“Get irritated, take up space, go after your dreams.  You can’t sit there and hope that things will change because we will be waiting forever.  Do the things you need to do in order to make your dreams happen,” Danielle S.  Even though this is a reminder we all need, I feel this was timely for myself.  There are times we move through our days thinking we are making moves or that we are heading toward our goals only to wake up and realize we are on repeat, stuck in the cycle again.  It’s so easy to convince ourselves that the things we do are necessary and to trust what we’ve known, to believe what we know keeps us safe.  We’ve spoken about safety here many times and I think we understand that just because we are familiar with something that doesn’t mean it’s safe.  We repeat some of the most unhealthy habits daily because we are comfortable.  I heard this quote about getting irritated and, well, I got irritated.  I was irritated because I realized I had become comfortable again under the guise of things I “had” to do. 

In the course of following our dreams, the goal is ultimately to get a little bit better each day.  To get a little bit closer to the goal each day.  If we stay the course, we eventually hit the target even if it takes some time.  But when we continually fall into the habit of doing what is known, what we consider safe, we end up further away from our dreams because that known path is a circle—and not even a spiral where we are able to get some movement, it’s literally the same path over and over again.  Life is supposed to be expansive and creative and doing the known thing isn’t really going to create the growth we are looking for.  Repeating the same steps will make us familiar—and even really good at taking those steps—but it won’t get us closer to where we need to go.  Going up and down the same steps a million times is certainly a lot of work but it doesn’t move us anywhere. 

My irritation is fully directed at myself.  I have goals and dreams (perhaps that need to be more clearly defined) and instead of doing things that move me toward those goals and dreams consistently, I find myself repeating the same day.  That’s not something I care to repeat any longer.  This is the moment we’ve spoken about before: the fear of stepping into the unknown.  There are still things that I’m not able to fully let go of because I have a family to care for, that is true—I need something to create the same stability I have in that regard.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not able to make different choices or at least one different choice every day.  Instead of spending an hour at lunch, I can take 30 minutes of that to write or produce content.  Instead of coming home and immediately focusing on work or my son’s homework, we can move our bodies a bit more.  I made the mistake most people do which is believing we have to be all in with all the changes all at once.  That’s when we get overwhelmed and seek out the familiar again.  Instead, keep that irritation with the familiar fresh, and find ways to change one small habit every day.  Or work on one habit until it changes everyday and then work toward the next goal.  Soon, instead of going after our dreams, we will be living them.