Stay with me. This is not about houses and properties. Financial experts usually say your house is wealth, your house is your home and having a home you can afford, indicates that you are probably headed in the right direction. When you are not responsible for mortgage payments, the insurance mayhem when the roof caves in after a huge snow storm and if a busted water pipe in your basement doesn’t keep you awake at night or the morbid fear that your toddler will attempt to flush the entire Disney kingdom down the drain, the other issues you face in life are the real hard-core problems and I am right there with you.
The list ranges from untapped potential, the fear of failure, way too much time currency spent on the comfy leather couch/recliner in front of the huge flat screen TV (probably in HD) , so that you feel the need to worship at Oprah’s throne because somehow the new OWN channel may yield some return on time invested watching “uplifting” TV.
This list is not exhaustive.You can fill in your own blanks, but one of mine would be fear, depending on the cushy comfort of my 9.30 to 5pm job. (My boss was so sick of hearing excuses for my frequent lateness, that she suggested that I resume later) I should add poor time management to my list. I am excellent at working for others, never been fired in over two decades invested in OPD (Other Peoples Dreams)
So we play this game of hide and go seek with our true selves (Really? Now you know that I have watched too much OWN) and seem content with the mundane life that takes no risks and demands no strength, until our “rented” roof threatens to cave in, or sometimes we ignore the warning cracks and leaks till, one day we look up and all we see the big gaping hole over our heads and the blue sky we never tried to reach seems far away, unattainable.
When my boss put me on notice, I could finally hear my alarm go off, and the snooze button is not working!.
“The business is not doing well”, He said, “We have been like family and would hate to let you go, but if things do not turn around this year, we will have to close the business”
For many of us, that wake up call comes in situations like this and then we attend to that hot air balloon flying in auto pilot for years. Writing is my hot air balloon. Somehow you probably know yours already. If not, when the roof blows off, and you get tired of unemployment benefits, you will find it.
The urge for adventure gnaws relentlessly but we have held back for so long, afraid? You bet.
Quite a number of leaders and successful people were total slackers until, they were left with nothing but themselves. In my case, I am going to get on that hot air balloon, see how this adventure turns out. I still have my job, but most importantly, I have my mind and a fully functioning brain and that is “prime real estate”.
Ama.
Ama Danesi 