The Merry-Go-Round
When I was a child I loved the Merry-Go-Round. I loved spinning at high speed, often hanging out over the edge. It was my favourite ride as being somewhat afraid of heights, I didn’t like swings that much, or slippery dips. Merry-go-rounds were flat, you stayed a constant distance from the earth, you just got to spin really fast. It is probably why I like driving fast as well, there is both a constant and the thrill.
Finding that you are living your life on a Merry-Go-Round is not so good. You are spinning at top speed and enjoying it, until you realise that you are just going around in circles, and that the safety net of sameness is not really forward movement at all. You also pass the same spot with annoying regularity. You think you have got a fix on your habits, or your emotional choices and then find that you are back where you were days, weeks, months or even years ago. You can also run the risk of spinning right off it and having to face a real crisis.
Not everyone is on the Merry-Go-Round of life but these are some signs that maybe you are.
- Your relationships all tend to have the same pattern; they are fabulous at the start, you are so in love and then you find they are a jerk and eventually it ends, only for the pattern to repeat itself.
- Every year you have a list of New Years resolutions that you dive into with gusto and the momentum winds down after a while; each year you have the same list.
- You say you want to happy and just have a happy life but you keep creating drama in it, or you feel most alive when there is drama, routine is dull and boring.
- Every new job or house move is your moment to finally get the life you want and deserve, yet sometime down the track you find that you are doing it all again because it hasn’t panned out quite the way you thought it would.
- Identify what you really want out of life. What are the feelings that you are looking for?
- Why do you want to feel that way? What will that give you?
- How can you get those feelings in productive ways for yourself without relying on external sources to supply them for you?
- What if you get off the Merry-Go-Round, you let go of the need for safety and the thrill, where could that journey take you?