Nothing is more challenging in life, than finding the balance between being restless versus content with our current situation. We all have many situations existing at the same time in our life. Our work situation. Career situation. Personal relationship situation. And so on……..
At the extremes, restless can appear uncontrolled and unfocused. Content seductively can appear calm and stable. Our lives are made up of a series of transformations from restless to content beginning at a young age. They ebb and flow back and forth throughout our lifetime.
Our most prominent restless period of our lives is right after we graduate college or decide that graduating high school is enough. Nothing feels right during this time. Jobs seem uninspiring, relationships too fragile, and the allure of excitement too great to make us slow down.
The most content stage of our lives occurs at the time of retirement. Exhaling and then taking our first deep breath while telling ourselves that we can take it easy now. That our life’s circumstance has been fully created with little left to do.
The dual nature of these two extremes of content and restless demand us to aspire to the other when feeling trapped by the one we are in at the time. Rarely do we do this. Why? Because it is never self-evident that in order to continue to grow you desperately need to grab onto the opposite of what you are feeling right now.
For those trapped in their restlessness, they need to develop some patience and work at a plan that they agree with that over time will bring them closer to the life or situation that their heart aspires to. They need to become more content with the process they have chosen to follow rather than becoming discouraged and running, once again, from the restlesness that burns inside their daily frustrating experiences.
Being content poses a much different challenge. For some it makes us lazy. For others, it simplifies their lives, as it is filled endlessly with daily routines that are familiar. All of this works until it doesn’t. When a new threat, such as a change in our health, forces us to become more restless. Or when we lose our job because the company we worked for is closing and we don’t have the skills
The best time to explore and change things up, by becoming more restless, is exactly when we feel content. The best time to bring consistency and routine into our lives is when we are most restless forcing us to become more content in the moment so that we can focus on the steps we need to execute to get us out of our perceived mess.
It’s at this interface, going either way, where we find the greatest opportunities for personal growth.
Life is uneven for all of us. No matter what our age, it provides us with both challenges and periods of rest. Understanding how restless or content we are at any given moment in our lives can help guide us as to what we need next to continue to always push through to a new & different tomorrow that we feel worthy of enjoying.
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