Monday’s Meditation: On An Urgent Call To Action

February 17, 2014

I find my clients at very different mindsets.

When we begin our work, some clients are reluctant, others nervous. Many regard the undertaking of simplifying their lives as something they’ve been meaning to do for as long as they can remember, and, now being as good a time as any to get started, they’re on the whole cheery I’ve shown up. I hardly find fault with such thinking.

Recently, though, I did an initial consultation with a woman who articulated something rather magical. While I had been speaking to her in congratulatory terms–it’s great that you want to move in this direction, that kind of thing–she interrupted me, “Oh no, must.” she said. “I must do this. It’s not a matter of choice at this point. I can’t go on the way I have been any longer.”

Period the end type deal.

Her words put me in near Live Simply bliss. In her urgency was a call to action, a clear motivation and willingness to move forward. That would be half my battle, won, right there.

You see, finding solutions to our problems and adopting change may be far easier than we’re led to believe. When we have a readiness for it, when we put in our faith in the possibility it exists and then open our eyes in order to recognize it, it’s not all that painful. The trickier part lies in arriving at the point of decision to change, to seek help.

If we believe making the decision to enlist help or to change is optional, we will, in all likelihood, never make it. If, on the other hand, we believe in the requisite power of our decision with a sense of utmost urgency, with the attitude that it is literally the difference between life and death, or, at least, between a life of pleasure and fulfillment versus a life of perpetual suffering, then change will surely follow, and it will flow like rapids over craggy river rock.

You finished that essay the night before it was due, although you had postponed it for weeks, because the next morning’s deadline created an overwhelming sense of urgency.

You make the decision to pull off the highway when the gas tank moves to empty, although you’re intent on making good time, because the urgent consequences of not refilling the tank are obvious and unavoidable.

Urgency is influential. The belief that making a decision or change is non-negotiable, and that avoiding it will inevitably incur painful results is powerful.

Why? Because we’re often times lazy. Because we give priority over to the day to day minutiae. Because we may have gotten so accustomed to a certain way of being or doing things that we’ve become comfortable with the uncomfortable, with the far-less-than-ideal.

If you want to make a change, if you want to finally arrive at a decision to move forward with a various course of action, bring a sense of urgency to the situation. Recognize how avoiding that decision has caused you pain and hardship in the past, and how it’s bound to continue afflicting you in the future. List all the detrimental effects of not making the decision, and all the possible benefits from making it.

If it’s up to me, and around these parts at least it is, advancing your life in a positive, loving way is not optional.

Your life–your whole life!–hangs in the balance.

 

6 Comments

  1. Emily C on February 17, 2014 at 6:21 am

    Lovely post. Thanks for the inspiration!

  2. Christie on February 17, 2014 at 10:10 am

    This post gave me the reassurance on something I have to address tomorrow.
    Thank you! 🙂

    • Annie on February 21, 2014 at 7:18 am

      Love it! Hope you followed through!

  3. Melissa on February 17, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Love this!

  4. Lana on February 17, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    I really needed to read this post. It’s given me that push I need to do something that I’ve finished halfway and have been putting off. Thank you Annie!

    • Annie on February 21, 2014 at 7:19 am

      Get ‘er done! (if you haven’t already). Happy to hear this resonated with you.

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6 Comments

  1. Emily C on February 17, 2014 at 6:21 am

    Lovely post. Thanks for the inspiration!

  2. Christie on February 17, 2014 at 10:10 am

    This post gave me the reassurance on something I have to address tomorrow.
    Thank you! 🙂

    • Annie on February 21, 2014 at 7:18 am

      Love it! Hope you followed through!

  3. Melissa on February 17, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Love this!

  4. Lana on February 17, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    I really needed to read this post. It’s given me that push I need to do something that I’ve finished halfway and have been putting off. Thank you Annie!

    • Annie on February 21, 2014 at 7:19 am

      Get ‘er done! (if you haven’t already). Happy to hear this resonated with you.

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