The Pivot Year

by Brianna Wiest

Will you continue to replay the memories of yesterday, or will you meet the moment and make the most of what is in front of you now?

You are exactly where you need to be. This is the perfect day to start your life again.

When you do not know what is next, you enter the realm of infinite potential.

Happiness is not having the best of everything, but the ability to make the best of anything.

Happiness is not something that comes to you when every problem is solved and all things are perfectly in place, but in the shining silver linings that remind us the light of day is always there, if you slow down enough to notice.

Practice the pause.

You may believe that living life to the fullest is seeing every country in the world and quitting your job on a whim and falling recklessly in love, but it’s really just knowing how to be where your feet are.

Notice what stays. Notice what is constant. Notice what perseveres.

You are all that is steady and safe within you.

You will have to learn how to outgrow some things you love. You will have to learn that some things are right for a time, but not forever.

You will have to learn that the very act of letting go is not a failure, but a signal of completion: one of the truest signs that you are evolving as a human being.

Let yourself be guided in the quietest ways.

102 You are meant to change. You are meant to change your mind. You are meant to change your perception. You are meant to change what you think you want within this world. You are meant to evolve, you are meant to adapt, you are meant to grow.

When you feel even the smallest bit of happiness, slow down.

157 Everything that is meant for you is still waiting for you. Even if you have failed in the past, even if you feel so stuck you cannot imagine making it through one more day. Even if you messed up every shot you were given, if you don’t believe in yourself, if you’re afraid, if you aren’t sure how things will work out, and even if nobody else would understand. You still contain within you the potential of all you ever wanted to be. It is never too late.

You think the journey is becoming enough for other people, but it is actually learning to be enough for yourself.

We all just want to be loved, we all just want to be known.

246 On the days when it feels like you will never get through this season, this period, this transition—please remember all of the mountains you have scaled before.

254 You don’t have to figure your entire life out today. Show up a little more as the person you want to be. Tomorrow, do it again.

If it is truly meant for you, it will come back to you.

You hold yourself back when you do not give yourself the grace to grow.

262 Go, because it does not serve you to live beneath the weight of all the lives you could have lived.

Maybe it was never about waiting for someone else to show up and make it all okay, but realizing that you’ve had that power inside you all along.

How do you stop worrying? You realize that the power you need to get through absolutely anything is dormant inside of you and will not be activated until the moment you need it; the version of you that will walk you forward will be born in the doorway of the moment you need them.

285 In the end, we are all just seeking the courage to love what we really love. To choose what makes us truly happy.

Prioritize the depth of your connections as opposed to the width of them.

355 Not every connection is meant to last forever, and the ending is not a failure. Sometimes, it is a sign of completion. Sometimes, it is a sign of growth. Sometimes, it is a sign of beauty. Sometimes, it is a sign of the truest love of all—the willingness to let someone chase the life that’s calling to them.

Your hunger for a more profound and vivid life experience is the clearest sign that you are destined to bring that into existence.