Life's Way Of Telling Us

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have reached breaking point, as a result of circumstances just continuing to get worse and worse? Perhaps the relationship with your partner has become unhealthy and unhappy, void of love, trust, support, and intimacy? Maybe your job continues to become more and more stressful, demanding, and unsatisfying, to the point you have begun to feel overwhelmed, and even depressed? Maybe there is a certain individual in your life who is constantly harassing you, criticizing you, belittling you, bullying you, and dragging you down, which is taking its toll on you mentally and emotionally? Perhaps you are constantly struggling financially, to the point where you have become extremely anxious about being able to make your bill and mortgage/rent payments on time? Maybe you have even reached the point where you are so sick and tired of looking in the mirror, gazing upon yourself in shame at the excess weight you carry, courtesy of a poor routine you have developed in overindulging in junk food, combined with a continual failure to exercise? These examples, and many other circumstances, we commonly find ourselves in, and we identify pretty early on in the picture, that things are simply not right, and definitely not how we desire. Sadly, what is also common, is that we fail to take action in fixing them when we do identify them. Instead, we just let them slide, hoping that these circumstances will eventually just sort themselves out. Not surprisingly, they don't, not until action of sorts is taken anyway. By the time we reach breaking point, we are so distressed, so unhappy, so mentally exhausted, and even so depressed, that we have taken our life into a deep, dark trough!

It is always encouraged that we step out of our comfort zone in life, to take some risks, and force ourselves to undertake some decisions and actions that are different, unnatural to us, and uncomfortable, as that's how we learn, grow, and develop, after all. Stepping out of our comfort zone is also the designated pathway to success. There is a difference between this sort of discomfort, and the discomfort we feel when we allow our circumstances to destroy and overwhelm us though. Stepping out of our comfort zone leads us into doing things we wouldn't normally do, and we perhaps feel out of our depth in knowledge and control, but like most things in life, once we become accustomed to something new and different, it naturally becomes comfortable. Many decisions and actions that are awkward and unnatural, are part and parcel of what is required to steer us towards our goals. We don't really want to do them, but we know we have to, in order to progress towards success. They are only uncomfortable in the sense they are new, they are different, and we may feel like we aren't in control, nor knowledgeable, in what we are entering into. As I said above though, once we become accustomed to these decisions and actions, we find comfort once again. As far as discomfort, when it comes to allowing negative circumstances to continue on in life, we may become accustomed to them, we may feel in control, and we may feel knowledgeable, but we definitely are not progressing toward success and happiness. In fact, we are heading in totally the opposite direction. We have this little voice in the back of our head that is always telling us to change things up, because we are not happy, nor satisfied, nor fulfilled, but due to our fear of making changes, or facing up to these circumstances, our circumstances continue to worsen as each day passes. It is in these circumstances that life will continually be giving us a kick up the backside, pushing us to make changes. It's life's way of telling us that we are the ones who need to take action, we are the ones that need to end this discomfort and unhappiness.

On quite a few occasions in my life now, I can recall times where life was becoming increasing uncomfortable for me. My problem, like most other people, is I just sat back and hoped that circumstances would get better on their own. I just believed it was one of those natural troughs in life. One of those such circumstances, I have talked about a lot in many of blog entries. Sadly, it took me seven years before I finally had the courage to take action, and realize that my happiness should be a major priority in my life. From 1995 through until September 2017, I worked in the corporate world, like most other people do. In this time, I held four different jobs, and the reason I job hopped was as a result of job dissatisfaction. I thought the solution to job dissatisfaction was to simply find another one, no matter what it was, just as long as I had the qualifications, and the pay was better than the last one. I entered into the last of these four jobs at the start of 2007, and after three years there, I fast discovered that it was to be yet again another job that was unsatisfying, tedious, and unfulfilling. In fact, by 2010, I really began to hate my job, but I knew that after job hopping on three previous occasions, that the solution was never going to be found by job hopping again, so I felt a little trapped this time around. Such had my dislike become for the job that it actually led me into depression. During my rehabilitation, I remember talking to my psychologist who couldn't have stressed any more if she tried, that I needed to resign from my job immediately. She also knew that job hopping wasn't the answer for me, and was prepared to exempt me from continuing in the workforce. As tempting as it was, I didn't want to be someone labelled and perceived as being lazy and weak, living life on government benefits, so I declined her advice. I didn't find the advice to be practical, as how was I meant to survive and pay my bills, especially when I was struggling financially as it was? So I continued with the job.

Not surprisingly, my circumstances didn't get any better, so by 2012 I decided to relocate, and I accepted another position within the company at a different location, hoping that this may be the solution to my unhappiness, job dissatisfaction, and depression. Nope, it wasn't! What was I to do? I tried job hopping, and that failed. I tried relocating, and that failed. My circumstances became that unbearable and uncomfortable, that I ended up finding myself crying in the rest rooms of my workplace, on so many occasions, such had become the extent of my depression. Finally, after putting myself through so many years of unnecessary pain, suffering, and torture, I resigned from my job in September 2017, and departed the corporate world for good. No, I didn't go on to government benefits, but instead, I started my own work from home business. Since then, I have never looked back. It's been far from easy and challenge free, but I've placed my happiness as a number one priority, and that's what I needed to do all along. Life was telling me that I need to make a change, I needed to do something different, because my happiness and fulfillment was not to be found in the corporate world. I didn't want to prove myself as being weak, hence why I pushed myself for so long to stay in that particular job. It all comes back to exactly what I stated in todays' quote, that if we continually refuse to accept the opportunity that life gives us to make changes, when our circumstances become uncomfortable, we only end up finding that the pain, suffering, and discomfort begins to multiply. Often the decision to make a change, and the subsequent actions that lead the change, will drag us out of our personal comfort zone, and we find ourselves facing another scenario of discomfort, but at least this change and discomfort is leading us back to happiness, satisfaction, and success. You will know within yourself, when circumstances are not where you want then to be in life, whether that be in one aspect of your life, or all aspects. You know that things need to change, you know that you feel unhappy, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, frustrated, and even depressed. Don't sit back and wait for circumstances to change or improve! Make the change, no matter how scary that may look, because it's your happiness, wellbeing, and mental health that is at stake otherwise! Don't turn your back on life when it is telling you to make a change!

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