Just Say Yes

The first step in anything you do, even something as simple as getting out of bed in the morning, is to say yes to it - to make a commitment to do it. If you don't believe me, just think of the number of times you've lain in your warm bed on a cold winter's morning, arguing with yourself about getting up!

Making a commitment takes courage. You know how cold that floor is, and how warm your toes are. And so you poke the snooze button one more time and curl up a little more snugly under the covers.

Committing to changing your life takes a lot of courage. You don't know how cold the floor is, or even if there's a floor at all. Uncertainty about what could happen makes staying under the covers of your current life seem like the sensible choice - even when it's neither warm nor snug under there. Will your friends get angry? Will your spouse or partner abandon you? Could you turn into someone you don't even recognize?

And when you make a commitment, your personal integrity and honor are at stake. You don't take your commitments lightly. So you're careful to commit only to what's reasonable, what you can understand logically and be sure about.

Taking a leap of faith
Committing to change isn't sensible, logical, or reasonable. Committing to remembering who you are, to coming home to yourself, feels reckless and irrational, especially when you've spent a lifetime being sensible, logical, and reasonable. And it's true that you don't know what you're saying yes to. That's part of the joy and courage of it - and part of the uncertainty and fear of it.

It's not sensible - but it's inescapable when you feel so much life inside you begging for freedom.

It's not logical - but it's instinctive when you can't squash yourself into other people's expectations for another second.

It's not reasonable - but it's absurdly, wildly joyful to take that leap into the unknown.

The commitment itself is simple: remembering the truth of who you are is more important than staying safely hidden (and frustrated) under the covers of your current life. Take the leap of faith. Say it aloud to yourself, write it down where you can read it again and again, and feel how it resonates in your heart. Say yes to it.

And your commitment to remembering who you are ... will fail
What? Fail?

Yes. It's all part of the process. You make the commitment, not even knowing clearly what you're committing to, and you fail, and you make the commitment again, and you fail again. Over and over and over again. The failure can be as simple as discovering yourself in the middle of an old story about compromise, or as complex as how you react to your fear of the unknown and of losing control.

And each failure is in fact a joyful triumph of your desire to know the truth. Each time you remember your commitment, no matter how hard or painful it may be, you'll go a little further, and each time you fail, you'll understand a little more and it becomes a little simpler. Each time, you'll see a little more clearly that it's all ok and that it's more than ok.

Isn't there an easier way?
There are lots of bestselling books and popular websites whose authors promise "Five Easy Steps" to happiness, success, and personal growth. But the truth is that shortcuts don't work. There are no end runs.

And the only real failure is the failure to commit at all. Yes, you can stay under the covers of your life. You can keep ignoring the wake-up calls of your frustration, your feelings of being trapped and stuck, your inner knowing that things could be different - could be so much better.

But if you do, you'll never know whether the floor is cold, warm, soft, hard - or if it's not there at all, and you could learn to fly.

"The time to wake up is now. Not tomorrow. Now." Adyashanti, from Emptiness Dancing

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(c)Jon Hansen

Helping bright, creative women break free of others' expectations and reclaim their wholeness and power.

After a lifetime of being all things to all people, is it possible to live from who you are instead of for other people's expectations? You can break down the walls and rediscover the wholeness that's your birthright. To access my free resources, including my newsletter, visit The Remembering Room.

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