This question was inspired by a recent family vacation to the Kruger National Park. We had the privilege of seeing some Rhinos. During a sighting, one of our new Rhino friends decided to take a nice big dump. He then proceeded to stomp on it before walking away. I owe it to our Rhino friend to let you know that he inspired this question: What BS needs to be stomped on?
Many people want to change for the good. But to make real, life shattering, soul-wrenching change, we need more than that. We need a dose of angry passion combined with soberness. YOU, and not someone or something else, are accountable for the change in your own life.
Maybe we are more attached to mediocrity than we realize, as there is comfort in it. But sitting under the comfy blanket of mediocrity is self-deception, where perhaps we don’t realize our love of compromise.
“These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough
time passes, it gets so you depend on them…”
– Red, The Shawshank Redemption.
These are words from Red, a character in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. He is speaking about the prison walls that surround him and yet, this is so applicable to the walls of BS we can build around ourselves. What is first a thing acknowledged to be unhealthy or negative, if left for long enough, can become the very crutch we use for an excuse as to why we aren’t doing the other things expected of us.
Only once we feel a sense of urgency to change, which usually comes after experiencing the ultimate consequence of NOT changing, can we move on to the stomping of the BS. Don’t get me wrong, I have definitely had moments in life where for no seen reason I’ve woken up with a grand revelation of where the BS is lying in my life and how it needs to go. Sometimes, not often though.
Some useful tips for your stomping:
– One thing that I know definitely helps to reveal the BS in our lives is the same thing Café Life bases all our work on: Asking good questions, such as the ones we invite you to ask in our podcasts and blogs. Questions that invite the resolve and require the ponder for you to really DIG DEEP and provoke the honesty that we might need from ourselves.
– Man up to what isn’t helpful or serving you, as harsh as it sounds, and do something about it! Create a ritual that is interlinked into your BS Stomping that can encourage a reverse of the negative thing in your life. For an example, if you need to spend more time with family, designate a where and when for it that you can stick you.
– Start something new that is helpful, perhaps a hobby, that encourages the new culture/behaviour/doings that you want in your life.
I’m not the kind of person who usually tells others to ‘get angry.’ But in this instance yea, Ill tell you to get angry! I’ll tell you to get real angry. Angry enough to feel the passion surge up inside of you and for you to finally stomp your foot on the ground and say ENOUGH OF MY OWN BS!
Please remember, we aren’t encouraging you to get angry with others or live in a state of anger. But rather, when you feel a revelation about yourself or your life that brings about a bubbling of justified anger and urgency, listen to it.
When we stomp on our BS, we might actually begin to create the compost we need to have renewed growth. Lovely, isn’t it?
And so, thank you to Mr. Rhino our friend, for stopping right near us and letting us see you squish your stuff, so that we may learn how to squish ours.