What do you really want?

This morning I had an epiphany. I was minding my own business walking home from dropping the girls at school and thinking. I was thinking about life, frustration, feelings of being trapped and feelings of suffocation and then it hit me. I worked out the meaning of life! Okay, so I may be exaggerating a lot, but I did work out what I really think we are all searching for in life.It's not the regular things that first come to mind, you know; happiness, money, live in housekeeper and butler, no it's something  that you probably didn't even consider. 

Options.

Think about it for a moment.What is the one thing that is making your feel pressured or stressed right now? It might be the bills, the mortgage, your job, lack of time. Whatever it is it is all you really need are options. A way out, a choice, an alternative from what lies ahead in our narrowed tunnel vision of overwhelm.The worst thing we can experience as a human is the feeling of being trapped. Whether it be trapped in a relationship, a job, a family situation, a way of life or even just 'the system', feeling trapped can be suffocating and debilitating. We get bogged down in feeling like there is no way out and no light at the end of the tunnel. Even if there is a light, it appears dull and oh too far away. Once we begin on this path of negative thinking everything else begins to loom above us, bigger than what it really is.Whereas if you had options, almost immediately the clouds lift and the choices are clearly visible right before your eyes. Options give us hope and direction. Let me give you an example.Right now my main goal is selling my retail business - why? It's not solely to pursue my writing career, it is because I want to have options. Options for my career and for my family, financial options, and life and self discovery options. Options, opportunities, choices. That's it. It's so simple.I've blogged before about happiness and how I feel it is simply an emotion, not something we should be jotting down on our list of goals. However, I do believe that when we free ourselves and open up options in life then we are destined to live a more purposeful and content life, which in turn will lead to experiencing happiness a whole lot more often.Now, the part where my 'epiphany' starts to get a little weak, is in getting from where we are now; feeling stuck, trapped, overwhelmed, to the point where we have options in our life.The breaking new is...

Hard work and focus.

There really is no other way. The only way towards having options in your life is to put in the hard yards.Sit down and look at what is making you feel suffocated and look at what options would lessen that feeling. There lies the road you need to hoe.There's hard work to be done and tough choices to be made. You will need to get over any issues you have with failure, issues with what others think and what others want you to do. You will need to look deep into your core and be totally honest with yourself and then be prepared to make changes, put it out there and put in the work.That's where I've been in the last few years. Putting in the hard work. And I am so close to where I want to be I can almost touch it. It's not to say there won't be challenges, set backs, unhappiness or problems once I get there, of course there will, this is life. But to be able to have options..., to feel that sense of freedom, Wow. 

 Thoughts?

 Linking with Bron and Son for Weekend Rewind