Are you like a balloon?

If you blow a balloon up to it’s full capacity, leave it like that for a day or two, and then let the air out, it never returns to its original shape. It might get back down to a similar size, but it doesn’t have the same smooth surface that it did when it was newly purchased.

We are very similar to balloons (and yes, there are also people filled with hot air!!) – but if you are stretched to your full ability, you will never return to your original form.

You may have moved countries or states as we have.  Moving from South Africa to Australia has made us dig deeper inside ourselves than we had ever dug before.  We had watched others move countries and thought we knew what they were going through, but now after having been through it, I realised we had no clue!

Setting a major goal that disrupts your entire life, to relocate somewhere else, stretches you – your character, your mind, your emotions, your physical body – every aspect of your life changes.   Setting and achieving a major financial goal, fitness goal or career goal can also stretch and challenge you.

When you have achieved that goal and things calm down a bit, you may wonder why you’re not feeling as happy as you had before – or feel a bit uncertain about what you really want. This is because you’ve been stretched to step up to your goal – and now you’re like a deflated balloon, trying to return to it’s original shape.

What should one do when you’re at this point?  I think it’s time to review your life and set some new goals. A bigger goal than you’ve set before – one that really excites you. As Bob Proctor said: “If your goal isn’t scary and exciting, then it’s not a big enough goal for you!”  Some people do this on their own, others decide to work with a good life coach or LifeSuccess Consultant to get clear on what they really want.

There are a number of things to think about here.  One is to remember that you’ve been stretched, have grown and developed new skills.  You have become a bit more resilient and have stretched your mind with new information and expertise.
You are not the same person you were before you started this journey – so you’re not necessarily going to feel the same satisfaction with the things that did it for you before.  This is quite normal!

Accept that you’ve changed, and decide what you really want from life. Do you need to set a bigger goal that is going to allow you to grow more and to stretch more? Or would you like to get more balance into your life – by cutting out the things that have become a distraction rather than adding to your enjoyment of life.

Having  children stretches you, challenges you (or is it just my kids that do that?!) – and you grow as a result.  As they get bigger you adapt to a changing or evolving family. Life is dynamic, we evolve as time goes on.

What do you really want? What new goal would you like to set that is going to grow you into more of who you want to be. If you’ve heard of BE, DO, HAVE, you know that you need to be the person you want to be, before you do the actions that are going to get you what you want to have.

If you think you’ll only be happy when you have more money, a better spouse or a better job – you probably won’t!  Decide to be happy now, appreciate your partner (or lack thereof), find the good in the job you’re doing – and you will attract into your life more of what you want.  You can still aspire to greater heights, but make sure you’re happy now.

You can be content with you life and not satisfied. The dissatisfaction is what keeps us growing, and setting new goals. Without new goals we get stagnant, complacent and stay in our comfort zone – life gets boring!

My mother would be horrified to hear me talking about life being boring! She always said that people who get bored have got nothing in their heads!  We got into serious trouble if we ever mentioned that word in our house! (and shuddered if we had a friend dare to use it – they either got “the look”, a curled lip, or a lecture!)

So if you’re feeling like someone’s let the air out of you (and you normally enjoy life), then you’re not being stretched enough – you’re not thinking enough – you’re not creating enough excitement in your life.  It’s no-one else’s responsibility to create excitement in your life – only you can do that!

It’s important to be happy wherever you are, but you don’t have to be satisfied.  Happiness and satisfaction are different!

Luckily today is Choose-day and you can choose whether you want to be setting a new goal that will stretch you, excite you, make you a more interesting person to spend time with, or if you want to try and fit back into who you were years ago.  I don’t want to look like a shrivelled balloon, do you?

Have a wonderful Choose-day,

Kind regards

Jill

Jill Hutchison
Helping you get absolutely clear on what you really want from life – so you can create the life you desire.

Evolve your life dynamically!  Create the life you truly desire.

Evolve Dynamic Pty Ltd
Perth, Australia

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