There is no shame in asking for help or looking outside ourselves for direction. Everything is connected, so what we do impacts the world, just as what is happening in our external environment directly affects us. To expect to have all the answers to our questions and problems, not only limits what we can achieve but easily becomes narcissistic folly. But at some point, we must stop searching and trust ourselves to make critical decisions. While inspiration and guidance can be found all around us, the choice of what we do and how we respond ultimately lies solely within us.
Dreaming is the first step in changing our reality. We either experience hardship or happiness and imagine how things could be, picturing what we really want. Visualizing the improved future is important, but if we stop there, the chances of our dreams coming true are very slim. We need to establish our beliefs, develop a plan to convert our ideas to results, and embark on executing the vision, committing to persevere through all obstacles. While it is sometimes nice just to fantasize to escape our current situations, if we do nothing about it, that is probably exactly what will happen.
You know how old you’d be by the time you achieve that one thing you always dreamed of doing if you started today? The same age you’ll be if you don’t. We often stop ourselves from pursuing an important goal because we feel it’s too late or it will take too much time. But we need to remember, we’re going to be that age anyway. Why not be doing what we love? It’s better to be struggling toward what we value than proficient at something simply because we are good at it or have invested a lot of time in it.
Coincidences happen too often to be random and meaningless. But reading too much into them can be dangerous as well. We have to be careful we’re not just collecting and assimilating events into the story we want to tell to justify our actions or validate our beliefs. After all we’ll never truly know what they really mean. They could simply be warnings to alter our course or encouragement to continue. But rather than obsessing about the meaning, perhaps we should merely observe their occurrence as the special happening that they are: a spark to momentarily lift the darkness around us.
