“Is this it?”
If you live in California, like I do, you’re used to the Earth shaking from time to time. A couple of years ago, we had a 5.3 earthquake. I was sitting at my desk when the whole house and everything in it started shaking. While it was happening, I felt the immediate adrenaline rush of my body going into flight-mode. My mind, however, cycled through a few common-sense options first, including: there’s a crowd of people jumping up and down on the deck outside.
The whole quake cannot have lasted more than 30secs. My lizard brain was ready to run in an instant, my mind took about 28secs to catch up.
It made me reflect on how often that happens in the rest of my life.
How often do I know that something is “off”, or something “isn’t quite right”, but my mind goes through the rational options only?
I went through my 20’s feeling like that. I was building the life that I thought I was meant to have: I was married, lived in a beautiful house, in a foreign country, I had a successful career, and didn’t want for anything. And yet I felt like something wasn’t quite right, and I kept wondering “Is this it?”
But I realized that question wasn’t leading anywhere. In fact, I realized that the far more accurate question was “What am I no longer willing to tolerate?”
That’s the question that, time and time again, has led me to live a life that I have chosen.
Want better answers? Ask better questions!
I would love to hear from you: what are you no longer willing to tolerate?
