The Uncertainty of Change

This is a guest post from my favorite guitar-junkie and chocolate chip cookie afficionado, Jim Woods. Jim recently quit his “normal” life to pursue his dreams. He gave up life in the Music City and now lives in a cornfield in Ohio. Today he is releasing a new eBook he co-authored with Erik Fisher titled Hit the Mark.

For the last couple months, I’ve been in the process of moving. Not just from one house to another, but from Tennessee to Ohio. I’ve come across boxes and boxes of things I’ve saved from my childhood. Baseball cards, comic books, video games, books, journals, action figures, and a million other trinkets.

The last night in Nashville a friend dropped by to say good-bye.

“So you have your entire life packed in a U-haul?” she said.

photo by The Muuj (creative commons license)

My stomach sank.

I wanted to argue with her and be offended by the question. But I couldn’t. She was right to an extent.

I thought to myself, “Is my real goal in life to accumulate more stuff?”

Emotional Attachments

Clutter represents a lack of decision making. Excess baggage does too.

If you’ve ever watched the TV show Hoarders, you will often see that those who hoard have an emotional attachment to the things they keep.

In the past I have not been great at making decisions. I over-analyze and play out all of the scenarios in my head. I play the “what if” game and just hang on to things I know I don’t need.

The baseball cards I have kept over the years are just my own version of Holden Caulfield’s ducks in Central Park from The Catcher in the Rye (affiliate link.) I want to keep a piece of my childhood, my innocence.

The Choice

I’m sure each of us is “hoarding” something in one way or another. We are emotional beings and we want to cling to the past to predict the future—or at least keep the future as familiar as possible.

Change scares us because of the uncertainty, but change can’t be controlled. Every day we know one phone call can change everything. Nothing in life is guaranteed.

Do we let this paralyze us or do we live—actually live—life?

Each day is an opportunity to choose.