This past weekend I got together with a bunch of friends from college. As usual, we were having a great time. I wanted to capture the moment. I pulled out my phone and asked a stranger to take a picture of us. When he handed me back the phone and we crowded around to look at it, one of my friends said, "What happened to your phone?!"
I had stopped noticing that half the screen is shattered. I'm used to it.
It struck me that I'm used to it. I live with it broken. I adjust what I'm reading if the cracks fall over a word in a way that makes it difficult to read.
I started thinking about what else in my life is broken that I've gotten used to. There's definitely other stuff. We have things, people, situations, and thoughts keep us from living optimally.
We all have them. You may be so used to them that you stopped noticing, but you have them.
Maybe you're in a job that sucks the life out of you.
Maybe you're in a relationship with someone who is unreliable or negative.
Maybe you're so busy that you've stopped taking care of yourself.
Maybe you're in the habit of telling yourself you're fat / stupid / not good enough / etc.
Sometimes something breaks all at once and we notice it, but choose to overlook it. We live with it. And then we get used to it.
Sometimes something slowly breaks down. Little by little so that we don't really notice the decline. We live with it as it's happening. And then we get used to it.
And then one day we realize what we've been living with and we can't believe it. We can't believe what we've been putting up with. We wonder why we allowed ourselves to live with it.
We shouldn't be used to things that affect us in a negative way. Look around and see if you've gotten used to things that aren't serving you. Once you identify them, remove or replace them!
It takes some effort to have a fabulous life, but it's worth it :)