I remember the famous line from a movie: “You can’t handle the truth.” Is it true? We can’t handle the truth? I’ve also heard people say: “The truth will set you free.” So which will it be? Perhaps a marriage of the two: “The truth will set you free, if you can handle it.” There is a truth you have been hiding from—something you choose to ignore. You know as well as I do that ignorance is a source of great pain in your life. Imagine how free you would be if you moved beyond it. What would need to happen to do that?
Reflection
I was scrolling Instagram, and a reel popped up with a much younger Jeff Bezos speaking passionately. He said something like, “Anxiety comes from when we fail to take action on that which is within our control.” You could see he had learned the lesson the hard way and wasn’t going to do it again.
Cuts deep.
It hurts when we aren’t taking the actions we know we should be taking.
It’s most painful when we only have ourselves to blame.
But not mindless action. To move forward, we need to start by being honest with ourselves and facing those hard truths. Then, we can carve out a strategy for where we need to go.
The good news is we can change that. We just need to act.
Want more good news?
A tiny step forward is an action. You can start small.
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Today’s walk by the river:
By coincidence I revisited David Whyte’s poem Start Close In this morning, I believe that holds similar advice to your lovely post here, a small step forward (as long as it’s the first step) can be very powerful indeed.