Settling is not synonymous with failure.

It’s true.

Sometimes settling really just means choosing an option because it is safe, because it is practical. Sometimes settling is choosing a road because it’s smooth, it’s clear. It’s not covered with bumps and uncertainty and holes that may appear out of nowhere and swallow you up when you least expect them to.

Sometimes settling is the right, the best choice. And I think that’s okay.

It’s okay to want stability, to want comfort. It’s okay not gravitate towards impulsivity and the unknown. It’s okay to want to sleep surely and soundly. It’s okay to settle if settling ultimately leads to your happy life.

But while there a things in your life where settling, where choosing that easy comfort, where finding yourself on a path that’s steady and smooth is perfectly fine, there’s one area of your life where you must never, never settle.

And that’s with love.

See, life is unpredictable. So when you find yourself in a place of certain comfort, it can be tempting to just go without whatever, with whoever makes you feel okay.

But is okay really what you want when it comes to love?

Is “just fine” what you want when it comes to your happily ever after?

Is “this will do” really, really what you want to say about someone who is supposed to be your one and only?

No.

Love is one of the most magical, unbelievable things that you can hope to experience in this lifetime. Love will shift your entire world and rock you so hard that you’ll struggle to remember what it was like before. Love will change you, shape you, morph you, and leave you changed forever after its been there.

Love is not just something, it is everything.

Which is why you cannot, and should not, ever settle for anything less than extraordinary.

Love shouldn’t leave you feeling settled, it should leave you breathless. Love shouldn’t make you feel just whatever, it should electrify you. Love shouldn’t be about comfort or smooth sailing or consistency. Those should be things that come WITH the sparks. With the magic. With the things that make love so special, and so worth fighting for.

So go ahead and settle. Choose a life of smooth roads that makes you feel safe and secure. Settle for a life that makes you happy and stable and that lets you sleep soundly.

But find a love that excites you even when it’s comfortable, gives you butterflies even when it’s quiet. A love that makes you weak in the knees, even when everything else around you is sturdy. A love that makes you feel like a rush of adrenaline, even when you’re standing still. Find a love that makes you feel like you’re on fire, even when you’re doing nothing.

Because when you find a love like that, you’ll never really be settling at all.