“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results”.- Albert Einstein
I can’t describe the feelings that raced through my body as I was walking towards my girlfriend. This would be the last time she would be my fiancée, as she was about to become my wife. I sensed the energy of my family and my closest friends who had travelled the world to be with us on our wedding day. I felt so grateful to have them all with me and celebrate the union I was about to enter with the woman who had transformed my life, and given me the greatest gift I could have dreamt of, namely unconditional love.
It was not too long ago that I was still partying at clubs, and living the seemingly exciting life of a bachelor. To some friends, it seemed that at some point I just suddenly changed, found the love of my life and decided to settle down. This is the path that we all expect to take eventually, and some in fact do. However, in my case, it didn’t happen that way. In fact, I remember this crucial moment in which I was facing a cross road:
This day happened when this girl I was dating a few years back simply disappeared from my life. I felt devastated. I knew something deep inside of me kept guiding me towards incompatible girls, and that something was stopping me from fulfilling my life with the woman of my dreams. Somehow the girls I longed for kept fading away, while those who found interest in me, seemed incompatible to me. On this day, I realized that I had a choice to continue living the way I did, and experience similar results, or alternatively take a decision to make some necessary changes that would allow me to attract genuine love. I realized that this latter step would mean going out of my comfort zone, and postponing the instant gratifications of pleasurable adventures, in exchange for the long term reward of experiencing fulfilling relationships.
Thankfully, I had the courage to choose the path of change: This decision took me on an exciting journey of personal growth which I now believe will remain a lifelong process. I discovered that breakthroughs start with the belief that we are born to grow and transform, so that we nurture an open an agile mindset of wanting to learn from others, as well as from past experiences. I had always admired this trait in top athletes, but experienced firsthand how it applies to us all. Standing here in front of the woman of my dreams showed me that I had come a long way. At the same time it made me also hungry for more, especially now that I now have a partner in crime.