Maybe the special sauce wasn’t that special after all?
With traffic, Google Maps said I’d finally be back home in about six hours. Feeling hungry, I evaluated a good selection of bad food in the highway rest stop. My decision was made, and with the food in hand I headed back to my car to continue my east bound track back home.
It had been quite a while since my last Big Mac. After a couple of bites I remembered why they considered it a comfort food. Those two all-beef patties with the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun felt a little bit like home. I knew it wasn’t a healthy choice, but sometimes familiar overrides logic.
Even if we know it’s detrimental to our well being.
There is a perceived safety in the familiar, even when what’s familiar doesn’t actually serve us. Sometimes we grow quite comfortable accepting less than healthy options available to us because we’ve grown accustomed to doing so. Even though we know such acceptance can be detrimental to our emotional well being.
Yet we choose them anyway.
The same people. The same career path. The same relationships. The same habits.
The same results.
Creating more of the life I’ve wanted to live has been driven by my willingness to embrace the unfamiliar. Of finding comfort in the discomfort of growth and expansion. Of finding safety in the process of my own unpredictable unfolding.
Because the familiar only gets you so far.
I guess it depends on how far you want to go.
Photo by Florian Steciuk on Unsplash
