How To Write the Next Chapter of Your Life
By: Megan Boley
Tags: Life Lessons, Personal Growth, Personal Development, Self, Life

How To Write the Next Chapter of Your Life

Turn the page and let go when it’s time.

Photo by Darren Lawrence on Unsplash

It’s finally happening.

After six years, half of which I spent wanting to leave, I’m finally moving out of Washington, DC.

Moving away from a city you call home is always hard. Even if you didn’t like the city that much, there’s still probably something about it you’ll miss. The memories, the friends, the experiences — or maybe just that sandwich shop on the corner with the best grilled cheese.

After another day of loathing the atmosphere of the city, something in me finally snapped.

Nothing was holding me there, nothing was binding me to my location. I was free to leave whenever I wanted. So why didn’t I just go?

Once I realized that I was the only one holding me back, I got out of my own way — and I got out of there.

Nothing ever happens if nothing ever happens

For the past three years, I’ve been re-reading the same chapter of my Washington, DC story. I’ve been doing the same routine, the same thing, and wondering why I wasn’t feeling fulfilled.

In the back of my mind, hidden away in that place I don’t often look at but where I keep my gut instincts, I knew I needed to move on from DC. But I was scared. I was scared to admit to myself what I really wanted, and I was scared to try to obtain it, because I knew it would be hard.

Many amazing, life-changing things that you’re meant to have, you don’t come by them easily. And that’s the point. The struggle, the work it takes to achieve them — that’s part of what makes them so amazing and life-changing. Without the struggle, their value would be lessened.

Just because a goal or something you want will be hard to achieve — that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t do it. You have to fight the fear and make the hard decisions, if you want your life to change.

Nothing ever happens if nothing ever happens.

Your life is more than one chapter

When I finally admitted to myself that my dream (for the next few years anyway) is to live in Hawaii — that was just the first step.

The next step was allowing myself to actually see it as a real, concrete, achievable goal within my reach. And once I did that — my entire outlook changed.

Rather than write it off as an impossible task, a pipe dream, I researched and laid out the steps I would need in order to make it happen. I made a spreadsheet. I tracked down the right resources. I found tangible things that would help me on my journey to living in Hawaii.

Once I proved to myself that I could do it — that’s when I finally opened my eyes and stopped re-reading my DC chapter.

Life has so much more in store for you than that one, comfortable, favorite chapter you keep re-reading.

Yes, it’s a great chapter, full of fun memories and close friends. But there’s more out there for you. More adventures to be had. More experiences to fill your pages.

Decide what you want, and let yourself have it. Make a plan. Research the steps necessary in order to get there.

Once you have those tangible steps written down in a place where you can see them, that’s what will help you bring those new dreams to fruition and begin your new chapter.

Your life gets so much bigger the moment you decide to turn the page

Your life expands once you decide to close the chapter and step into the unknown.

It’s scary — of course it’s scary. But if you currently have everything you said you’ve ever wanted, and you’re still feeling empty — maybe it’s time for something different.

Not something more — not more stuff or more money — but a new experience. A new life in a new place, with new goals.

Or maybe create a new life for yourself in the same place. Just because the setting is the same doesn’t mean that you can’t be different and choose to live differently.

Let go when it’s time

If there’s one thing that life has taught me, it’s that you need to let things go when it’s time to let them go — and let go with grace and gentleness.

Endings are hard, because change is hard. Change never gets easier. It’s so much easier to be comfortable, and to stick with what we know. But that’s now how you grow. That’s now how you learn and evolve. That’s not how life is supposed to be.

Life is not meant to be easy — life is meant to be lived.

You’re the only one who can turn that page. No one else can do it for you. No one else can tell you when the right time is, either. You’re in the driver’s seat, and it’s up to you.

Even though you may really love your current chapter and feel comfortable there, keep writing the rest of your story. There’s still so much more left unwritten.