It’s on you.
That is where it starts. That is where it ends.
It’s on you and what you want, and how hard you are willing to hustle, and how relentless you are going to be when they tell you to give up.
Because people will tell you to give up.
They’ll look at you with crooked faces. They won’t understand your drive. And they are going to look to bring you down because they don’t know any better. They haven’t had the guts to go for it themselves, and so they will try to tell you, “No. Impossible. Not worth the time.”
Forget them. In the nicest, sweetest way possible, forget them and all the little barriers and boundaries they try to place on this life of yours.
Wake up. It’s your life.
You owned it yesterday. You gleaned the freedom today. Stop acting like the world runs you. Like the magazines run you. Like all of the folks who never perked their ears to really listen to you have a say in what you are going to do with these footsteps of yours.
It’s yours. You’re free. Are you gonna start running toward it?
Don’t wait. Don’t stand in the corner waiting for the direction to reveal itself. Just. Start. Sprinting. Peace will flood in when it’s right. But you have to move to find the peace. Peace comes through footsteps, I promise.
Think about what stopped you yesterday. Who was that person? What were they afraid of? And why did they govern you for so long? You’ve got one chance. You’ve got one shot. The world won’t cry if you never use it. It’s on you. Don’t make the universe regret you.
Look around. Forget “the box.”
Forget what you “think” the world is all about. Forget this; forget that. Forget the status update. Forget the selfie.
Here is what the world is really all about: Humility. People. People helping other people. People trying to make this hard thing, this impossible thing, more graceful for others. That is where the joy is. That is where the peace is. That is the beauty of every thread of life: We were never designed to go this thing alone. We were born with spaces in our fingers, and you were born to go out and find the ones who fits in your spaces Oh So Well.
Strive to do good. Strive to be the best version of yourself. Reflect. Learn from the Yesterday that made you feel weak. Stop letting people bend and break your heart. Play the music louder. Scream if you need. Walk away from that toxic person who never had your goodness at the forefront of their mind. Walk away. Your goodness will be at the forefront of any mind that loves you fiercely, boldly, with no sense of tomorrow. You deserve that. The best of it. You’ve got to learn to want that for yourself.
Learn to stand in front of the mirror without cringing. Throw off the chains of your secrets; don’t let them prison up your mind any longer. Let it out. Say the damn things that you have needed to say. Make them good. Make them worth someone turning their head to listen to you.
You’ve got a voice.
Most people would kill to have one. So learn how to use it. Start. Start small, start slow, start however you want. But start. Don’t go to the ground never having used that voice of yours for something good, something worthy, something that thickened your skin and buckled your knees and ramshackled your heart.
Screw December 31st and the resolutions you’ve stacked away in the closet for the start of a New Year and twelve bells clanking at midnight. It Starts Now. It should have started five minutes ago. It starts with a single question that turns out to be the answer to everything:
Are you worth it enough to start?
Hannah Brencher is a writer, speaker, and creator pinning her passion to projects that bring the human touch back into the digital age. After spending a year writing and mailing over 400 love letters to strangers across the world, Hannah launched The World Needs More Love Letters in August 2011—a global organization fueled by volunteer “letter writers,” now in fifty states and forty-seven countries. She’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Oprah, Glamour, the White House Blog, and is currently a global finalist for the TED2013 Global Talent Search (watch the TED Talk). You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
*Photo Credit: Chris Owens via Compfight cc
