The Moment

I work with a lot of people who have made a lot of decisions. They know what they're afraid of. They know what could have been, what should have been. They know what lovers and others have hurt them and what jobs have been taken away unfairly. They know what's wrong with the world and the people in it.

They come to me professing these things like a bad habit they're desperate to shake. But when I ask them to articulate what exactly they do long for, and what steps they're taking in that direction, they usually have very little to say.

Life mantras are powerful things. But more powerful than the messages we constantly feed ourselves, are the moments those belief systems are born, take root and begin lives of their own.

Those moments wait for us at every crossroads… Go this way, and grow. Go that way and don't.

Unlike the beautiful, slow motion movie scenes with the symphony playing in the background, these moments usually come at a low point in our lives… when we've been shown, yet again, that our belief systems aren't working… that we've in fact been working against our dreams and best interests, rather than for them.

At those times, all any of us want to do is wallow in a gallon of ice cream and our feelings of hurt and failure. And there's nothing wrong with that, for a time...

But there will come a moment- a single, ironic moment- when you feel least powerful, when life will actually hand you the keys to your entire future, and ask: 'will this break you, or will this help you?'

Listen closely, then choose wisely.