Fixing the Leaks

I think that we oftentimes convince ourselves that avoiding things is easy, as if to avoid the difficult and the challenging, were to embrace the stress-free life. Some have become so used to avoiding things, that they call themselves lazy, as if this behaviour has become a part of their identity. We may even come up with clever meaningful stories about why we don't do particular things. We can avoid things for all sorts of reasons. It can be from lack of self-belief, fear of failure, or addiction to established comfort zones, or any number of self-created, superstitious, narcissistic narratives. However, it is erroneous to think that the avoidance is easy, and energy-saving.

Avoiding things is an action. It has a hidden intentionality behind it. It is a repackaged resistance. It drains energy in hidden ways, that will leave us lethargic and apathetic. It steals the energy that we could otherwise be putting into addressing our fears, and steals the opportunity of finding a truly personal fulfillment. Personal fulfillment, can only come through challenging our fears, and expending energy in that general direction. Our fears communicate to us what matters to us. Fear is the field in which our treasure is buried. We can leave it there and never find it if we so wish.

Avoidance is resistance. Resistance expends energy, but it is a use of energy that is like a leak in the system. It drains away under the surface, and you lose the energy you need for things that might be important, significant or meaningful to you.

If we are not putting ourselves to things, if we are not challenging ourselves in some way or other, or if we are avoiding the things we fear, we will end up with lives that feel stagnant, repetitive, mediocre, empty, boring, meaningless and without worth.

We can not expect to have lives that feel meaningful and significant, if we do not channel our energies into tasks, if we do not challenge ourselves, if we do not take some risks.

Things...what are those things...those things we avoid? A broken relationship? A risky vocational venture? Being truly ourselves with others? The better life?

Fix the leaks, divert your limited energies, direct them toward living the fullest life you can muster, in this blip of time we call life. Not because we must, not because we are obliged to, not because of what others might think, and not because it matters; just because you might feel alive again, and we all know, even if only from distant memory, that that feels good.