Tag: settling

When Less Than What You Deserve Is What You Think You Deserve

When Less Than What You Deserve Is What You Think You Deserve

It was right there for the taking.

But taking is uncomfortable when for most of your life you’ve grown used to taking what’s been given to you instead.

The funny thing about hopes, dreams, and aspirations is that no matter what it is we want to experience and achieve, until we believe we are worthy to receive them we probably never will.

Growth has plenty of logic-based roadmaps on how to get from where you are to where you tell yourself you want to be. Just five easy steps to that pot of gold at the end of your rainbow. The logic is linear and simple. But it’s the emotional which will keep us from ever receiving the gold, even if it’s right in front of us.

Emotional, as in our deep core beliefs about who we are and what is actually possible for us.

No matter how badly we may want what we want, unless it’s aligned with what we are willing to allow ourselves to receive we won’t receive it.

We strive to grow and evolve yet our outer world is a perpetuation of what our inner world has allowed us to experience. That inner world impacts everything. Exciting new relationships become the next version of all the other less-than-ideal relationships we’ve disappointingly endured. Because on some level we’ve come to accept settling for less than we deserve is, well, what we deserve. So that’s what we repeatedly attract into our space. History ultimately repeats until we create a new, empowering inner narrative where we become worthy to receive what our heart and soul so deeply desire.

It works the same in all parts of life. Career growth stagnates because we’ve accepted where we are at is where we are supposed to be. Even working towards physical fitness goals. We Continue reading “When Less Than What You Deserve Is What You Think You Deserve” →

Good Enough Seldom Is

Good Enough Seldom Is

With clarity and conviction in her voice I could tell she was a woman who knew what she wanted. 

“Margherita pizza, cooked well done, extra basil.” 

Yet when the pizza arrived, it wasn’t done exactly the way she wanted it done. After some initial griping to the other guests at the table about what was served to her, she quietly consumed her undercooked, slightly basil’d pizza, accepting less than what she wanted with every bite.

Why is it that we are so willing to accept less than what we know we want for ourselves?

Sometimes we settle because habitually we’ve always settled. We’ve been conditioned to settle because it’s always been easier and safer to accept less instead of fighting for what we know we want and deserve. Sometimes we don’t ask for what we want for fear of losing what we Continue reading “Good Enough Seldom Is” →

Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment

Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment

“It’s like running from Boston to Dallas.”

Julie is a dedicated fitness and wellness professional, and as a personal trainer running has become important to her. She shared that this past week she set a personal record for miles run in a week. Annualized, that total would cover 1,768 miles, the distance from Boston to Dallas.

“That is crazy!”

I sense that people fully committed to meeting their goals encounter that word often. Crazy. Those who show up daily, driven, fueled by a vision others can’t see nor even understand, those with zero tolerance for excuses, those willing to hold themselves accountable for the commitments they have made, especially the ones they’ve made to themselves. Behavior like this is for the most part unordinary, dwelling outside the realm of what is considered “normal” which can then easily be categorized as crazy.

But it’s never labeled as such by others also honoring their own commitments. Because they know what personal commitment demands and they forge ahead anyway.

It’s never the easiest path.

Life give us a choice as to how we decide to live it. We can take what comes our way, or we can Continue reading “Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment” →

Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza

Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza

It was the best pizza I’ve ever had.

And I’ve eaten a lot of pizza.

Pizza has somehow become rather important to me. I’ve baked my fair share of pies and I’m always trying to improve my results, often reverse engineering each bite of my favorite pizzas to try and uncover the secrets hidden inside. Having done my best to befriend my server she eventually revealed the four ingredients used to make the dough which I hoped to replicate at home.

“Flour, water, salt, and yeast” is what she told me.

“And…time.”

Time. An often overlooked ingredient. Time is what’s needed for flour, water, salt, and yeast to come together and fully develop their flavor profile. While some may try to manipulate the process, like most things in life the best results usually can’t ever be rushed.

Ours is a world at odds with patience. It’s a world which rewards the immediate, even if the immediate is inferior to what could instead be more fully developed if given the time to do so.

As I’ve worked to more fully evolve in life, I’ve come to understand that my evolution is a process, a process which takes time. At times I, too, am at odds with patience, trying to force a process which Continue reading “Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza” →