What Are You Willing to Give Up

"It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about." - Shauna Niequist. Author

How many times have you heard someone say you can't have everything.  It is like a challenge, and I am sure it drives many to achieve just that goal - having everything they desire.  The richer you are, the more likely I assume that might happen.  In the end, though, I agree with the Niequist.  For me life seems to be filled with choices. 

Let's start with some simple ones.  What job you work to pay your bills.  What level of lifestyle you want to enjoy.  Do you marry, have kids, or decide to journey alone?  Where do you want to live?  Do you want to keep up a large circle of friends, a few good one, or enjoy your own company?  What passions do you choose to enjoy? Every day is full of choices and the ones we make usually require letting something else go. 

I look over my life and can see how many different paths I could have been on. I have to be honest, where I am now is so comfortable. It feels right.  But looking back I can see other paths I wish I had realized were there for me to take.  My life's work could have been very different and I feel like those alternatives would also have been very rewarding.  

Probably the biggest willing to give up for me came when I became a mum.  The inner drive would not be denied, in fact I had 3 fairly quickly.  I would do it all over again.  However, I assumed when the last was in school full-time I would be working again. That wasn't meant to be.  Serious bullying and the cost of daycare kept me home.  It was hard to answer the question, "What do you do?" When I said a mum, the look was usually dismissive.  

Again - no regrets.  I love having a family and grown kids are the best. That is simply the most clear example in my life, and it's the one the held me back from finding a new career for a very long time.  I filled those spaces with helping out at school (I even taught a few kindergarten science classes), volunteering, sewing dance costumes and more.  

In the long run, despite the opportunities that could have been, I believe I didn't lose my purpose.  Writing came to me at the time it was meant to.  I needed life experience and self-acceptance for my quirks to come first.  I needed the humility of failing, the understanding of how importance diversity was, and a better understanding of the world around me and what the lives of others were like. 

The question for you today is two fold.  If you are really honest with yourself, what do you really want?  What is the passion that calls you?  Every passion requires sacrifices, so the second question is, of course, what are you willing to give to embrace it?