"Your world expands only when you expand your world." What is this? What does this statement mean, you may be asking in a huff. Is it some kind of literary trickery or code?
Or maybe you are one of the people nodding your head, contentedly agreeing, because you already know what it says: you know your world doesn't get bigger until you take a step toward the horizon.
You know you are accountable for your personal growth.
For a long time I was stagnant in what I was doing with my life. I was stuck in the rut of tending bar, late nights, too many drinks and some really bad decisions in my personal life. None of these things I regret mind you (I had a lot of laughs along the way), but one day I realized I had been yearning for something to change in my life for a long time. And I was drowning that need in good times, booze and apathy. It was leading me to depression.
Even upon that realization it took several more years for me to break the bonds of old habits. But there were several things that helped me along the way.
One: my age. I was, as they say, "getting too old for this shit." I was tired of being hungover and the hangovers were steadily getting worse as I got older. I was tired of the lack of meaning I felt my life had. I was tired of being a selfish man-child.
Two: I began pursing my passion as a professional freelance writer and copywriter. It's the only job I've ever looked forward to actually getting up and doing. In that respect, I know it's what I want to do.
Three: I'm going through a bankruptcy. I've found out, on this long and bumpy road, who my friends are, what's important to me and what I want to do in the future. All things I had wrong for a long, long time.
Four: I have an amazing family and an amazing woman to support me. I couldn't list all the benefits of number four here. I just know that I'm very lucky to have them.
Each step toward change in this kind of "personal evolution" has made the next step a little bit easier for me. It seems there's a snowball effect at work here. It's just getting our snowballs to the top of the hill... or waiting for it to snow... which can seem overwhelmingly difficult at times.
We cannot help what Life hands us. We can only choose how we deal with it. It's these choices that tell us who we are and guide us to our future.
No man or woman can be chained to complacency if they make the choice to not be. I firmly believe this. Because the logic behind it is simple.
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