I’ve been reading a lot of late about how we need to take charge of our lives and be the change we want to see in the world. I sat there wondering why after all this great advice from the self help gurus, people are still unable to change the things they want to change. The fact of the matter is that we do not resist change, rather we resist being changed. Most of us have got so cozy into our comfort zone that we find it very easy just to drift along in life. I’m not alien to this and have been a victim of this many times till I came across a simple story about a dog. Once upon a time on a cold winter day there were a group of men having a cup of coffee and right next to them was a dog who lay on the road. This dog was moaning all the while it lay there. The dog looked perfectly healthy with no visible signs of pain or hurt and the man wondered what was wrong and decided to ask the group of men. One of the men from the group answered that the dog was sitting on a nail and hence was moaning. The man surprised asked why the dog was not moving itself. The man replied that it was not painful enough!
This story struck me of the situation we find ourselves in these days. Most of us have a decent life, make a good living, have a home, take vacations, have enough to spend on things which we don’t need and believe we are having a good life. Despite this when I ask someone Hows Life, the answers I get are “Not Bad”, “Surviving”, “Ummm”, “Couldn’t Complain” and so on. None of these responses have a positive connotation to them which begs the question, are we really happy with our lives or are we pretending to be Happy. No one can answer this question for us but ourselves. The problem I feel is that just like the dog, we moan all the time but don’t do anything to change the things we want to because the pain in our life is not strong enough. We are happy to simply accept the situation as-is and rest in our comfort zone, not wanting to take any risks or challenge ourselves. Deep down inside each one of has desires, aspirations and wishes which we want to fulfill, but we simply don’t seem to have the courage to do what it takes to pursue our dreams.
As Les Brown puts it, most people are dead by the time they are 25 and are buried when they are 65. Many of us are simply sleep walking through our lives, hoping that tomorrow will be a better day. When we were small we had big dreams and aspirations. As we grew up, instead of being bold enough to pursue our dreams, we buried our dreams deep inside and kept telling ourselves that our dreams can wait till we graduate, our first job, marriage, kids and so on till one day we have completely forgotten about them.
Life is about NOW. There never was, and Never will be a Perfect time. The only time we have is NOW. Take action now to work on things which you love. Do things which give you satisfaction. Make a list of your dreams and work towards them. Don’t have a safety net which you can fall back on. Its amazing how when you engage in constant action, your goals and dreams start appearing nearer than you thought they were. Dont Procrastinate. Just Do It