Are you like a river?

Have you ever felt as though you were not in control of your thoughts, body, circumstances ... your life?  Do you feel as though you can only head in one direction, as though the course you are taking in life was predetermined for you? Do you sometimes feel like you are a river or a stream?

No doubt you have seen a river or stream in action.  It flows in one direction (downhill).  Many rivers are calm or placid ... perfect for relaxing on a tube on a hot summer day.  Other rivers have points where they move rapidly (hence the word rapids) and are turbulent.  If you are in the river at these points you don't control your actions, you are at the whim of the river.  If you are an experienced rafter, you may be able to manage or cope until you get through the rapids, but for most of us it's "hang on until it's over!"

The river has no choice ... it's going to go where it's going.  It has to stay within it's banks.  It has to continue to flow downhill.  There are points where it can go uphill (briefly), but it is going uphill only to elevate itself to a point where it can resume going downhill again.  And still, on the surface, it will appear to be going downhill.

Yes, over time the river can and does wear down soft parts of it's banks, but it is only to find new ways to go downhill (hopefully you aren't like a river in this sense). In the short  term, the river has no choice, it stays within it's banks and goes downhill.  Unless, suddenly there is a seismic shift - an earthquake!  The land is shifted, the river's course is disrupted, it heads off onto a new path or paths.

Far too many of us wait for this sort of seismic, catastrophic, exterior influence to happen to us.  We are content drifting on a path downhill, never changing direction, never growing ... until we are forced in a new direction by some sort of seismic exterior influence.  Loss of job?  Sudden loss of a family member or close friend?  A diagnosis from your doctor that you will die if you don't make changes today? [Cue Tim McGraw's "Live like you were dying"]

Why must you hit rock bottom before you change?  I'm telling you that you don't!  You are not a river, you are not bound by imaginary banks.  Your life can flow wherever YOU CHOOSE it to flow!  The only boundaries that you have in life are the ones that you believe are there.  How is it someone else can become a doctor, engineer, teacher, astronaut or POTUS.  It's because they made a choice, they set a goal, they believed they could achieve that goal and if someone told them they couldn't they ignored them!

It's one thing to believe you can't do something if it's never been done before (which is still wrong and will be the subject of a future post) ... but when hundreds (maybe thousands) of people change the course of their lives daily, what's your excuse? 

Have a great day!