Mystery writer, Harlan Coben says, “The ugliest truth is better than the prettiest of lies.”
That’s because the truth, no matter how funky and dark and ugly it sometimes appears, always liberates us into light. By facing it, you see that it’s not ugly at all ”“ but an amazing gift, that for some reason we were seeing incorrectly.
Every time you say, “I don’t know” in relation to something personal in your life ”“ wait a moment, breathe ”“ and wait for the second response. What you probably discover is that you do know. Truth. Now, it may be ugly. It may not be something you want to face. It may be scary or exciting or dangerous. It may require you to step completely out of your comfort zone or do something drastic or shake things up or make a life change. But if you lean into that truth ”“ no matter how unfamiliar it may feel, your life will certainly change for the better because you’re finally doing the thing that you’ve been telling yourself for so long that you can’t do.
FOMO. We all suffer from it. The fear of missing out. The problem is, it’s not real. It’s an illusion that keeps us bound to our distractions ”“ they come in all forms. The thoughts we have about ourselves, our fears, habits and yes, even certain relationships. Anything that distract us from the point we made in the first paragraph above ”“ that we do know ”“ but we keep ourselves distracted by so many things by pretending we don’t.
I get that it’s sometimes scary to take the leap into that part of us that we often ignore because distractions feel better. But the truth is ”“ you’re not really scared of almost any of the things you think you’re scared of. You’re scared of really living because really living doesn’t jive with the stories you’ve been told about who you are and what you continue to tell yourself about what’s possible for you.
So if we distract ourselves from real living, if we keep saying, “I don’t know” to things that we do have the answers to, if we keep living in the stories about ourselves that are justified but keep us stuck, we can’t really live.
Or rather, we’re living but sort of just going through the motions of a life we seem to have no say in creating.
The irony is if we just started living more from those places that are willing us to do so ”“ we’d make new stories. And we’d discover that the only thing we had been missing out on for so long ”“ was truly ourselves and a different life that’s been waiting for us.
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