This time it’ll be different is a promise we make ourselves (and others) time and again, yet time and again things turn out the same way, or worse. Why is this? Because too often we attempt to make changes on the outside without making the corresponding changes on the inside. Put succinctly; we continue to carry the same old baggage with us.
The baggage I am speaking about is the baggage of past hurts, past failures, words of limitation others have passed on to us; baggage takes so many forms, but in the end we have to be willing to give up the comfort of that baggage; the comfort of the known to step into a new way of being. And yes, that baggage, as much as it weighs us down, is a comfort; a known quantity. Even if that baggage actually hurts our hearts we often choose to bring it along because it is like a security blanket.
Change is not about certainty, by definition change is uncertain. That is why change is both exciting and frightening, but if we remain in the same place we will get run over by time as well as life and end up bitter for the things we have not tried. I recently heard this zen-like challenge about change; The heart is not stimulated until the soul communes with itself, and the should only communes with itself when the heart is stirred. Clearly, what we are being challenged to do is change something in our lives to either stir the heart, or stir the soul, and neither can be done until we are willing to leave behind those aspects of ourselves which do neither.
Now is the time, you are the person. If “This time it’ll be different” then real change must accompany your efforts. Read It’s All About Me for a jump-start.
