A dead end is the point beyond which no movement or progress can be made.

In our own lives, we often tend to think of them in connection with our jobs, businesses or relationships. But this is too limited a perspective.

For a dead end also can be an activity (i.e. too much TV), a behavior (i.e. food addiction) or even a mindset (i.e. there isn’t enough _____ ). Essentially, it can be anything that limits our overall life experience.

When we stay stuck in a dead end for too long, our lives stagnate. Without change or forward movement, various aspects of our lives eventually becomes drought-like.

Even then, we may still struggle to quit the dead ends, and for one simple reason: Because we hide there.

Because we know if we jettison the baggage that’s weighed us down and kept our attention diverted, we are left with nowhere else to focus but on ourselves. And with nowhere else to invest our time, resources and energy, our dreams and our life vision take center stage.

And rather than stagnation, we soon begin to experience something much scarier.

Momentum.

With our energy freed from what no longer serves us, it now flows freely and so, too, does our life. It’s as if we have found a river and as it carries us powerfully forward, the previously parched aspects of our lives become full.

What this newly found momentum highlights all too clearly is how we made living our dreams much harder than they needed to be. It also brings to our attention how we’ve often supported others and their dreams at the continued expense of our own.

But when we embrace, rather than fear the momentum, we note the power and effectiveness it has to change our lives for the better. We see the wisdom of living with a new modus operandi: “To thine own self—and to thine own dreams and life vision—be true.”

And it’s a motto we begin to live…as soon as we quit the dead ends.