It Comes Down To A Simple Choice, Really

It's personal comfort.  No build up.  No suspense.  It's simple and it's true.  Your desire for personal comfort is the single biggest roadblock to you following your God-given passions and achieving your goals.  How do I know?  Because I've fallen into the same trap.  

The last time I was in the trap was 2013-2014.  During 2009-2012, I put myself way out on a limb following a dream and I fell.  I failed and it hurt.  It hurt me and it hurt my family.  And it took a long time to dig out of the financial and emotional holes I had dug for myself.  What I craved more than anything was stability.  Finally, in very late 2012, I got a good job and it's gotten better ever since. About a year later, Sara got a new (and much better paying) job. By the end of 2014, we had achieved the stability we craved so much.  But, do you know what I realized?  I wasn't fulfilled by that stability. While it felt good to be stable, it wasn't fulfilling.  I gained weight. I felt frustrated.  I didn't know what to do next.  It was only after I stepped back, assessed my life, set some goals and got to work at the beginning of 2015 that my fulfillment and drive returned.

While stability is a basic human need, it's not a good end goal.  Now, stability is necessary to be the springboard to launch you toward your next goal, but stability most certainly should not be the goal.  But, we make it the goal way too often. And then we get stuck.  How many people do you know who make good money, have a good family, seem to have no reason to be unhappy, but are still unhappy? Plenty, right?  Are you one of them?  It's pretty easy to figure out why. You were created for some reason.  And that reason is not to just live a boring life of comfort, ease, and stability.

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) said it best in "The Shawshank Redemption", "I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really.  Get busy living or get busy dying."

There is no such thing as stability in the human existence.  We are at our best when we live in the tension between what is and what could be.  Don't fall for the lie that tells you maximizing your comfort will maximize your fulfillment. The truth is that living out your God-given passion will maximize your fulfillment.  Get busy living.