There are moments that each of us are faced with a decision that will change our lives.
It’s easy to get lost in details and opinions about what you are supposed to do. It’s easy to let all of the noise from the outside world push or pull you in a direction that seems reasonable.
But your heart may say something completely different.
Your heart may speak words of adventure and love.
Your heart may speak of making another effort no matter what the perception may be.
That’s a voice that you can only hear. You can only begin to understand the decisions you’ve made in the past when you quiet the world down around you enough to be able to finally listen.
Stillness will speak volumes to you.
It will give you the ability to settle down, to end the race, and to finally show up willing to connect.
But you have to give yourself that gift. If you don’t take that time and space, you will forever be tuning into stations seeking an answer that your soul already has.
My path has been nothing but crooked throughout the years.
I have rising and fallen only to rise again time and time again. It has turned left and right, sometimes straight backwards and short forward beyond where I had ever imagined.
People have come and gone. I have changed. My body has changed. My heart walls have started to come down and I have warmed up to the gifts of life.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
In fact, for a great deal of time it was a very different story.
And yet, all of that has led me to this moment right here where I’m going to give to you the best piece of advice I have ever heard in my entire life.
Does this path have heart? If so, it is good. If it doesn’t, it’s of no use.
When I stand looking at the paths in front of me, I realize that one has a lot more heart in it. But how do I know that?
Because one scares me.
One of these paths scares me because I know how much I will grow, be challenged, step beyond my comfort zones and move straight into the forest of the unknown.
While fear is there, that means I have the opportunity to be courageous.
I can dig into my faith and know that the direction I am being pointed in is something that will help me follow my destiny rather than destroy me. I do not have to let fear make the final decision in my life but rather use that as an indicator that I am heading in the right direction.
Every time I have turned into my fears rather than stepped away from them my life has changed.
I became something more.
Or, maybe I just stepped into who I’ve always meant to be.
How do I want this story to be written?
Do I want it to be one full of adventure, love and passion? Or do I want to be sitting in a pool of regret when I’m older wishing that I had the courage when I was young to take the chances that were right in front of me?
I know now that I want all of this to be one wild adventure.
I know now after having made decisions out of fear that I have to put my heart on the line and really go for it.
It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks of these decisions. There is only that quiet whisper in my heart begging me to go.
To try again.
To follow this path with relentless amounts of faith.
Will I be test?
Yes of course.
But will I become who I’ve always meant to be?
Yes.
That will only come with courage…
And moving through fear no matter what.
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project