When was the last time you heard these unsolicited statements and questions directed at you?
"You need to make a decision now!"
"You should concentrate on reality, quit wasting your time and stop your silly dreaming!" What's wrong with you?
"You can't do that, how utterly stupid can you be? You will fail!"
I could keep going, but two things might happen. 1) Your heart rate will increase even more than it is now and I do not want to be responsible for you ending up on the floor waiting for an ambulance to arrive. And/or 2) You'll just get pissed and go find another article to read on HuffPost. So, look at the pic below and read the quote...
Photo by Greg Frucci while sailing alone in the Atlantic Ocean, June 2011
The next time someone tells you that you "need," "should" or "can't" do a thing... any thing... tell 'em to go take a hike.
"Oh but, Greg, those people love me. That's why they tell me what I should do... they are just trying to help me."
Um, no. The people in our lives who say that stuff to us are selfish and they are only trying to help themselves feel safe. You try and go for a dream and who are the first people to throw negativity your way, telling you that you will fail? Most of the people who are close to you. Thank God, there are a few in our lives who will have our backs no matter what, but I bet you can count them on one hand.
Give it a shot if you think I'm nuts. Let's say you have a dream to be a self-sufficient artist. You keep the dream inside because you do not think you will succeed. Go up to your friends and tell them you are thinking seriously about quitting your steady job to become an artist. Ga head... try it. I dare you.
Hellfire and damnation will reign down upon you. The reason can be found in one word. Fear. Perhaps they have fear because you might blow past them in life. Perhaps they have fear because they do not want to see you suffer which will make them suffer. Either way, the ones who tear you down because of whatever fear they have, are weak. Listen to them and let them make decisions for you and you will become just like them. Weak.
The ones who have a handle on their fears will support you and even if it is only one person, you are blessed. Keep that person close to you forever. It is not that some are fearless. It is that some do not let fear control them. Some humans will run towards what scares them. Those are the ones who are strong. Those are the ones who will learn and become wise as they progress along their paths. Keep them in your life and you might become like them. Strong.
The quote by Iain Thomas is something I read while taking Arianna Huffington's Thrive course. It hits home with me right now for reasons I will not delve into within this post. Like you, perhaps, I am going through a thought process about what is important in life. Not so much about career or anything related to money. But about what is more important than those mundane things.
"How in the world is career and money mundane, Greg?"
Think about what you are truly passionate about. Think about what fuels your spiritual fire. Think about all of those dreams you have hidden away from yourself because you think they are impossible. The path we think we have to be on, may not be the path we wish to actually be traveling. If money and career are keeping us on paths we do not wish to be on, then they are mundane when you relate the path of choice to the path of what we truly desire.
All of that yanking of our arms by others comes from the paths we think we have to be on. If our souls were truly happy about where we are in life... what path we travel... we would not feel any yanking at all. What is most important will be a loving nudge which feels comfortable, safe, secure, pure, kind and full of positive life. Love is most important in life.
Someone once said to me, "We cannot survive on Love, we must make a ton of money in order for us to be comfortable, then we can be happy and in love." Perhaps this is truth for others, it is not for me. In truth, I believe the statement to be false and will only lead to disaster... it did for me... and I took to the sea for a time to heal.
What we are used to is perhaps not what we need. The most important things which propel us through Life, are not the creations of humans. Perhaps that which aids us on our path, is something only felt.
What is holding you back from doing what you are truly good at doing? You will not fail. You will only learn. You may not make it to a destination you think you are heading towards...but you will arrive in a place with more than you have now. When you act on your passion, you will truly thrive. Do it now... your transformation is there.