Love the inherent madness in real things. Without a little bit of madness, it’s going to lack depth. Without depth, you are going to skim the surface of what’s actually capable for you. Without finding your best stuff and what defines your foundation, growth and fulfillment will seem like a far away dream. You see, there’s a tendency to become romanced with the quick and easy, but that’s not where the magic is. The magic lies within the depths. The magic takes some soul spelunking. The magic…is in jumping out of the boat completely and diving deep down into unexplored waters all while having unbreakable faith that you will find a pocket of air on the way down.

Uncertainty? Embrace it.

When you really think of it, we live in a world absolutely full of chaos. Everything is going a million miles a minutes. Things are constantly falling apart and colliding. It’s a miracle that we are even able to function with everything happening around us. Some find their way early and others spend their entire lives looking for some type of meaning that will give them direction. We seek out guidance, wisdom, and consume massive amounts of information to help us try to make sense out of all of this. What is the journey I am on? Who am I even while traveling on it?

This uncertainty can seduce us into trying to digest surface level pseudo-spirituality in order to help us understand ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about short life quotes and the little tidbits of wisdom they can reveal to us, but without understanding context and avoiding diving into the depths we set ourselves up for disaster. Surface level foundations never work…try building a house on wallpaper.

And that’s really what all of this surface level stuff is when it comes down to it – wallpaper. It’s what you put over something to make it look all pretty and nice. Life isn’t all pretty and nice. Life is dirty. Life can be vicious. Life can test you and bring you to your knees whenever it feels like it. No matter how much you try to avoid certain things happening, life acts as a professional dart thrower, hitting it’s target every single time – no matter how fast it’s moving.

But in real things (thoughts, emotions, experience) that have some depth to them, they aren’t wallpaper at all. They have some madness to them. They are unpredictable, uncertain and often completely unexpected. They rip the rug out from under you and help you pop right back up when you are down. It’s a bit chaotic, but that’s the point. The chaos is the beautiful part. The chaos is the art. When you start to live in that place, your entire life becomes part of that painting. Then, when you begin to understand that you have a role to play in this world, you can start to develop the guided hand of the painter.

But you have to get dirty first.

Roll around in the dirt. Get mud on your face. Tear down the wallpaper. Burn down the termite ridden support beams you have created throughout the years and dance in the ashes of it all. That rock solid ground you are standing on – that’s going to be the place where you build your life. It’s time to build it over again and do the work you’ve always been afraid to do.

What is life without risk? Just surviving.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project