The Little Chieftain; Are You Waiting for Permission to Live?
growth leadership self-worth
- I feel that the most appropriate living space is a student living arrangement: shared apartments, small spaces, roommates.
- I expect only to do part-time work, unrelated to my larger world-changing goals.
- I imagine making only enough money to get by, and despite complaints and efforts to the contrary, I expect money to be tight.
These are definitely not things I want, but they are what I expect. I was waiting for life to give me permission to move up and play a bigger game.
Even as I applied for jobs and planned out my future here, these assumptions guided what I thought was possible. They were self-limiting, though I thought I was just being pragmatic. But when I see people my age living their lives, I understand that our life truly is what we make of it.
When I realized I had these underlying assumptions, I took a moment to ask myself why.
- Why shouldn't I aspire to own my own luxury condo in downtown Boulder? Why not make that a realistic expectation of my living situation? Not because it's fancy and worth showing off, but because I am worth it.
- Why shouldn't I expect to make more money than I need? I have the skills and abilities to command several thousand a month, so why do I think $1500 is a great start?
- Why not decide to be a big deal in this community? Why not accept that I could be a real game changer?
The answer to all these why's was simply that I was waiting for someone or something to say it was okay. I was living in the lines, forgetting how limiting this is. I was waiting for some abstract entity to grant me a high-paying job (because apparently I wasn't getting one myself), which would give me permission to live in a better house, which would make me a 'significant person', etc.
Basically, I realized that the assumptions underlying my material life were totally irrational, unreasonable, and generally wacked up. They didn't make sense, and really just gave me an excuse to avoid taking responsibility by playing a small game and living a marginal life.
So, yeah, I'm just getting the ball rolling. I will rock this town!
Stay tuned...
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Photo Credit: Chris_Parfitt on Flickr