The Cost of Staying Small

One of the hardest things to do is to choose to live the life you actually want. Having the courage to wake up and be honest about your dreams, your passions, and your desires is something not many people truly embody. It's so easy to slip into the mold that society, and often our families, have shaped. Over time, that mold becomes so familiar that we lose sight of what we truly want, and sometimes even forget that we ever wanted more.

What dreams have you given up on because of someone else's disapproval?

What life path did you abandon because it was labeled "the wrong one"?

What version of yourself did you quietly let die just to keep the peace?

Too often we allow external voices dictate the life we're going to live, without realizing that we are the ones who will have to suffer the consequences of being unhappy. We are the ones who will have to bear the dissatisfaction, the resentment, the unanswered "what ifs". We convince ourselves that we need permission to pursue what makes us feel alive.

Some people are met with encouragement when they follow their dreams. Many of us though are met with criticism. And if we're not careful, we let those critics spoil the visions we have for ourselves. We let doubt creep in. We shrink.

The fear of change will keep you confined to a life that no longer serves or fulfills you. It will keep you choosing familiarity over alignment, safety over growth. But comfort, when it comes at the cost of authenticity, becomes its own kind of prison.

Stop needing your friends and family to approve of your goals in order to pursue them.

Be teachable: listen, learn and accept feedback, but never internalize opinions that fundamentally makes you unsure of who you are at your core. Guidance can be valuable, but disapproval is not a blue print.

This is your life. You are the one who will carry the weight of staying small. And in the end, the regret of not choosing yourself will hurt far more than anyone else’s disappointment.