Sometimes we get so comfortable and so familiar with where we are, that we forget to keep moving forward.

In “I Already Did That”, from Joy is My Compass, Alan Cohen writes:

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar, and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. Ironically, there is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. We are only truly secure when we are feeling alive. As Helen Keller said, “Life is a daring adventure - or nothing.” Another teacher explained, “A ship in a harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for.” And we are reminded to behold the turtle who makes progress only when he is willing to stick his neck out.

Whenever I face the possibility of doing something different, and I get that feeling of reluctance, I try to remember to ask myself, “But this thing that I want to keep doing that’s so sure and so comfortable … did I already do that? Is it time to move on?” And sometimes, there’s more to what I’m doing that I still have to experience. But sometimes, too, I’ve already experienced the fullness of that particular decision.

And it is time to move on.

Cohen ends with this:

There are two ways in which any path we walk upon strengthens us: Once, when we commit ourselves to it; and again, when we choose to leave it. We build rafts to carry us from one side of a river to the other. To attempt to carry the raft on the next footpath would be self-defeating. Spiritual wisdom is simply knowing when to build the raft, and when to leave it behind.

Too often, I tend to forget that I’m not only making decisions to commit myself to something - there is also a time when it is time to move on, and do something a little different. “In movement there is life, and in change there is power.”