Your alarm goes off. You hit snooze. Your alarm goes off. You get up. You shower. You ready. You commute. You work…for most of your waking hours. You commute home. Eat dinner. For a sliver of the day, you see family and friends. You sleep. Your alarm goes off. You hit snooze. You do it all over again.
Life can be incredibly redundant.
And your work too. The place you spend most of your life. It’s likely not your dream job. Or your dream career. You work to pay the bills. Or to stay afloat. You work for someone else. Maybe even a terrible someone else. You work your life away, just to maintain whatever standard of living to which you are now accustomed. Maybe even a standard of misery to which you are accustomed.
For most of us. The people that don’t cure cancer for a living. Life can feel pretty empty too.
Redundant emptiness.
No one in his or her right mind would choose this kind of life. But somehow. Many of us have chosen it.
Unfortunately, it’s what happens.
And it wears on you. It affects you. Turns you headless.
You start going through the motions. Reacting to life. Not living it.
Your life becomes like a long, drawn out knee jerk reaction. Lifeless, you just take what comes at you. And make choices because they are better than the alternative. Because they allow you to keep your sanity. Because it keeps you from up and leaving it all. Or maybe even ending it all.
This constant reacting, doesn’t keep you sharp.
The whole thing makes you lazy. Sleepy.
It’s like you’re awake and asleep at the same time. Just trying to get to the weekend. To get to the summer. Or to get through the holidays. To get to or through some fixed amount of time so that you can start living once you get to the other side.
But that’s just what you tell yourself.
You don’t start living. You’re not going to start living. That’s something you tell yourself to help you sleep at night. Helps you justify the numbness of right now.
Your life is hollow. There is nothing in there.
You have fallen asleep.
This…this is the sleepy hollow.
And it’s dreary. And dull. And miserable.
It’s time this all stopped.
Consider these words your alarm going off.
Not the one telling you to get in the shower and get ready for another day of the same. Another day of this misery. This is the one that’s telling you to WAKE UP.
In life.
Get up.
Right now.
This is commanding you to stop sleeping. To stop being part of the walking dead.
This demands that you not be asleep anymore. This demands that you take control of your life. Of what is yours. Of what could be yours.
This demands that you fill your empty space.
With meaning. Not just reacting. Fill that space with your dreams. Not just fulfilling basic needs. Fill it with moments that you will remember forever. Not just with forgetful years. Or decades. Of yourself. And your life.
And I’m not talking about doing the semi-annual work trip to the soup kitchen. Something that’s basically required by your company. Or something that your husband drags you to because that’s his thing. I know that’s nice. It’s just not enough. That can’t be enough for you.
My job is fulfilling in so many ways…just not like this. Not like giving back. To people. In a real way. In a meaningful way. Urban Samurai has given me an avenue to do that.
I’m not saying to start a blog. I’m not saying to start volunteering. I’m not even saying to start giving back…at all.
I’m saying that if you feel hollow. If you are asleep. You need to fill your life with meaning. You need to fill your life with life. Fill your moments with anything that is meaningful to you. Fill your life with something you are proud to fall asleep, knowing that you did that day.
What is that for you? What are those things?
Identify them.
Then do those things. Just go do them.
What have you been doing lately, that you would be proud that people knew you did? If that answer is nothing, you need to get off your ass and start doing something. And not for anyone else but you.
Hollow is so empty. So desolate. Nothingness is so lonely.
If you are feeling this sleepy hollow. Wake up. Do something better to you. Wake up. And do something more for you. Wake up. And do something that is going to mean everything to you.