Jump Start Your Life (or Confessions of a Motivational Speaker)
If you’re anything like me, I get bored easily. I slide into routine because it’s easy and then I get comfortable. When I get too comfortable, I get bored. When I get bored, I get the blues. I feel like life is passing me by. I focus on what I don’t have rather than celebrating all I do have. I (GASP) can even have a big, fat pity party for myself.
A few months ago I entered one of these phases – feeling bored and restless. Still loving my work, adoring my audiences, but wondering if I was really practicing what I was preaching. It had been a while since I did anything I considered really scary. How could I encourage people to get out of their comfort zones when I was snugly nestled in my own?
Even worse, I had this feeling that I was waiting for something – maybe for Mr. Right to show up? And I know darn well that you don’t sit around and WAIT for anything – your life is as big and as exciting as you make it. It’s so easy to fall asleep, to rest, be comfortable, and wait while years of your life blaze by.
My birthday always wakes me up. Time to do something scary and relight the fire! I’ve always wanted to see the world and the world is definitely not going to come to me. I’ve never traveled abroad by myself. And I abandoned scuba diving years ago because I no longer had a dive partner.
I decided to go solo to St. Kitts to scuba dive. I’m excited and re-energized and know I’ll be an even better speaker when I get back. I’ll also be a different person – braver, stronger and my world will be a little bigger.
What can you do to get out of your comfort zone – to jump start your life again? Are you getting bored with things? It’s your fault, you know. There’s only one person in this entire world you can control – you. You’re the only person who allows your life to be boring and the only one who can make it exciting. If you are waiting for something, it may never come and if it does, it may not be what you expected.
You don’t have to go to St. Kitts to get a jump – it might be something as simple as taking a class, joining a gym, trying a new hobby. Or your jump start might require something more drastic like ending a relationship, moving, starting a business, or proposing marriage! The key is to do something!
Your life truly is what you make it – the struggle is to never settle, to never fall asleep. The greatest tragedy of all is when a person loses the fire. Their eyes no longer hold light and when you gaze into them all you feel is sorrow for what might have been. Never let that happen to you.
