Settling is Sinking. You Were Born to Rise.

When someone thinks of something "settling", one of the first things that comes to mind is a house. I remember growing up, every time I would hear creaks in the house that scared me, my parents would say, "It's okay. It's just the house settling." It wasn't until I was older and began watching HGTV (and after becoming a real estate agent myself for like....six months) that I learned the more in depth meaning of what it was when a house settled. Settling is sinking. The house itself is slowing sinking into the ground. The soil around the foundation has changed and can no longer safely accommodate the structure of the house. Settling eventually causes foundation problems. The safety and reliability of the once strong and certain foundations begin to falter and slowly sink into the earth. There are ways to prevent this from happening; such as proper drainage systems and clear gutters, but once the house is settled...it has just accepted where it is and refuses to be back on solid ground. It is comfortable. That is where it has been for years and the ground just kind of accepted it. But the truth is, settling is sinking, no matter how you look at it.

Now, lets use this example as a reference for our lives as humans. It is very easy to settle. Especially if the foundation around us is weakening and it just seems easier to stay where we are. We are tired. We are just...comfortable. Regardless of how badly we want something better or know that there is more solid ground elsewhere, we cannot convince ourselves to move because, well, we have been in this place for a long time and I mean, we are doing okay I guess. Right? We settle into jobs, relationships, friendships and thoughts. We settle into our ways and our past. We get so comfortable in what is happening around us because, that's what we have always done. That is how our life has been for 1, 5, 10, 50 years. We compromise happiness for comfortability, for that sure thing and for the normal. Here is a secret; nothing life changing happens inside comfort.

To experience those life changing moments, those new adventures, the pathways to happiness and to a new normal; we have to get outside of the comfort zone boxes we have put ourselves in. We have to climb out of the soggy soil and back onto solid ground. That is where your foundation is strengthened. That is where your willpower and courage is put to the test. How badly do you want those things that get you excited? How much do you want to change your life for the better? How hard do you want to work for those goals that can only come to fruition outside the settlement? Why do you think those people who settled here build settlements? Because, it was familiar. They were called settlements because they chose to settle there, within the walls and land of a certain area. And what happened when someone chose to venture outside the confines of the settlement walls? People thought they were crazy! They said it was dangerous and uncertain. Exactly. Outside of the walls they built to keep life out was exactly where life happened. Every discovery and every new connection was made out there. But they had to take the chance and want something more than they wanted the comfort.

Here's the deal; sometimes doing what is better for you means moving on from what you originally thought was best. Settling is sinking. You were born to rise. You were meant for so much more than you have accepted for yourself. By settling into that job that you stay at even though you have a passion for something else, you lose your passion for life. By settling into that relationship that you have been in for years so may as well stay in it even though you are miserable and things aren't going so well, you are missing the opportunity to meet someone that makes you genuinely happy and will change your life. By settling into that friendship because you have known them since Kindergarten and they know everything about you but they treat you unfairly and hurt you repeatedly, you are settling for less than you deserve and passing up people who truly love and care about you. By settling into those thoughts you have always have you will get the results you have always gotten.

Settling is a pattern. It is a series of choices that lead you right back to the same place you are now. To break patterns what do you have to do? You have to steer away from the normal motions or behaviors. By doing so, you create an entirely new pattern that can be anything you want it to be. And if later on you don't like that pattern? Well, you do the same thing. There are no rules. There are not set patterns you can create. Stop settling. Stop sinking into a life that you are not fully living. Rebuild your life. Re-establish your soil. Strengthen your foundation. Rise.