Living your life

Everybody is living their life every single day. Breathing in, breathing out, eating, sleeping and so on.

Yet there is a deeper concept of living life, that not everybody is doing every day.

It has to do with...

Action.

Life really begins when we begin to take action… bold action. Stated differently but with the same meaning: Life begins when we start to truly listen to ourselves and act on our own inner voice.

An example for men.

You observe the most attractive woman sitting across from you at a coffee house. She's alone, looking like she's waiting for a friend. Every male impulse you have informs you to at least say hello or in some way engage. Yet, you don't. You get obsessed with all the 'what ifs.' Her friend arrives and off they go shrinking into the distance.

Chance to live life missed.

For ladies.

You're in conversation with your significant other. For some reason the topic causes his energy to shift and it is as if he is now trying to dominate you, make you smaller than he. Every fiber of your being says to stand up for yourself. Yet, you don't and just shrug it off while inwardly seething.

Chance to live life missed.

In almost all cases, life beyond breathing in and out begins at the end of our comfort zone. And right at the end of our comfort zone is a layer of fear, almost like an amniotic sack or cocoon that you literally have to push through with willpower to break.

If you read the book Into Thin Air, about a team of climbers that summits Mt. Everest, you'll learn that each climber, during the final summit, had to do it solo. There was no sherpa to help out, no assistance of any kind. It has something to do with the narrow path of the ascent.

Each climber had to summon their own resources and perform the hardest part of the journey—with the greatest reward, that incredible view and feeling of accomplishment—without assistance.

Teachers and gurus can't really help.

All they can do is point you to the door.

But you are the one that actually has to open it up and step through.

Doing so requires determination, some willpower, and the courage to face fear. No different than the final summit of Mt. Everest.

Photo credit: Se7en Summits