Who’s Really In Your Way?

So you are atop a tower; the air around you is painted in gradients of deep blues and grays. The wind howls through your ears and chills your skin as it wraps around your body, seeking your last bit of warmth. You begin to check in on your body and realize your breath has been short for quite some time, but you aren’t sure how long. The moments have almost started to blur into one single feeling: Fear. The squeezing thumps of your blood between your neck and into your chest search for a way out. You have to make a decision that you are not ready to make. You gaze out, slowly, over the edge of the cracking moss cover stone, feeling the weight of your decision. You know that whatever you do, the choice you make here today will change the course of your life.

Then, in an instant, an overwhelming sense of comfort and security washes over you like a gust of warm air because in your right hand is…you.

This is the you that you’ve always known. That version of you has been around on the good and bad days. Now, this version of you is dangling over an abyss, staring back with wide eyes and desperation. You know one thing and one thing only: you are at risk of losing yourself to oblivion, and you can’t let that happen. So you inhale a deep breath of rough air to calm the storm raging on within you and channel it into Power. Strength. Will.

Your right arm acts on its own accord with a strength you couldn’t imagine to recoil “the fallen” away from uncertainty. But just as your familiar friend starts to scrape onto the landing before you, you feel a spark? You feel something subtle inside of you, like a burp? It could be the fear subsiding because it feels natural; it’s like that feeling you get right before you walk through the doors of a job you hate. It’s not aggressive; it’s just strong enough to capture your attention for more than a moment, strong enough to make you remember that you have another arm!

Yes!

Another arm, one that you can use to pull even harder to save yourself, but just as your attention shifts to the sensation of your forgotten limb, you see…you? This is you, no doubt about it, but it somehow isn’t a you that you have ever seen. This version of you isn’t scared of the abyss below; they actually seem content. As if to say, “Whatever happens, happens.” This version of you is slightly older; they glow just a tad bit more than you do now, but they are at peace! In the midst of facing nothingness, they seem to have everything they need. You are intrigued by this person who has to be you, but you just aren’t comfortable with them yet. They still seem foreign to you despite being sure it’s you. You contemplate for a moment; you only have enough strength to save one.

So which version of you would you save?

Do you choose the familiar version of yourself? You know how they think and move, and that brings you comfort. There are few surprises.
This is your old self.

Or do you choose the unfamiliar version that you can’t seem to connect with? This is the you that you’ve almost never met before because they are different. They live in a different world than you, and their choices are anything but comfortable, but they have a divine glow. They are content, driven, and at peace.
This is your future self.

Well, every moment you get this choice? Let the comfort of habit and fear of the unknown hold you safe in their arms.

Or let your old self fall from the side of the tower while you pull yourself closer to the future version you hope to be.

There are no wrong choices, and you always get to choose again, but you do choose…Every Now Moment.