This morning on my hour-long commute into work, I had an
unusual feeling: Inspiration. It came as the sunshine of the longest day of
the year streamed through my windshield, slowly warming away the goosebumps on
my bare arms. I sipped on my new Friday
morning “treat” (a decaf, iced mocha with skim milk and no whip…I’m pregnant,
not high maintenance, right?) and listened to my favorite radio hosts babble on
about the latest movie premiere, “The Bling Ring.” It was then that a somewhat shocking thought
came into my brain. These bratty,
entitled, self-absorbed morons obviously have some serious issues and are
probably everything that is wrong with our society. What they did was entirely wrong, a terrible
example for youth, and they deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law… not just slapped on the wrist because their mommies and daddies can
afford high-powered attorneys with fantastic connections.
That was not the shocking part. The shocking part was that a little voice in
the back of my head was whispering, “At least they did something.” Sure it was
something stupid, selfish, and illegal, but still it was something. They acted. They were bold. They make great movie characters because they
took a risk. Instead of sitting on
Facebook whining about their entry-level jobs, or the economy, or increasing
the dent in their sofa cushions, they went out and lived their lives.
So with that in mind, I pose this question. What are you doing? I’m sure you’re going
to work, raising a family, building relationships, paying bills, maybe slogging
along on the treadmill for a few minutes each week, but really, what are you doing?
When was the last time that you did something that gave you butterflies
in your stomach? When was the last time
that you felt exhilarated? When was the
last time you did something worth talking about?
I don’t know what it is that makes us all feel like we’re
caught in a vortex of convenience and conformity, but I’m as guilty as everyone
else. I get trapped in my daily routine
and those little risks, the tiny leaps of faith toward goals that I want to
achieve, seem more and more impossible every day. Writing a paragraph is akin to scaling a
building Spiderman style. Picking up my
NASM Personal Training text book is like asking me to run a mile on my
hands. I work hard, try to go to the
gym, come home, eat dinner, and watch The Bachelorette. Is that bad?
No. Is it boring, predictable,
and a waste? You betcha.
I don’t know how you take the first step. I guess you just do it. You turn off your brain. You leap instead of looking. My fear is that it only gets harder as more
things get added to your list… babies, diapers, midnight feedings, carpool, tee
ball, dance class, playdates, PTA, parent teacher conferences, colonoscopies,
dry cleaning pick up, oil changes, jury duty, etc. We have to pay bills. We have to feed our children. We have to sleep at some point.
Still, there’s something about the Summer… the extra
daylight, the warm heat radiating off of the sidewalk, that makes me feel like
there’s more energy in the world to be harnessed. More possibility. More time.
I honestly don’t know what I should be doing. Maybe that’s 95% of the battle. You hear about all of these successful people
and it all started with an idea they were passionate about. A nagging voice they couldn’t ignore. My nagging voice tells me to eat
chocolate. My nagging voice tells me
that I have something to contribute, I just don’t know what it is yet.