I have trained in a secret kung fu system for about 20 years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not secret in the sense we’re trying to hide it from anyone, it’s secret in that there is a process you must go through to get all the knowledge, and most people (myself included, at this time) don’t make it through the entire process.
Along the way, one of the things that you learn is that most martial arts training is crap. The problem with that knowledge is, most people (1) don’t know it’s crap, (2) think they know a lot more than they really do and (3) aren’t prepared to hear that what they’re training in is…crap. So, the number of people with whom you can talk about your favourite thing becomes…extremely limited.
When we were discussing this, my teacher laughed and told us, “You wanted the power, but you didn’t ask the price.”
So it is with change, with making a mid life pivot. The hardest part is not actually the change, it’s the willingness to change.
We spend too much of our lives in a haze, dreaming about something. We think about the things we want, we even may think about the way to get them, but we never think about what we have to give up.
You want a billion dollars, and the lifestyle that goes with it? Okay, say goodbye to privacy, and pretty much everyone you ever knew. Say hello to private security, and a whole new social circle you have nothing in common with.
It’s said that you can own a certain amount of money, and after that, the money owns you.
Expand this to any change.
You’re willing to make the change, but are you sure the change is something that you genuinely want?
