The Compelling Importance Of New Beginnings To Get The Best In life
I felt a sinking feeling in my gut as I drove into the parking garage, and it was happening more and more. A job that had once invigorated me and filled me with eagerness now produced a heaviness inside that I could no longer ignore.
As a new FBI agent out of the Academy, I was passionate about my mission and always pushed ahead. But, almost 25 years later, I had to admit I no longer felt the strong drive to show up at work and gear up for another day. The drive had been replaced by a heaviness that stripped away my motivation.
When I got home one day after work, I went for a long walk. I needed to think. I knew that the noise of activity around me didn’t allow me to pause. But I also realized that if I let myself think deeply, a few thoughts would bubble up that I didn’t want to acknowledge.
I needed to get out of my own way.
I was a performer, and throughout my career, placed great importance on achieving things. I had a good run as an FBI agent working counterintelligence and espionage cases, but something inside had shifted. I needed something to end before I could start something new.
My FBI career represented safety and comfort, but once I allowed myself to explore deep longings that I’d experienced since childhood, the desire to develop skills as a writer and an artist pulled at my heart.
Whoa! No place for handcuffs and a gun in that world!
I asked myself the hard questions: When had the Best in my career become Good? And was it OK to settle for Good Enough? I had conflicting emotions: excitement about building a future with more life and fear of the unknown. Both were honest emotions and ones that I needed to acknowledge.
Why Are Endings Necessary?
Something has to end for us to take the next step in life. Life has seasons, stages, and phases. When one level reaches its past-due date, we risk shutting down the person we are meant to become. Without the ability to move from good to best, we remain stuck at a level we’ve outgrown.
If we never moved on from good, we’d still be living with mommy and daddy and working at our first job. So yeah, we need to end…
