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Visit vw.ca to learn more. SUVW, German-engineered for all. This is Optimal Living Daily, ready for change. Just take the first step by Krista O'Reilly-Davitiki of a life in progress.ca, and I'm just a molecular personal narrator, reading to you every day, hoping to help both you and me find a little more happiness, inspiration and motivation in our day.
So let's get right to our next article, and continue optimizing your life. Ready for change, just take the first step by Krista O'Reilly-Davitiki of a life in progress.ca. I think we often know when it is time to step out into change, or when change is coming unbidded, when we need something different, a seismic shift. The details may be cloudy and we may feel afraid, but deep down, we often know.
When I was 20 years old and living in England, unhappy, needing a hip replacement, binge eating and treating myself with disdain, I knew I was ready for change. I couldn't yet bear to think about what that might look like to hope for better. I just knew I couldn't stay as I was. Pouring my alcohol down the drain was my first step into the unknown.
I returned to Canada and never touched drugs again, paid off my credit card debt, why do banks give 19-year-olds credit cards, upgraded to get into college, and tentatively began a new life? When I was 25, my son was born. I struggled with anxiety, but loved being married and was so excited to meet my baby. I had plans to work full-time as a teacher, and my husband and I dreamed of traveling and teaching in South Korea.
But the moment I held my tiny son, I knew that my whole world had shifted. I had no idea what that would look like or the beautiful family I would help grow. But I knew that all my well-laid plans just flew out the window. Acknowledging this was my first step into the unknown.
We ended up moving to a small town, homeschooling, and putting most travel on hold for years to come. Before my 40th birthday, I had a deep down knowing that change was coming. I had no idea what it would look like and surprisingly wasn't afraid, but suspected it would not all be pleasant. Shortly after my birthday, I made the decision to finally go through the hip replacement I had held off the past 20 years.
This was my first step into the unknown. A few months later, I could barely walk even with a cane. I began studying again at this most inopportune moment, and my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and change had come. Five short years later, I am again on the cusp of change.
I feel it deep down in my bones and have but a foggy idea of what it would look like, but I've agreed to my youngest heading to public school next year from big first step for us into the unknown. I've decided to take a gap year of sorts to rest and read. I will help launch my second born out of the nest in a year, and ideas around writing are percolating in my head and heart. None of these examples are extraordinary, of course.
They're simply reminders to me that if we quiet ourselves enough to listen, we can hear the call of change. Reminders that, while change can be hard, it is usually or at least often good. Even the horribly painful parts can be fertile ground for the unfolding of incredible growth and beauty if we remain open to the lessons they can teach us along the way. Most of us like comfort and seek stability, I certainly do.
I'm no visionary or natural risk taker, but I've learned to hold everything I know all my hopes and plans very loosely, knowing that what I see and understand is so limited, I only see in part. Change always comes, and rather than living in fear of it, as I have done through how much of my past, I now understand that is a healthy and critical part of the journey. I get excited when potential clients contact me and tell me, I'm ready for change. I understand the transformative power behind these words.
I celebrate when my friend makes a hard decision, pushing through the grief to let go of what was in order to care for herself well. When a family member refuses to take the easy road as he pursues a long-held dream, and he can clearly articulate the why behind his decision, I am proud of him. When people private message me and share how their struggles have helped them become kinder to themselves than others, it solidifies my belief that change is healthy. I was into a good friend walking bravely through an incredibly difficult season, and know that in a year's time she'll no longer be the same person.
She will have metamorphose into something yet more beautiful with new strength and compassion to offer the world. Is it time for change in your life? Listen, I think deep down you already know. Is it time to go back to school or is your heart calling you home?
Are you ready to release that relationship or that addiction that has held you down for far too long? Can you sense that you are no longer the same person that you were yesterday and you're ready to become a fuller, more vivid picture of who you dream of being? Take that lesson, dive into risk if that is what you need to do or jump off the hamster wheel and simplify your life. Maybe it's time to dance through life with joy, even if you don't quite know the steps in the whole wide world thinks you're weird.
I want to challenge you today to release your tight hold on whatever it is that is causing you fear. Remind yourself that it is okay if the path before you is only lit a bit of the way. That's all you need for now. Then take your first step into the unknown.
You just listened to the post titled Ready for Change. Just take the first step by Krista O'Reilly-Davidege of a Life in Progress.ca, and I'll be right back with my commentary. Local news is in decline across Canada, and this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void, and it gets harder to separate truth from fiction.
That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us. Because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News.
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Big thanks to Krista, hopefully an inspiring one for you today. I can definitely relate when she mentioned how exciting it is to hear from others that they're ready for change or actually taking steps to make their lives better in some way. I get those emails occasionally too, and it really keeps me going and makes me happy that something so simple as reading an article to you a day can have that kind of impact. But you're the one doing the work, the great work.
I'd just like to think I'm helping to give you a little push. So keep it up, thank you for being here and listening, have a great rest of your day, and I'll be back tomorrow, where you're optimal life. Oh, wait.