Starting new is always scary. Do you remember yourself on the first day of school? New teachers, a new mix of classmates, all of the unknowns of upcoming classwork. Will I do well? Will I make good friends this year? Much of the anxiety over starting something new comes from a lack of knowing whether or not you will be accepted… out there in the big world. Starting this blog feels similar to coming into the new classroom in the middle of the school year, when all of the connections have already been made. If you follow the advice of entrepreneurs out there, you should come in confident and strong, virtually dressed in your best most appealing clothing for the intended audience. You should bring a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, with fundamental steps that you will follow all worked out. Hmm… Is that realistic?
I love to listen to people’s life stories. Stories of career success, stories of following their dreams, stories of adventure. I believe that stories of despair, isolation, addiction, struggle and displacement can be equally inspirational. All of the different stories that we get to call our story of life, from childhood until the end, color the canvas of humanity and they are what makes life worth living. In each of these stories there are ups and downs, there are moments of doubt, followed by perseverance of spirit, and a moment of transformation, until we reach something incredible, a moment of pure brilliance. And if we listen carefully to one another, what we will hear is that no one ever really has a clear vision and a step-by-step guide to life. We are all just kind fumbling in the dark, trying to figure out one moment at a time. When I have talked to people who are satisfied with their current situation, they tend to say that they had no idea they would find themselves at this place when they started out. They are surprised to be doing what they do. Now this is not to say that they mindlessly wondered into this specific path.
I believe that reaching that true moment of brilliance requires many steps of following that quiet voice inside. It is a nudge that your spirit will gently do throughout your life to get you closer to where you shine your best. Your spirit guides you quietly and if you are not paying attention, you might get lost, overwhelmed by your screaming ego, pushing you and driving you to get that clear vision of life, so you could get there. Except even if you do, get there, most likely you will still hear the dissatisfied voices inside your head of still not having enough money, notoriety, connections, of basically not being enough. So you go back to the drawing board and start to create a new story. This one will for sure have the right vision and all the right steps to get you there.
Where exactly is there? Is it a place on the map? Is it a specific amount of dollars? Is it reached by a certain number of likes and fame? Is it measured by the number of pounds you weigh? Is it during warm summer days? Or is it in the calm winter nights?
In this blog, I dare to follow an inner nudge to write, to share my life stories, to hopefully hear yours. I wish to inspire to live a more truthful, connected, and vibrant life, where we most likely do not have a clear vision or have a step-by-step outline for it. Instead, we cherish the good moments with gratitude and accept the dark ones, as moments of learning and growth. I hope to explore interesting topics that life itself brings as a way to question our beliefs, get comfortable in our discomfort, and always continue to connect.
