I do it too. I think we all do, but some are much better at overcoming it than others.
I don’t know if it’s human nature — programmed into us at some basic level. Or if it’s learned — taught by the culture and tribes to which we belong. But I do know it’s a force that is difficult, sometimes impossible, to overcome.
It’s what keeps people in abusive relationships, crummy jobs, and godforsaken circumstances. Those are the highlight reels. You read about them, see them in news clips, and listen to those stories detailed in podcasts. You probably shake your head and say, “not me.”
But it’s also a much darker and more insidious force that keeps billions of others — probably you and me — on a path of mediocre, malaise, and unrealized dreams.
That force is the familiar.
We love what we know. We do what we know. We choose what we know. We seek out what others know so we can follow it. We borrow what others know.
But the path to somewhere is paved with the unfamiliar.
