINT FOR MOVING FROM DAY JOB TO DREAM WORK? Get it HERE.
