Read the top newsletter for married, growth driven fathers – Man Morning.
If you’re not where you want to be in life, one of the toughest things for people to acknowledge is that life doesn’t look anything like they thought it would at this point.
In your dreams, your life probably wasn’t filled with the challenges and hardships you may experience today.
There was a time when you believed in yourself. You had limitless potential, big dreams, boundless confidence, and high aspirations for yourself.
But like most, at some point, you arrived at a train station (a major decision point in your life), got on a fast-moving train, and never asked where it was going.
This is the “train” that most of us get on. Then, before we know it, the train changes tracks—again, and again, and again. Your eventual destination is where you stand today.
Maybe where you’re standing is amazing. But…if you’re reading this article, you’re not sure it’s the right place for you.
Chances are, if you’re not where you want to be in life, you’ve let yourself indulge in your worst self-doubts:
Have I passed my prime?
Am I in the wrong relationship?
Did I miss my big opportunity?
Will my kids always be so challenging?
Is eating gluten-free food truly serving me or should I have a loaf of bread already?
When you browse the social media accounts of friends, colleagues, and influencers to distract yourself from life and seek inspiration, you walk away feeling dejected and exhausted.
Apparently, everyone is “winning” at life, hustling hard, traveling to exotic locations that you’ll never visit, eating five-star meals, and getting into peak physical shape.
That is, everyone except you.
Inside, you know it’s not fair to compare your “real life” to someone’s curated social media highlight reel, yet when you do, your anxiety spikes to an uncomfortable level.
You feel as if you’ve been abandoned and forgotten.
More than ever, it’s hard to relax and take those deep breaths that serve you all too well. You even think that maybe cigarette smokers know something you don’t—because at least they get regular smoke breaks throughout the day, while the rest of us keep slogging away at our desks.
It’s important to know that you’re not alone when it comes to the angst and anxiety that you feel on a daily basis.
In fact, it’s estimated that Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects nearly seven million people in the United States, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
The good news is, even in the face of anxiety or angst, you’re not the kind of person who gives up. That’s why you’re reading this.
You crave that happiness, meaning, and purpose you keep hearing about in podcasts and books. Though you may feel exhausted, you’ve still got some fuel left in your tank.
You’re like a high-powered jet barreling down the runway that hasn’t taken off—but come hell or high water, you want to get some altitude and feel the wind beneath your wings.
Here’s a little secret society doesn’t want you to know:
Even if you’ve felt like life has been beyond your grasp up until now, you’ve always been in control of your story.
Odds are, you probably have just been on cruise control, following the crowd.
Today the opportunity is to focus less on external factors, and more on what we can do internally to find peace with who we’ve become and where we are before we can move forward.
As I heard someone once say:
The world isn’t full of victims. It’s full of volunteers.
No matter where you stand today, I’m confident that you greatly undervalue and underestimate your wealth of experience.
The fact is that everything that’s happened in your life has led you to this moment.
Every story, every decision, and every memory shapes who you are now and who you’ll choose to become.
Your path is uniquely yours. Learning from and embracing this is going to be essential to moving forward.
This is how you begin to Stop Living on Autopilot.
Are you ready?
