A lack of choice leads to grasping for something that we don’t really care about, simply because we want a moment of control. What’s tricky is acknowledging that, in many cases, we have already chosen.
Don’t gloss over the minutiae, embrace them, bring them into sharper focus. The way that you approach small, repeated tasks matters and shapes your approach to the rest of your life.
You know who they are, the martyr inside of you, even if you don't use that name. They are the one constantly tracking your mileage, the one who accuses you of laziness for even the thought of rest. They are always looking for the next burden for you to carry.
We can get so fixated on needing a particular thing (even if it isn't there or doesn't exist) that it keeps us from being able to solve problems, to move forward in our lives. And, it keeps us from living creatively.
It's the step, which can often feel like more of a leap, between awareness and action that trips us up. It's the rewiring of habit that we shy away from. We hold onto our routines and tendencies as if they were sacred treasure, even when they take us further away from where we want to be.
We want to define ourselves, to make lists of the best parts of who we are, and we latch onto those parts with a kind of desperate longing for clarity and consistency. We don't like the idea of confronting contradictions about who we are.
You don't stop being a real person just because you're at work, watching a football game, or sitting next to a stranger on a train. Anyone who asks you to suspend a part of yourself, to compartmentalize and turn your personal beliefs off, is asking you to forfeit your right to an authentic life.
There's a part of us that always wants to govern the moment, even when it's simple. We make up rules; we let past experiences restrict new ones; we forget to revisit and revise the boundaries that we had previously set on our lives.
