exhale.

Rules

"Three simple rules in life: If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no. If you do not step forward, you will always be in the same place."

But sometimes, most times, those rules aren't so easy to follow.

#1: Sometimes, you try to go after what you want. You chase it for days, maybe even weeks or months.

In the end, either it continuously evades you,

Or when you catch up, you find you were chasing the wrong thing the whole time.

Or what you were chasing isn't quite what, or as good as, what you originally wanted or what you thought you wanted.

And occasionally, you fall in the midst of the chase and can only watch helplessly as the thing you want the most drifts further and further away.

#2: Sometimes, no matter how much you attempt to ask for something, the words never find their way past your lips.

Fear can paralyze you, rooting you to the spot. Gasping for air with no words coming out.

It's not usually fear of asking the question...it's fear of hearing the answer, because with some questions, it's so unpredictable.

Where the "wrong answer" may catapult you to the edge, or over it.

The answer may always be no if you never ask, but there are worse outcomes than that simple two letter word;

And those possibilities are what hold your tongue and stop you from asking the question.

#3: Sometimes, it's not your choice to step forward, and you can't always choose the path you're stepping on to.

Sometimes you may be nudged, pushed, or violently shoved in a different direction than the one you originally wanted to take.

But if you try to go back, or stay still, you are constantly told "just keep going" or "it will get better".

So maybe I want to stay in the same place, or maybe even step backwards.

It's comfortable where I am,

I know it's boundaries, every nook and every cranny.

But sometimes, if you don't step forward, you'll begin to sink.

Trapped in quicksand.

Then when you finally want to make that step...it's not possible.

There are three simple rules in life,
But take each with a pinch of salt.