Go on. Tell the truth. (Orlando Bloom, from the movie Elizabethtown.)
You know.
You do – you really do.
You don’t need to go looking, or write it down in your journal, or spend an hour in meditation, or go for a run on the beach.
You already know.
You know where you’re feeling pinched, suffocated, resentful, overloaded, burned out, unappreciated, struggling, anxious.
You know where it’s not working – and that it hasn’t been working for a long time.
You know what feels like it takes 100% of your effort just to get through it.
You know where it’s unnecessarily hard.
You know where it doesn’t fit right.
You know where you’re choosing to ignore the truth.
You know where you’re straight-up letting yourself down.
You know.
So tell yourself the truth.
I want you to take a deeeeeep, long breath. And then say this sentence aloud:
“I know ___________ . I know.”
Give it a minute. Say it again.
(Did you feel that?)
Space opens up when you tell yourself the truth. But first, you gotta spill it.
You know: You’re being underutilized in your job. You’re lying to everyone you love. You’re verging on the edge of addiction. You stopped caring, like, a long time ago. You need to speak up to your boss. Things have fizzled with your significant other. You’re overeating to the point of jeopardizing your health. You’re drowning in debt. The train has gone off track. You’re being taken advantage of. You’re not living up to your potential. You’ve gotten lazy, complacent, bored. You gave up.
A few weeks ago, I had a similar experience. I was lying by the pool for the first time in over a year, and I finally confessed to myself.
I knew it wasn’t working with my job. I knew that no matter how many hours or how much effort I put in, that it would never work. I knew my boss would never be satisfied, because she is un-satisfiable. I also knew that I would never grow to reach my full potential while working for her. I knew I was trapped, and the truth is – I’d known that would happen since the first day I began working there.
I knew. I SO knew.
Once I finally admitted it to myself, I was able to do something about it, and that something freed up my entire life. And oh yeah – happiness finally rushed back in. My lies had been holding it back.
I’m not asking you to broadcast it on your facebook, or fess up to your tribe. I’m just asking you to whisper it, just to yourself. A secret, between you and you.
“I know ______ isn’t working.”
“I know I _______.”
“I haven’t wanted to look at it, because ________.”
There is magic in the above words. For serious.
See if you can say them to yourself today. Then watch what happens.
Accepting the current situation is the first step – then all kinds of things will rush in to support you in changing it.
So go ahead. Tell the truth.
small life, slow life 