By Paula Renaye
“What we can tolerate we will not change.”
I don’t know who said it first, but I’ve said it a lot. It’s certainly been true for me and it’s probably true for you too in one way or another.
Lately though, I’ve heard a lot of people saying some version of this statement: “Small businesses—the entrepreneurs—will be the ones to get the economy moving again and save the day.”
I whole heartedly agree. And to me, that means we’ve finally stopped waiting on someone or something else to fix things for us and we’ve gotten busy saving ourselves. And when we do that on one level—when we get the courage to stop tolerating and actively make different choices—it affects every aspect of our lives.
When we push through the fear and take action anyway, we are changed at the core level. Just as feeding fear in one area created fearfulness in all areas, acting courageously fuels more courage. Each purposeful step we take—each action we consciously choose—makes us bigger and gets us closer to being our authentic selves.
But what if we’re still on that other side, looking through the window of what might be? What if we are afraid? Even if we don’t enjoy what we’re doing and our soul is screaming to be fed, it’s tough to walk away from a steady income into the unknown and the uncertainty. We’ll have thoughts such as, “What if it doesn’t work out? What will people say? I’ll look like a fool. I’ll be sorry I gave up what I had.”
These are all limiting beliefs, of course, but we’ve all heard them and may have even said similar things. We’ll stick with what we can stand rather than take a chance and go for what we really want. We’re afraid that the grass might not really be greener, so we don’t even try.
However, with the way things are in the world today, a lot of people are getting pushed past the point of what they are willing to tolerate—and that’s a really good thing!
I’ve met several people lately who simply reached their break point with the status quo and said “enough” and closed the door on their old ways of being. Something shifted within them and the “shoulds” imposed by the media no longer mattered. Almost overnight they unplugged from consumerism and plugged into compassion.
Some of us, however, had to be pushed into it. When the rug is pulled out from under us—when reality finally can’t be ignored and we have to face taking full responsibility for ourselves—we become willing to see new options. The crisis jumpstarts our creativity and innovative thinking, and we get busy doing something. That’s what’s happening now in many different ways.
This excerpt from Richard Bach’s wonderful classic, Illusions, says so much.
Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all—young and old, rich and poor, good and evil—the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.”
The other creatures laughed and said, “Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!”
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, “See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the messiah, come to save us all!”
And the one carried in the current said, “I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”
But they cried the more, “Savior!” all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a savior.
We have been taught to fear change, and that keeps us compliant and complacent. Oh, we’ll complain about how awful it is, but we’ll keep clinging to our rocks and shame anyone who dares consider doing what we fear.
That’s changing—it has changed!
As the Hopi Elders say, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
If you’re already making changes, thank you! Keep being the grandest version of you that you can be—and help others be their grandest selves as well.
If you’re not and you want to, what are you waiting for? Let go of the fear and let your soul live the life it really wants to. Follow your heart and your dreams.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. It is up to us to save the day. Be the change and do it now!
Paula Renaye is a certified professional coach, life transformation speaker, regression hypnosis practitioner and award-winning author of the newly released Hardline Self Help Handbook. Visit http://hardlineselfhelp.com for details and more self improvement tips.
