I formatted my computer a few weeks ago. It was too sluggish for my liking. It had gotten bogged down by all the junk that we load because we think we may need it. It was a real pain in the butt to do it and it was annoying, but I needed to do it; to start out on a clean slate with it again.I needed to recover some of it’s lost performance.
My dance coach, who happens to be a competition adjudicator, always maintains: “If I look and you’re dancing out of time, I’m going to look away. If I look again and you haven’t fixed it, I’m going to penalize you.” What he implies is that if you make a mistake and fix it, chances are it won’t come back to haunt you. Leave it and it will. People (everybody from the judges to the spectators) notice when you stop and restart. It’s embarrassing; but you have to do it.
And it’s the same in Life.
Starting over is no shame. We tend to go boldly down a road only to discover that it’s not the one for us or what we expected it to be. Making a u-turn is a hard decision; we tend to look back at the the time, money and effort we invested to get where we are right now, which is nowhere. Might as well make that u-turn.
We learn from experience and if it doesn’t kill you, it’ll make you stronger (and wiser) they say. Life is a series of journies: adolescence – when we know everything and can’t understand why nobody else gets it, adulthood – when reality, new frontiers and endless possibilities are opened up to us, our friends – some good, some bad and some just plain stupid, our jobs – which we all hate but do nonetheless, the list is endless but they’re all designed teach us awareness about Life. We trudge on wearily, regardless of the opportunity to change things and instead of pulling ourselves out of it and onto something that is fulfilling, we end up becoming sick and tired of everything and slow down like a car without fuel. Too much to do and no time to do it. We get bogged down by all the minor stuff that we sometimes miss the big opportunities. Sometimes we need to turn around and start over with a clean slate.
I’m not implying that you blindly make the turn, forsaking to look at the pros and cons, because that would be stupid. Weigh the options, think about it and then make the decision. Stop, smell the roses, take a deap breath and then decide. Who knows, you may not have to start over, in lieu of tacking in another direction.
I find myself at the beginning of a new road and it stretches endlessly in front of me. I’ve tossed out some old baggage and taken on some new ideas as fuel.
Now THAT is exciting.
Tags: format, life, starting over, thoughts
