Just a few days ago, I was so conflicted about what I would do this summer that I almost ended up doing nothing. So how do you go from two wonderful options to nothing? You allow yourself to get paralyzed by fear. Paulo Coelho calls it the Acomodador, or giving up point (see excerpt below). Looking back, I realize that this is what happened to me. I allowed the fear of the unknown (a.k.a. the “what ifs?”) to consume my thoughts and completely change them. What if I don’t find a job? What if no one wants to rent my place? What if I go broke? What if…What if…What if…? As you can see the “what ifs” get progressively worse and more absurd as time goes on. Just allow yourself to sit with fear and it’ll take you on a mental ride where you find yourself questioning everything. I had reached my acomodador. Fortunately, I knew the source of my anxiety and did finally make a decision thanks to the listening ear of a few friends and a kick in the butt from one who basically told me to stop the foolishness and just do it.
So, I’m going to Spain! I had to take it back to focusing on my dreams and aspirations, and not my fears. I love to travel, I want to learn Spanish, I have the time travel, I have people to travel with, my ideal job is to be a travel journalist…the paella, sangria and siestas are an added bonus.
“The Acomodador, or giving up point – There is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress: a trauma, a particular defeat, disappointment in love, even a victory that we did not understand, can make cowards of us and prevent us from moving on. As part of the process of increasing our powers, we must first free ourselves from that giving up point, and to do so, you must review your life and find out where it occurred.” -The Zahir by Paulo Coelho