Are you all in?

What does it mean to be all in? Many times in life we stop short of giving our best effort. We go as far as it feels comfortable and just as the magic is about to happen, we pull back or quit altogether. Why? Because it became challenging. It was getting hard and the possibility that we might fail crept up. So rather then push forward we stayed in our comfort zone and we quit.

This brings me to my initial question of what it means to be all in. If you are truly all in there is no pulling back, there is no quitting, because being all in means that you have given yourself no choice. There is no emergency exit. There is no parachute. You are in the captains chair and you are either going to succeed or go down in an epic ball of flames. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Yoda, “There is no try. There is only do or do not.”

I am someone that thrives on pressure. If you want me to move then you had better light a fire under my ass because otherwise I’m not going anywhere. I am someone that needs to be all in, everything on the line. There can be no surrender and no retreat. I am a dreamer, a creator. I have wild ideas and even wilder plans, goals and aspirations.

I don’t care to live my life on the fringe, in the obscurity (and protection) of the shadows. I want to be front and center, experiencing everything this wild and crazy life has to offer. If I am not living my life in this fashion then I become depressed and my spirit struggles to find a sense of direction.

I am guessing that this is more common then not and most of us, even if we don’t like to admit it, wish that we could do more, see more and BE more. I believe that most of us are living a life that is not entirely of our choosing and we feel powerless to make a change. This is NOT the case. You have the power to change anything and everything at any time that you deem appropriate. The moment you decide to go all in is the moment that there is no turning back. No surrender. No retreat.

What do you want from your life? Are you living your passion or are you slowly inching your way towards death on a daily basis living a life that does not fulfill you? STOP. Take responsibility for the fact that your reality is such because of the choices that you have made, and understand that you have the power to make a different choice today. Make today the day you decide get comfortable being uncomfortable and go ALL IN!