Sometimes you wake up one day and suddenly realize 20 years has passed by. Your 18 year old self is long gone and your 38 year old self is not the person you were supposed to be. Dreams are still only dreams. The majority of your life has been lived out in your head and the tangible skills, experiences, and surroundings that were supposed to be yours are still simply far off imagination filled hopes. You realize you are a writer who has never written, an entrepreneur who has never taken a chance, an artist who as never created, and an influencer who has never stepped out of the shadows.
What do you do when this happens? There are basically two available options. You could either resign yourself to forever living the life you never wanted…or, you can have an introvention. I choose the latter.
What is an Introvention?
When an addict, or some other person with a major issue they are failing to overcome has reached a point where they are spiraling out of control and hurting the ones they love, their loved ones may choose to have an intervention where they all confront the person with the reality of their choices and how those choices are affecting them and the ones they love.
But if you are the one that realizes your past and present behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, or choices are holding you back from being your best self and fulfilling the full measure of who you could be, then you must confront yourself, change course and leave behind the behaviors and choices that have kept you from your dreams. This process is what I call an introvention.
It is a very personal, internal process, and it can be very difficult. It is so much easier to just float down the river of life doing things as you always have. After all, you’ve gotten to this point because it was the easy path. It is easier to just stay the same…until it is not. Self-realization has the unique ability to wake you up and show you the pain that can come from unrealized dreams. It can even make whatever difficult struggles that come with pursuing improvement pale in comparison to the heartache of maintaining the “easy” status quo.
Unlike an intervention, an introvention is not a one time event. It cannot be accomplished in an hour or two. It is an ongoing process of self-reflection, effort, and re-calibration. I have begun this process. This site is my journal, my sounding board, my medium to investigate where/who I am, where/who I want to be, and how I can get there. I’ve made it public to keep myself accountable, to make myself step out of the shadows, and to possibly help anyone else who may benefit from my musings.
Reach out if you would like to assist on this journey, or if you could use some assistance on yours. My 18 year old self was so confident that his dreams would be fulfilled…it’s time to deliver on those personal promises.
