My life began when I understood these 2 principles

There are principles you can hear a thousand times before their meaning hit you in the face like a bulldozer. But when they finally do, everything that happened to you, everything that you were until this point, becomes a “before”.

Before, I was a timid, passive, naive girl.

Before, I didn’t have a clue about what I wanted.

Then, I understood those principles.

Now, I feel in control.

Now, I know what I want, and I go after it.

It’s a bit corny, probably cliché too, but my life did change the moment I understood what those principles really meant.

I am in charge of my life.

I grew up with stories of kind princesses being saved by their true love. And without realizing it, I internalized those stories to the point where I was waiting to be saved.

I had not realized that I didn’t have to wait, to be passive, that this was not a story. Then one day, those corny quotes on Instagram clicked. I suppose I had finally reached the bottom of my patience reserve.

Sorry, Prince Charming.

I am the one in charge. I am the one responsible for my life. I do not need permission. It is my life. And it is up to me to live it.

From this day forward, I began asking myself the right questions. What do I really want? How can I get what I really want?

Since then, I have muuuuuuch less patience.

Results happen in action, not in thinking.

Stage 1 was activated. I was now in charge, and it was challenging and hard and good and an additional load of conflicting emotions.

For a time, that was enough.

However, I had discovered I was an ambitious person. An ambitious person with not a lot of patience. But my plans never led to anything, and it felt like being a butterfly in a glass cage. Bumping into invisible barriers when I would try to fly away.

Then I remembered another set of corny quotes.

Actions lead to result. Doing beats thinking. You learn more by doing something 100 times than by reading about it. Fail again, fail better.

I don’t know why those clicked at this moment. Maybe I was in the right space of mind to hear them then.

I got out of my own head for a bit. I stopped planning so much, and I started doing more, even if it was mediocre, even if I was failing.

Turns out, that’s a good way to shatter a glass cage, because my mediocre actions got me further than where I had ever been… thinking.

Are those principles familiar? Surely yes.

Maybe you even read them a hundred times already. Maybe you are sick of them.

Me too.

But remember : sometimes you can hear a principle a hundred times before it starts making sense…