The Paradigm Shift That Changed My Life

Ever since I was young, I ran toward big goals. And as I got older, I started to have an idea of what I thought my life should look like and where I thought I should be in life. And, these ideas and expectations fueled me.

And, they fueled me well.

From the Texas Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame, to becoming co-captain of the Army football team, to getting selected in the 2008 NFL draft and to playing in my first ever NFL game, I constantly chased this idea of a life that deep down I felt was possible for me.

But, it was shortly after the NFL that the cracks in this way of life began to surface - and I was now walking on fragile ground.

I started to realize that no matter how hard I worked, or regardless of what I accomplished, I always felt like I was coming up short. My life never fully measured up to the expectations of what I thought it should look like or where I thought I should be.

In other words, the goalposts to my life continually moved 10 more yards down the field.

I eventually found myself at war with my life and I became my biggest enemy. As a result, the non-stop striving left me teetering on the edge of burnout and the despair and chronic dissatisfaction were beginning to take a serious toll on my emotional wellness and my mental health.

Something had to change.

Over the next several years and hundreds of therapy sessions, my heart began to lead me down a different path and show me a new way. A path that was no longer consumed with the upward trajectory as much as it was focused on deepening my life in the here and now.

In the beginning, this was scary - and vulnerable. I thought that accepting and deepening my life in the here and now would mean that I would never reach my goals. I thought it meant waving the white flag and surrendering to a life of passivity.

But, I couldn't have been more wrong.

It's become so clear to me that all we have in our lives is there here and now. And the more we engage with the here and now, the more it propels our life forward - and it propels us forward from a place of rest and flow.

I don't know about you, but I think we can all use a little bit more rest and flow in our lives.