WHEN LIFE THROWS YOU

HOW TO KEEP GOING WHEN YOUR LIFE FLIPS UPSIDE DOWN

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.- Helen Keller

Hey friends. I hope everyone is well. When I read this quote from Helen Keller, it stirred something inside me. I let it hang out in my brain and took stock of my beliefs, my fears, and my goals. I asked myself deep questions like, what is the meaning of life and am I really living mine? Ms. Keller leaves no room for a middle of the road type of life. It’s adventure or nothing. I don’t know about you guys, but my heart generally leans toward adventure and my reality gets stuck close to the nothing. At least it has in the past. That is until I woke up. I woke up to my life. Much like waking up to a foghorn in your ear while your best friend video tapes your terror as you throw punches in the air. I stepped out of a life of snoozing to living with my eyes wide open. I stepped out of nothing into something. Do you want to know a secret? You can do it to. You can wake up from your coma of comfort and let go of the fears that keep you stuck. Stuck in the job you hate, the relationship that is killing your soul, the city that doesn’t fit, the routine that wreaks havoc on your sanity, the weight you want to lose. I could go on and on. The reality is that you hold the power. The power to change and the power to remain is all up to you.

This has been one heck of a year for me. So many peaks and valleys littered my path that I’ve felt like a sole backpacker in a foreign land where I didn’t speak the language. Therein lies the adventure or the nothing. It all depends on how you look at it. I could look back over this year and cry over the bad times, mourn the losses, play the victim, or I could rejoice over the wins, albeit small, pat myself on the back for still being alive, and fist pump the universe for making it this far. We are the masters of our emotions. We get to choose our attitudes in all our circumstances. Some days I fail miserably and can’t remember why I chose life, others I wake up like a cowboy, straddle the day like a bull and ride it out for the full eight minutes. My hands bleed, my body aches, but I smack her in the rear and end the day feeling like a beast. I could beat myself up for the days I suck, but what good would that do? There are going to plenty of days when you fail but who cares? Shake it off. Move on. Keep Breathing. Decide here and now that no matter what life throws at you, you are going to choose adventure.

I came to the end of last year in the darkest place I’ve ever been. To be honest, I was just tired, tired of fighting, tired of the struggle, tired of showing up. Death sounded sweet, peaceful, an ending to the torment and the pain. It felt like an escape from everything. I longed to sink into the earth and was upset when I woke up. How sad, right? How terribly sad. Life is so beautiful. And to think, I almost gave up. I think of all the others who gave up before they realized their truth. Your life may suck at the moment, but moments don’t last forever. If you hold on just a while longer, if you make the decision to wake up to your life and stop concerning yourself with others expectations of you or even your expectations, you will find the beauty in the adventure. Throw your expectations out the window, jump on the bull, and hold on for the ride.

I started first by seeing someone. I got the help I needed to get my mind into a good place. It was a starting point, but I still had to do the work. Fear was the number one thing I wanted to face head on. Fear is what keeps us all stuck. He’s a pesky little bastard with a wicked good game. He can convince even the best of us to succumb to the coma of comfort and never move beyond our current reality . He tells you that you might never find another job, relationship, house, car, etc…He tells you it’s too hard or will take too long. He tells you that you’re not strong enough or brave enough or pretty enough. I call BS. Because he’s full of the nastiest, dirtiest lies out there. And so, my adventure began.

After I got my mind on track with the help of a good doctor and some good drugs, the fog started clearing in my brain. It was like I had been walking around with blinders on and all of a sudden, I could see. Step two was figuring out what fears I could attack. Or at least what areas in my life were keeping me from the adventure I craved. I sought help in an abortion recovery class because it was something I hadn’t dealt with. I faced my fear of guns after being shot in the head as a child and learned to shoot. I faced my fear of flying and took a trip to New York. I faced my fear of moving away and after only three days, made the decision to pack up and leave town. I faced my fear of letting everyone down and made changes in my situation that saved my life.

It’s time to kick fear right in the nuts and don’t stop there. When he screams, throat punch him. You’ve got to take control.

Life is unbelievably short my friends. There are only thirty-six days left in this decade. This DECADE!! Stop letting fear win. Stop letting comfort win. Stop choosing nothing. The point of life is not to survive until death, the point is to find adventure in every day you’re here on earth- in morning sunrises and late night laughs, in heart racing make out sessions and soft, sweet kisses, in long drives and music that makes your whole body react, in good food and good wine, in meeting new people and becoming the best of friends no matter where you live, in being vulnerable and brave enough to fall in love and fall in love again. You get to decide, adventure or nothing. Make peace with Jesus, make peace with yourself, make peace with this thing called life.

Let yourself off the hook this year. Kick fear in the nuts.

SINCERELY JAMIE

START TAKING UP SPACE OR GET OUT OF THE WAY