“Monday 5 Things” ….. Roads, Clarity, & Momentum …..
June 2nd, 2025 by D. Paul Graham
Ever curious and always amused by the quirks of life, join D. Paul Graham each Monday for more M5T pondering.
“Blue Ridge Backroads” Photo by D. Paul Graham, circa 2020
I love to drive. From the day I turned sixteen and got my license, I would often drive without a map (yeah, that was well before GPS and map apps), without a mission. Just an overwhelming and burning instinct to go. Not necessarily to escape, but to just move forward and to discover. Somewhere beyond the highways and backroads of Northern Ontario, I found something greater than ambition. I found pure joy found in motion without justification. No destination. No timeline. Just movement. And in that movement, a truth rose up. Movement has made me realize that I spend far too much time planning, trying to “make sense” of the next step, and not enough time, “taking” that next step. At my ripe old age of 62, I battle that internal dichotomy to this day. Maps have a place in our lives, but they can create a false comfort. Maps say, “this is the right way.” But I’ve found that my real progress, the greatest delights in my life, have been discovered in detours, mistakes, and blind turns that I’ve taken on faith. And it is in movement that I’ve found clarity in my life. This morning, I won’t wait for alignment, for perfection, or even waiting to feel ready. This morning’s M5T lights a match to burn the map, in order to move, to build, and to grow.
1. MAKE A FAST DECISION. Today. Not tomorrow. Not after another podcast or a “quick” brainstorm session. Pick something and pull the trigger. Build your confidence with motion, not meditation. Even a wrong move is better than sitting stewing in doubt. Now is the time to start. Decide, execute, and adjust later. Indecision is like a self-inflicted coma. You’re not confused. You’re fearful. Decide to act before your fear makes the decision for you. Chances are, you already know what you need to do. Fear is tireless. The question isn’t whether it will fade, but whether you’ll act before someone else seizes what you were too fearful to claim. Every time you say, “I’m thinking about it,” someone else is out there doing it. Being indecisive enables comfortable mediocrity.
2. EXAMINE YOUR CIRCLE. Look around yourself. Who’s pushing you? Who’s pacifying you? If those closest to you are not being honest with you, challenging your standards, or questioning your motives, they’re facilitating your stagnation and ordinariness. Who levels you up and who keeps you sedated? If those around you don’t challenge you, they chain you. Cut the cord or raise the conversation. Who drains you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Dead weight doesn’t get carried to the next level. It’s well-used adage, but if you’re the sharpest, boldest, most committed person in a group, you’re in the wrong group. People who make you slightly uncomfortable remind you of what’s possible. Surround yourself with them. Or stay where it’s safe and soft and forgettable. Your call.
3. CHANGE YOUR ROOM. Comfort isn’t neutral. It’s a sedative. If your environment doesn’t stretch you, it’s shrinking you. If your environment is too familiar, it can stunt your growth. New rooms have new air, new standards, and new expectations. Find the room that forces you to level up or get left behind. Leave the room that built you before it buries you. Growth should be a most positive escape. If your current environment feels “fine,” that could be code for slow death. You cannot become the next-level version of yourself in a space designed for who you used to be. You don’t need to ask for permission. You need to walk out, close the door, and never look back. If your environment is too familiar, it can be destructive. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is leave the place that once built you. Because what built you then might be boxing you in now. The people who made you feel safe might not be able to help you soar. You need new mirrors, new lenses that reflect your future self. The next level won’t arrive while you wait. It reveals itself to you as you move. Give yourself permission to grow beyond your zip code, your circle, your comfort zone.
4. SAY THE QUIET THING OUT LOUD. Stop rehearsing your truth in private. Find your voice and use it. Put it on the table. Your idea. Your need. Your resentment. Your hope. Speak it and make it real with honesty and integrity. Silence is expensive, and you’ve been paying for it with your potential. You know that thing. That thing you’ve been rehearsing in your head for six months. Say it. Post it. Pitch it. Own it. You’re not doing anyone, let alone yourself, a favor by being silent about your vision. Truth becomes power the moment it dares to be spoken. Think about all that truth you’ve been choking on. Say the thing you’ve been hiding. Say it like you mean it, with no whispers, no apologies, with clarity, and without flinching. Truth is like molten metal until it’s struck on the anvil of speech. Only then does it take shape and strength. You can’t conquer what you refuse to name or what you refuse to bring out of darkness and into the light.
5. THE FUTURE YOU. Show up like the version of you that no one’s met yet, but you know is in there, perhaps hidden for years, or in the process of who you are becoming. That future you? The partner. The spouse. The artist. The leader. The writer. The builder. The parent. The friend. Start acting like your future self is watching. Start making decisions that future you would be proud of. No one really cares about your calendar color-coded calendar or your social media posts about “discipline.” Stop apologizing for your ambition. Move like it’s already yours. Think big. Execute bigger. No disclaimers. No shrinking. No Plan B. Move like your legacy depends on it. You’ve posted enough. You’ve planned enough. No gentle pivots. No soft landings. Stop pretending who you are. You’re a sleeping giant that needs to wake up. Own the real you. You don’t need more time. Now’s the time to move. The future you is watching.
Here's to a week of clarity from movement, of trusting your mind, and living the deeper pull of who you really are.
For over 13 years, D. Paul Graham has published “Monday 5 Things” ™, also known to readers as M5T™. He continues to get in his car to just drive.
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