Are You ALIVE?

Do you live to your fullest potential? Does anyone, for that matter?

This is something I've been wondering, struggling with, and striving to TRY to achieve for the last several years. What a crazy concept...

So, what would it look like, say, if you dared to live on the edge? Is that living to your fullest potential? Whatever it is, it's surely not safe. I live a pretty safe life. It's a great life, don't get me wrong - it's wonderful - but do I take risks? Hardly. Do I try to live outside of my comfort zone? Not if I can help it.

It sure seems like the simplest things are the most difficult to accomplish. And more, we all know deep down exactly HOW to accomplish these things, but we just don't DO it! That, I believe is the difference between people who live to their fullest potential and those who play it safe. The people out there actually living their lives are the ones who take action.

What is action?

I know what it looks like. I'm not sure exactly what it can be defined as, but I can certainly recognize it. The people that are action-driven are the ones who are interesting, always have an intriguing story they have experienced, always doing something new, saying yes - they are the people out there actually LIVING the life that is to be had. So what kind of people aren't action people? They are not necessarily boring - they're just safe. These people stick with the familiar. They don't change easily because they like the security of "safeness." And some people - perhaps the ones that probably struggle the most with all of this action stuff - are right in between. The majority, possibly, of people struggle with wanting to live a bit more dangerously to open new experiences and ways of looking at life, and sometimes they get that breakthrough, but then they get timid again, and shrink back into their safe little hidey hole of being safe, because that's what safe people do. It's difficult to change.

So then, what holds people back from actually living to their full potential? (And if you step back and just scrape the surface of thinking through what exactly your potential could be... it's quite an experience in itself.) I think it has to do with fear, doubt, denial... those kinds of things. Some people are just plain scared of what could happen if they let go of the controls of their life. Something could happen that might be uncomfortable, bad, or just unwanted. For the doubtful... well, these people need to put some trust into hands much bigger than theirs. Their lives could be so much more colorful than their black, grey, and white minds can imagine. And for those in denial? That's the first sign in any situation that someone could really need what they are refusing so zealously.

I think mainly, the fear of knowing that if we let go, something will happen that we don't want.

But just think. Take a few minutes and THINK about what you could do (yes, that's an action word.) And then... when you've come up a few things you would love to do but need a little boost of courage to go out and DO, just DO it!!

I recently watched a movie with Caleb which turned out to become one of our favorites with Jim Carrey entitled "Yes, Man!" If any of you have seen it, you can easily see how this blog post of disorganizedly-written thoughts was inspired by thinking about this movie. For those of you who haven't seen it - it's about a character named Carl (played by Carrey), who seems to say "no" to nearly everything, and consequently lives a pretty sorry and miserable life. The movie continues on and Carl bumps into an old friend who says he has started living his life thanks to a program entitled Yes, Man! He slips a pamphlet into Carl's pocket and encourages him to come with him to the Yes, Man! convention. So the story goes on, Carl ends up slowly starting to say the word Yes to every opportunity that presents itself, and unbelievably, his life gets better as a result of this simple little word, and he becomes a more wonderful, interesting, colorful, LIVING person.

The movie is a bit extreme, but very funny, very enjoyable, and it gets the point across to really get you thinking. I found it enjoyable to take that thought and let my mind run with it. :)

So far, this journey of Living is on a good starting track I do believe. I consider my life primarily black, grey, and white, with flashes of color. I'm aiming to reverse that ratio. Progress is slow, but in the works. I think the objective is to let go. Just loosen your white-knuckled grip on your life for a minute or two and experience how freeing and amazing the feeling can be, and then start trying to do that more and more often with all the opportunities that present themselves in your lives. Let God do the steering... you'll be okay.

Instead of writing more about doing, I think I'm going to get on with it and just DO some things. :) I hope you Live today. My best of encouragement to you!

Cheers!

NCW