There’s nothing wrong with wanting it all. Each of us comes into the world not knowing what our destiny is or where the journey of this life will take us. However, as we traverse the terrain of living, we sometimes tie ourselves to people, places, and things that are not necessarily good for us long-term.
Jobs, habits, lifestyles, addictions, vices; things are meant to provide us with pleasure, meaning, or a sense of purpose. But what happens when the desire or drive of these things cause us to tip out of balance and begin to create chaos in our lives?
Health, wealth, and happiness can all slide into the muck of the abyss if we let our demons get the best of us. As life begins to get tough, stressful, or just a bit extra, we often lean more heavily into our bedeviled behaviors to relieve ourselves of the pain, stresses, and worries that come with daily challenges.
But what if those demons are actually the very things that are driving us to the brink of destruction in the first place? Often, our own self-sabotaging habits lead us into situations and circumstances that generate more of the same self-defeating patterns.
Overworking, overeating, over-indulging in anything of excess can cause us to lose the very things that we love and need the most. Solvency, health, and even love. What leads us to these destructive decisions can be linked back to any negative event from recent or far past. Childhood wounding, family trauma, schoolyard bullying, divorce — you name it — any negative event can become a trigger.
What happens when our demons finally get to us can either be self-implosive or self-realizing; we can either evolve or erupt. Can we ever really turn it around? That depends.
Our demons often bring us comfort, relief, and satisfaction. Why would we want to give that up? We are only ever willing to drop our devils when we realize that they are causing ourselves and others pain, suffering, or loss. But what does that decision look like? What are actually agreeing to shed?
That 80-hour-per-week job that pays very well but is destroying your health.
The job with the title, benefits, and the eye-candy that causes you to stray from your loved one.
Those friends whose behaviors are negatively influencing your own.
That fourth or fifth drink at happy hour.
The credit card offers that lead you to spend more money that you do not have.
Maybe it’s time to deal and heal from the things that created our demons in the first place. Perhaps it is time to rise up and become the people we are meant to be rather than let our vices, our fears, and our egos continue to lead us down the wrong path and into a life of temptation that cause our own (continuous) self-destruction.
Profound and positive change can propel us onto our destined path, towards the love of our lives, and to fulfill our calling. But in order to get there, we must be willing to face and put down our demons and stand ready to shed our fears of rejection, failure and ridicule.
Only when we live in our authenticity and integrity do our demons finally give up and let us go to become who we are supposed to be rather than remain to be chained to the destructive patterns meant to hold us back. Life is so much richer when we choose change over chaos.