The trouble with glitter is it gets everywhere. It’s much like advice people give you when they are trying to be helpful or they don’t know what else to say. You know all the supportive advice you get when you have a break up, fail at your diet or something else crummy happens. That corny overused advice about getting back on the bull, horse, wagon or some other kind of transportation. Just try again. Well intended certainly, but when you’ve been bumped from the ride, getting back up on it is not necessarily your first desire. Even though most of the time our ego is bruised more than our bottom, and we’re covered in glitter from the fanfare that’s supposed to be uplifting and supportive. It still hurts. Sometimes, it is easier to just sit there covered in glitter and let the horse go graze for a while.
It’ll all work out, just sit steady in the boat.
I can’t tell you the number of times someone has said something like that to me when life has been bumpy and I’ve landed on my glittery bottom. All of us have had our share of falling down in life. Things have not worked out in our favor, someone took advantage of us for their own gain and well sometimes we just didn’t have enough to keep going. While these experiences are sometimes solid learning opportunities no one ever gives the advice of looking for a different ride. The advice is always about getting back on the one you were on and keep going, when actually we need to be looking for the rodeo clowns to distract the bull so we can make a run for it.
Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever felt pressured to take a job because it pays better or is a move up from where you are now? Or something came up at just the right time and it seemed better than what you had so you went for it? Yet when you did that, it was one of the worse decisions you’ve ever made? I have and sometimes it takes years to fix those types of situations.
It’s incredibly inticing to be offered more money and a bigger title, an office, access to the elite club. It feels good to achieve that opportunity. It’s what many of us work so hard to achieve … or so we think it’s why we work hard in that moment. Someone notices us, our work and there is fame, position, paycheck, and all the sparkly things that come with it is indeed shiny and pretty isn’t it? We’re supposed to want that always moving up potential so we stay focused on doing a good job. That motivation is used in a lot of different companies as the gold carrot dangling in front of us. Don’t you want this? Who would say no to more or what appears to be better? Not many of us.
More doesn’t equate to more sometimes though. Sometimes it’s just glitter that’s blinding us from what’s underneath.
The bigger paycheck doesn’t equate to more in our accounts. A new pair of sneakers and cute workout gear doesn’t mean we’ll lose weight. The new friends who acts all interested is really just wanting to steal your ideas as their own. The sparkle rubs off and we realize there really isn’t much more freedom or achievement of the goals we really want to reach. This is when we start to realize the bumpiness of the ride and it gets harder and harder to stay on the wagon. It’s then too we often realize the fans are cheering the side that will win, usually the ride, rather than us too. They’re interests are in winning for the bets they’ve laid down rather than your achievements.
Unfortunately it is often the cold hard facts of life that we see as we’re sitting on our sore bottoms having failed again at something that should have been what we were told was right for us.
I believe this most often happens when we’re riding someone else’s ride. When we give in to the “go for it” advice even though something inside us is saying no. You only live once pressure of what others tell us we should want, have, use, do, act, and so on. When we stop listening to our own dreams and intuition and just follow the crowd despite the nagging feeling our stomach is giving us. Despite the misery we feel and awkward way it fits. Despite it all this is what we should want so we keep getting on it. We keep drinking diet soda and eating tasteless foods because it’s what someone told us was healthy and they are doing it too. We keep using things we don’t like because well that’s what everyone buys to do what we’re doing. We keep going into jobs we hate because we need the money despite knowing in our heats it drains our souls every day and isn’t even close to work we like doing. It’s safer than doing something different. All of it. It’s safer to stay in the arena we’re miserable in because if we go elsewhere or use something different and it fails it will be worse than where we are right now. Worse in the way people will look at us. Plus this will pay off if we stick with it. Bad times don’t last. We’ll learn to like fake diet food right? This job will get better won’t it?
The real twist comes when we claim our own power. When we decide what ride we get on, how we’ll ride it and where we’re going on it. When we have dug so deep in our own soul we know what we really want and are focused on that, things start looking different from the bottom where we sit. We see the glitter for what it really is, annoying, sticky and fake. We want real fulfillment and things that when we win it feels like a victory for something we really want.
This is when more can equate to more in our bank accounts, friendships and every aspect of our life. We begin to see we have choices in the matter and we can design our own ride while we’re at it. It’s the pressure we feel and sometimes our own ego that prevents us from doing that though. Fake glitter is good enough for everyone else so it should be enough for us too. Anything else is just talking crazy and people will look at you weird. Yet when we decide it isn’t enough and it doesn’t work for us stuff starts to get real. When we start doing our own thing, we realize we also stop caring what other people think so much too. They can keep their glitter.
This is when we realize buried underneath all the pressure we felt is a glimmer of who we really are and what we really want in life. We feel better than we have in years and want more of that! This is not only the beginning of what it means to live naturally but to experience the benefits of that process. We find the ride gets more pleasant and even fun too. We stop hearing the crowds telling us to get back up on the bull and instead hear nature’s birds, trees and wind singing to us. What a difference indeed. More starts to feel like more and it feels good. Glitter is rain drops washing away the stress of trying to keep up with someone else’s dreams and letting our own come through in full color.
I believe that yes we should go for all the opportunities that come to us but only if we know in our heart of hearts they align to what makes us truly feel our best and that will lead us to where we truly want to go. If that’s up a corporate ladder or out into the wilderness off the grid it’s all good as long as it’s what is making our soul sing for more than a glittery moment. When we stop and listen to our own soul and heart it isn’t asking for more rough riding on a bull or crazy wheeled wagon. The glitter is inticing I understand but seek beyond the glitter for the real stuff and see the difference yourself.
I recommend starting with the free Lifestyle & Wellness Questionnaire to identify areas in your life where you can make simple changes in your life for the better. Click here: https://forms.gle/eurGmen8SMgSENtu5