Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes
Excerpt from Part 1, Chapter 8: Your 20s
One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you in this life is the reminder that you are decider of your fate. The captain of your ship. The only person who can get you to where you want to be.
Content is a hell of a drug. It’s strong because it’s safe. You’re comfortable in your life because it proves to you every day that it works. It keeps you alive, your routines keep you going. You find little escapes to keep you hooked just enough to convince yourself to get through the rough. 5 days at work and 2 days off. 12 hour shifts for a day of gaming with your boys.
Some of us don’t even get that. Contentment is as much as a goal for many as it a drug for the few. For every person who wishes they could take a grand chance to escape their daily life, there’s another person who wishes they could get that normal life. Being able to wake up, work, and come home to your family without starving, dying, or being sick is a dream in itself.
It works because it feels safe. There’s nothing threatening about a safe life. There’s no ultimatum to push you into what you want to do, no one is going to kill you if you don’t escape your 9-5. Life will continue to happen to you and you’ll take it as it comes. You’ll have a normal life, a normal job, and a normal family. Normal works for most people, that’s why it’s normal. Normal is okay, but only if you’re okay with living normal.
This is for those who don’t want normal. This is your reminder that you can’t wait out your goals. You can’t achieve anything by just passing the time, because your dreams aren’t on a timer. You’re only gonna get there if you set your intentions.
A big part of setting your intentions is accepting reality. To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.
Someone wants to spend their days traveling the world, but they’re too scared to leave their job. The reality check here is that these 2 things cannot be true at the same time. You can’t work from an office in Atlanta and drink mango smoothies on a beach in Thailand. Only one of these things can be true. So you have to decide. Am I willing to leave the safety net I’ve created, for a chance that I could live life how I really want to. Unfortunately, the world running depends on most of us staying safe. Because no one dreams of working in customer service, in stores, or in an office.
If you decide that the life of your dreams is worth the sacrifice of your safety net, then you have to actually get do it. You have to actually quit your job. You have to actually move back home to save more money. You have to actually make a chance. If you don’t do any of that, but you tell yourself that you’ll just budget a bit better and save until you have enough, then you will grow old before you see your dreams. Because when you decide to let life happen to you, life will get in your way. You have to actively choose what your life will be, or life will choose for you.
You must always remember,
Nothing Changes, if Nothing Changes