It’s January 8th. Already 8 days into 2015. I had the best of intentions to write a blog on January 1st to start the year off. One of my hopes with this blog is that I can be a source of encouragement for anyone who thinks what I write is worth reading. So everyday into the new year I tried thinking of something inspiring. But, I was stuck in a rut.
“rut1
rət/
noun
noun: rut; plural noun: ruts
1 1. a long deep track made by the repeated passage of the wheels of vehicles.
2 synonyms:
3 furrow, groove, trough, ditch, hollow, pothole, crater “the car bumped across the ruts””
rut1
My number one desire for this blog is to be real with y’all. I think the world is chock full of people who give the appearance of perfection and always having it together. Me, not so much. Maybe you can relate with where I was. This definition of a rut is perfect for where I was. I’m a real visual person, so in my mind I could see myself alone in a desert, surrounded by nothing. I envisioned myself dusty, tired and worn walking around in the same circle again and again. I looked aimlessly down as my feet shuffled just enough to disturb the dry, brown sand until I had a well worn path. A path that led me absolutely nowhere.
But, what if I’m not really alone in the desert? What if I’m actually surrounded by lots of other people who are working hard on their own circles, head down, aimlessly taking the same steps again and again, wondering why they aren’t in a better place.
Can you relate? Maybe your New Year’s Eve was a bit underwhelming and you are wishing that you were in a different place in life. The fact is we all make New Year’s resolutions whether we admit it out loud or not. And I think that all of us have a certain level of fear that we will flat out fail, and walk back out to our circles again, picking up where we left off.
“When you want change, but don’t want to change, that’s a recipe for no change whatsoever.”
Here’s the deal: When you want change, but don’t want to change, that’s a recipe for no change whatsoever. Go ahead and read it again, cause I think I broke some writing rules by using the same word 3 times in the same sentence. Unforgivable I know. In all seriousness though, simmer on that thought for a minute. We can make a choice to continue making neat circle paths that lead nowhere, or we can choose to step out into uncharted territory and see what we have been missing out on.
When my oldest daughter told me the other day that she wished she could be a scientist, I told her you don’t have to wish it, you have to do it. So, now I challenge you (and myself) to stop wishing that you weren’t in the same rut. You just need to get out of it. No one else can do it for you. This is where you have to be brave and step out. Dust yourself off and get started. I won’t tell anyone that you started a little late, if you won’t tell anyone I did. Deal?