Wednesday 12 July 2017

Change

A few months ago I found myself cornered. I was desperate for change but couldn't see how I was going to make that change happen. I spent weeks going round in circles, looking for an answer but I constantly found myself back in the same place where I started, where nothing had changed, where I didn’t want to be. Change seemed like a dream.

In reality, all around me, other people's lives were changing and I felt stuck. I couldn’t wait for the change to happen naturally, I'd already been waiting too long and there was no guarantee that it ever would. So I decided that I needed to force my own change otherwise I would be stuck forever.

Out of all my options, there was no obvious choice. None of them were easy and none of them would secure my happiness. After weighing up the pros and cons of each, it finally occurred to me that it didn't matter what I chose. Any choice would do because any change was better than none and if one option didn't work, there were plenty of others to try.

I plucked up courage that I didn't even know I had and worked harder than I had in a long time to set myself a goal. I took aim, I fired and to my own surprise, I hit a target. It was scary to take a risk like that but it paid off, not only because I succeeded but because things started to change.

The change in motion was a relief in itself because I knew that I was moving forward. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The weight of trying to make a hard decision and the weight of feeling like change would never happen.

Once the change was made, I took comfort in knowing that if it didn't work out for whatever reason, I could always change again because I had just proved that I could change in the first place. I proved to myself that I was strong enough, brave enough and smart enough to do what originally seemed impossible. And I'm telling you all this because I want you to feel the same.

If you are facing a hard decision in your life or wanting to make a change but don’t know how, then I want you to know that change is not as unachievable as it first appears. It might be scary but it's not and it might not be easy but nothing in life is. I'm sure you've done scarier and tougher things so there is no need to be afraid.

For all my friends and family reading this, if I can do it, then so can you. No matter how big or small, I believe in you, I know that you can do something incredible and I know that you will. If you take a risk like me and nothing changes, it just goes to show how brilliant you are for trying, but you need the take that chance to know yourself what you are capable of.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain so I’m telling you to seize the opportunity, make the move, ask the question, send the message, take the chance and dive into unknown waters!

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” - Maya Angelou.

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