“Decide what to be, and go be it.”

I’ve been ruminating on this line for a few days: “Decide what to be, and go be it.”

It’s from an Avett Brother song, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.

Beautiful simplicity.

I think it resonates so powerfully because we see change as monumental. If we are a bag of habits and thoughts, having taken years to fill that bag with weight we don’t want to carry, surely it must take years to unpack, and colossal strength we don’t have.

But what if we simply decided to be different for a moment? What if I put on the left shoe first instead of the right today? What if every bad habit I had was as simple to fix as telling myself “I choose something different” in a split second?

Maybe don’t sweat the bag. The bag will take care of itself, and unpacking is for tomorrow. Right here, in the now, maybe all that’s required is one small choice to step in the right direction. Maybe we could trust in all our imperfect wonder that next year, tomorrow, the next moment will be addressed when we’re in them.

“Decide what to be”—right now—“and go be it.”