Will you cross over to Canan or stay in the wilderness?⛵

Many of us want more out of life.

We want to achieve something. Accomplish something.

We want to make changes.

So we set goals. We make resolutions. We start diets.

We are excited at the possibilities. Until we realize this is going to be hard.

Maybe too hard. 

So we pause. Postpone. Quit.

This is an evolutionary response in our primitive brain. It’s how our brain protected us from danger, fatigue, and pain. It’s called the motivational triad: seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy.

“Stay in the cave!”, our brain tells us.

But in today’s world of abundant resources and little real danger, this warning doesn’t protect us anymore. It keeps us stuck. Stuck hanging out in Mediocre Meadow on the banks of the River of Misery.

On the other side is all of our hopes, dreams, and aspirations of a better, bigger, more fulfilling life.

In order to get there, we have to cross the river.

We have to feel discomfort, shame, anger, humiliation, and inadequacy. We have to face failure, impossibility, judgement, obstacles, and hardship.

We have to commit, have courage, build our capability, push, and persevere.

Because:

“There is no comfort in the change zone and no change in the comfort zone”

“Old ways won’t open new doors”

“One day or day one. You decide.”

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change”

“It’s not what you have to give up, but what you have to gain”

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

“We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.”

So you get to decide: Do you want to stay where you are?
Or cross through that River of Misery to get where you want to be?