What do you want from your life, personally, professionally, spiritually? These are questions you may not have definitive answers to but I would venture to say you think about them pretty often.

My guess is no one’s answer to these questions would be ‘I want to breeze through life, with little adventure, motivation, or passion’. But if you are choosing a path of least resistance in any area of your life this is exactly what you are doing. You aren’t living the life you are capable of, maybe even worse, the one you want. The easy life can be tempting at times. It takes almost all the hard decisions in life and makes them disappear. It takes sleepless nights or restless days and makes them the thing of the past. It allows you to avoid potential judgment from the outside because you are never venturing out to discover what lies outside the box this world has created for you. It also takes your very reason for existing and throws it out the window.

I refuse to believe we were put on this Earth to move forward devoid of feeling or emotion so that we wouldn’t have to make any hard decisions. Hard decisions ultimately are a big part of what defines the life we have. I believe we were put here to live out our lives to the fullest, with passion, contentment, and yes even some difficulty. For too long I looked in the mirror and knew I wasn’t doing this, so I made a difficult decision and took a step in a different direction.

For me, a different direction began almost a year ago and I still can’t believe I did it… I walked away from my career.

I knew how to do it and was good at it, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be anymore and I knew it. I did my best to avoid that little voice that said leave but every day it was getting louder and louder. My gut said go and my brain said be responsible. Of course we have things we have to be responsible for but I was using my responsibilities as an excuse and that was stunting my growth without even knowing it. After an inner tug of war that went on much longer than it shoulder have I finally made the decision to veer off. To make my own path and it was scary as hell. I still wonder some days how I did it. But I did and my life is 100 times better for it.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t continued uncertainties, difficulties, and hard decisions; it just means that now my aim is higher. My decisions are based on creating a better life for myself not continuing down a path because it is easy or known to me. The easy path would have kept me in that career but I wouldn’t have grown. Growth is the only way to continue to live a life you are meant to, painful as it may be at times. The most unexpected part of making that decision professionally is that it allowed me to grow personally and spiritually as well. I have found when we ignore one aspect of our life it will affect every other one eventually, no matter how we try to not allow it to.

We can not compartmentalize our lives as much as we would like to believe we can. I think everyone reaches a point where they have to make a decision; one that they hope will elevate every aspect of our life. For me I made a decision last year, one that pushed me to finally follow my inner voice. The voice that had been nagging me to be bold, to try and live out my passions, to try and find contentment professionally, regardless of how difficult it would be at times.

I got off of the easy train to explore and discover my best life. You can too. More importantly you need to. We can not change this world if we are not fulfilling our life’s passions or pushing ourselves every day. The best we can be does not lie in the easiest path, frustrating as that may be at times; it lies somewhere else, usually as we are taking things head on.

Rebekah Hibbert

Rebekah Hibbert is a Certified Athletic Trainer who works on getting athletes ready for their sport and taking care of them after they are hurt.  She is passionate about women’s issues and sharing that passion through various social media outlets and is a part-time blogger trying to share my knowledge and experiences while connecting with others.

Connect with Rebekah… www.therealgirlgrind.blogspot.com