I'm so happy to be back with a Thursday Thoughts piece because it feels like it's been years. In my first month of being a real adult going to work, I have learned a couple of things about what happens in the adult world that is skimmed by in college. This includes making sure to make the train on time for work, nixing naps and having to collect an extra force to get out of bed.
I came across this TED Talk that hit a bunch of major points about why we keep screwing ourselves over and what we can do to change it. I'm pretty sure that everyone experiences times where they feel like their goals aren't being met and they are stuck in a rut of unfulfillment. The talk was incredibly powerful and changed the way that I thought about motivation, goal setting and opportunity.
The biggest was the discussion of the word "fine." It is the epitome of settling. There is nothing wrong with settling, but it doesn't seem to be the thing that allow anyone to change the things that make us unhappy. It can be easy to get by doing the same thing and not wanting to leave the happy comfort zone, despite the fact that our long term mind will thank us for leaving it. We crave routine and then get bored. I thought back to my desire to spend time on Netflix instead of going out. In the end, meeting new people and having experiences will probably be better, but the comfort of not leaving my bed usually wins. Getting what we want isn't impossible, but it requires a jumping over a lot more barriers.
She concluded stating that the start of getting what you want is to wake up and jump out of bed, no matter how painful, annoying or frustrating. None of us will ever want to leave our cocoon, but it comes with the physical force of trying to put ourselves one step closer to a goal. Despite truly hating waking up early (ask anyone I know), I am going to take her advice by turning off my (first) alarm, rip off the comforter and attack the day. I hope you do too.
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