Our Own Personal Prison

When the individual heard that the class she loved so much was moving locations, she was genuinely bereft to the point of inconsolable.    In tears, she lamented the end of something she loved so much.  The class, however, was moving only a few miles away.   Since the individual was coming from twenty miles away, one could make the point that the extra  miles were inconsequential.   To the individual, however, they were insurmountable.   She built her own walls and was trapped within.

This is not uncommon;   we all do it.  It's . . .

"so far"
"inconvenient"
"not my scene"
"not my crowd"
"too much work"
"something I'm not good at"
"frightening"
"not worth it"
"something that makes me really uncomfortable"
"not that which I'm used to doing"
"out of scope"
"not part of my ethos"
"I'm not good enough"
etc.

Many of these, save for the self-deprecating statements, are perfectly legitimate; provided we are satisfied with the outcome.    If we are not satisfied with the outcome, then we have built our own prison.  We are unable to access that which we want or need or crave because we have created the barriers.

There are the barriers that have been created for our own safety.   Barriers that we create that do not serve us well are the ones that keep us from happiness and fulfillment.   While often we want to say that it is external forces that hold us back;  it is equally true, or maybe more true, that what we say we can't or won't do is self-created.  In that, we are our own worst enemies

Take an inventory.   Do the barriers that we have created truly serve us well and keep us safe and content?  Or is it merely an untested assumption that we have to continue living with what we have told ourselves we can't do?

The prison that we certainly can break out of is one of our own making.

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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon Kindle.