I was talking with my sister the other day, and we started discussing whether our younger selves would be proud of who we are today and the lives we’re living.
Think about that for a minute.
What did you want to be when you were sixteen? What were your dreams, your goals, your aspirations?
Are you living that life?
Are you pursuing those dreams?
Would that sixteen-year-old version of you be proud of who you’ve become?
Or have you tucked her away in a closet somewhere…
sat her on a shelf collecting dust,
set her aside for someone else’s needs,
made sacrifices that slowly pushed her identity aside?
If you’re like me, it’s probably a little of all of the above.
But honestly, I have to take responsibility for my part in it.
You see, I’ve lived much of my life functionally frozen, and until recently, I didn’t even realize that was a thing.
There have been so many times when I let reasons and excuses talk me out of opportunities. I’ve found a thousand reasons why I wouldn’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t do something, instead of finding just one reason why I would, could, or should.
And now, I sometimes wonder where my life might be if I had chosen differently.
Throughout my life, fear has frozen my success and my progress. I worried about what if I fail instead of asking, but what if I fly? I worried about what if they don’t like me instead of considering, what if it all works out? Or better yet, what if I make an impact?
If you struggle with any signs of functional freezing, such as:
- Procrastination
- Imposter syndrome
- Perfectionism
- Fear of failure
- Fear of the unknown
- Overwhelm
- Bed rotting
- Anxiety
- Time blindness
- Financial stress
Then at some point, you have to stop giving your excuses special treatment.
Your situation may explain where you are, but it doesn’t have to determine where you stay.
It’s like being bitten by a poisonous snake. The venom is inside you, making you sick and weak, yet instead of removing the venom and healing, you keep chasing the snake, searching for answers, closure, or explanations. But healing and progress are inside jobs. They have to come from you.
No one can stop you from healing or moving forward except you.
Winners don’t wait for perfect conditions. They get up, put both feet on the floor, take one step after another, and create momentum. They step outside their comfort zones. They stop finding a million reasons why they can’t and focus on one reason why they can. They show up.
So the question is simple: Are you finding a way, or finding another reason?
Because you get to decide.
I’ve decided that 2026 will be the year I step out of my comfort zone. The year I get out of my head, out of my own way, and jump. The year I say yes to opportunities I would normally find a thousand reasons to decline.
This is the year I begin making that sixteen-year-old girl proud by becoming the woman she dreamed of being and living the life she imagined and deserved.
© michelle bryant griffin
