One of my mentors, many years ago shared this awesome quote, “If you’re riding a dead horse, for God’s sake, dismount.” This statement is pretty funny because it seems so obvious and absurd. But in practice, it’s quite tricky.
The reason it’s tricky is that pretty much nothing is ever fully dead. It’s just mostly dead. And we wonder that if we stick around, we might see a miracle. Or perhaps on a more practical level, we’re afraid that we might miss out on something great if we leave.
So we stick around in that dead end job that sucks the life out of us because someday we might still get that promotion. We hang around that boyfriend or girlfriend for years because maybe someday they’ll treat us the way we want.
We can even be doing good things. We can be volunteering. We’re doing our part to “give back.” It is so confusing. This is supposed to work, to bring life and joy, but our experience is that it’s mostly dead.
Sometimes the “thing” is not mostly dead. There’s some life in it. Yet, it’s not fully alive either. We keep getting small shots of excitement or happiness here and there. But it doesn’t last and then it goes back to being mundane. We get the pay increase at work, we dive into a hobby and get a sense of accomplishment, we get to live vicariously through TV characters. It sort of satisfies, but not really.
Sometimes we go into denial. We declare the horse alive, and convince ourself that it’s really not so bad. We think this is as good as it gets. There’s nothing more. We tell ourself it’s good, when really is it’s kind of dead. We settle for a dead horse, when we could have a powerful horse alive and full of spirit.
We hang in there, riding a dead horse.
The alternative is to experience being fully alive. Is what you are chasing in life going to make you feel fully alive, or is it gong to be more of the same? What really would make you feel fully alive? What would make you dance for joy? How can you inspire yourself and others, and end life saying, “Woah! Now, that was worth living for!”?
If you’re riding a dead horse, for God’s sake, dismount.
