When you reach into the depths of your memory and can barely remember the last time you felt terrified. The last time nerves pirouetted through your throat. The last time you woke up in the morning with the simple, immeasurable fear that you could mess up something big. That there was something in your life that worth losing. You know it's time to leave when you cannot recall your last risk.
Not just tired in the physical sense but in the spiritual, emotional realm. Tired of doing the same things, of speaking with the same people, tired of recycling the same old ideas day after day after day. You know it's time to leave when you cannot seem to shake your soul awake, even when you've given your body more rest than it could possibly need.
When the movers and shakers have moved on and those of you left have grown complacent. When you cannot remember the last time you stayed up all night having an invigorating discussion with a close friend or a debate that shook you down to your core. When your topics of discussion have grown petty and your greatest ideas are unexpressed. You know its time to leave when you are shrinking, not growing, through the company and habits that you keep.
When 200% is expected of you, but 25% is given in return. When your best is simply turned a blind eye to, but your worst is always emphasized with fervor. When no amount you give is ever enough, and yet endless demands are rolling in. You know it's time to leave when the only person who's still looking out for you is you.
When your passion has jumped ship long ago, when your spirit's hitchhiked straight out of town. You know it's time to leave when your intellect begs you to stay but your heart knows that this is not your place. Knows that there's somewhere else, something else out there that could grow you in ways your intellect can't even imagine.
When your hands are tied and your options are cut short and the ideas that are bursting from the core of you have no space left to take flight. When the whole of you, the center of you, the absolute best of you is begging to be let out, but there's nowhere left for you to expand. You know it's time to leave when the future is devoid of opportunity. When everything ahead of you looks bleak.
When that something that brims on inside of you - that ever-churning fire that can't die - knows that your time here has passed. That your best days are behind you. That it's time to move forward, to go on, to go find the ever-elusive something that's going to grow you next.