Why You Are the Thing That’s Getting in the Way of You

       As humans, we are full of excuses. You need to clean. You need to go grocery shopping. You’re tired. You’re hungry. The distance is too far. The weather is too cold or too hot. With us, it’s always something.  Instead of working out, you watch re-runs of Friends. Instead of starting your next project, you find yourself clicking through the “Recently Added” list of movies on Netflix. You binge eat donuts on the couch and think about all the things you should be doing, but currently aren’t because you’ve found some cute puppy videos on YouTube. We are artful in the way of distractions. Instead of creating, we are just stalling. It’s not the exhaustion or the chores, it’s you. You are the thing holding yourself back. Maybe it’s out of fear that you will be judged or worry that you might disappoint. But you’ll never know what the outcome could be unless you try. So give yourself a chance.

       Create the blog that you’ve been daydreaming about for years. Finish that song you’ve been rewriting the chorus for. Learn to do photography after you’ve been curious about what all those functions on the camera means. Sign up for that improv class. Spend your time advancing you, instead of falling back and watching your life go by. Yeah, you might make mistakes. You might even decide that what you’re doing eventually isn’t the right option for you. But without that chance, you won’t be able to clear the way for what is. Get out there and create something for you no matter what is preventing you from doing it now because, after all, they're only excuses.

XO,
Ariel