The Tug of War

"You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals." George S. Patton

You begin with your family. You make some friends. You marry or commit to a life partner. More friends come along. Your family increases. All the people in your life have an influence, and it's never neutral. They either help you become all you can be, or they hold you down.

As your dream unfolds, as you rise to your destiny, not all of these people will go with you. Oh; I know you love them and wish you could take each and every one along. But it doesn't work that way. It's not your choice, really. It is theirs. But know this: they will tug at you, trying to keep you down. They don't want to hold you back. Really they don't. Their own personal demons of dysfunction and addiction have a grip on them. They refuse help, or when they do get it, they can't or won't follow through. There you are, moving on to a higher plane, and they tug desperately as they realize you are slipping out of their reach. They won't go with you; they would rather you stay, where your only purpose would be to enable them and cripple them. Then there are the negative, unhappy people who tug. Misery loves company, after all, and you feel them pulling you back down, sucking the life and energy from you. They love to tell you how it can't be done. Yet you persevere, finding joy and meaning in moving onward and upward. And your happiness becomes an affront to their misery, so after tugging for a while, they just let go.

As you make your ascent, you won't do it alone, for there are some who will go with you. They've been there all along, and now that your dream is going to be realized, well! They won't miss this for the world. And the people left behind? You didn't cut them out of your life; you simply moved on and they didn't want to go along.

Is your dream unfolding? Do you have a compelling destiny, a purpose for your life? At some point you have to say to those tugging on you, "I'd love to take you all with me, but I won't allow you to hold be down. I am going, with or without you. But I'm going."

Then you just go.

Susan