When most of us reach the ripe old age of sixteen, one of the first things we want to do is learn to drive. Between age fourteen and fifteen we are chomping at the bit for the chance to get behind the wheel of a two ton machine. We can hardly wait to flash that license to all of our friends.
What we don't realize is before we can flash our friends (no pun intended) we must first learn how to use the tool better known as a car. In the right trained hands, a car can be more than something that gets us from point A to point B. It can be the difference between being at the right place at the right time when opportunity knocks or sitting on the sideline with too little and being too late. It can speed us into a future of success or drive us down the road of destruction. In order for the car to be that tool of success, we must know the ins and outs of using it. We must know the power of the driver's seat. The same goes for the driver's seat of our lives. Unless we are confident, defensive drivers in our lives, we can be run off the road, crashed into, hit and run on, head on collisoned , and more. More often than not, those other "cars" have uninsured drivers at the wheel, people that couldn't care less about you or the damage they have caused in your life.
Knowing the rules of the road allow us to move smoothly through life with little to no issues. Though from time to time, there might be an accident, your injuries will be few. Occasionally, you may even get lost, but having a plan and knowing where you want to go, will make getting back on course far easier than if you set out on your trip called life with no idea where you want to go or how you want to get there. Think back to when you were a child and you couldn't wait to grow up. What did you want to be: A policeman, a doctor, a writer, a musician? How does you life today compare to what you wanted as a child. Are you that person you wanted to be?
Remember your tool box? Remember what should be in it? Take out your mirror. Look into your eyes. Do you see that wide eyed child that wanted to be the Good Humor man? Do you see that child that wanted to be a painter? How much of your life is spent doing what you want to do. Is your life like the mother-in-law riding in the back seat telling you where to turn, how fast to go, what to look out for, when to stop, when to go? If you don't see that dreamer you used to be and you hear your mother-in-law's voice ringing in your ears, you need to pull over. Gather your self. Take your pen and paper out of your tool box and make a list. On that list, write all the things you ever wanted to do. (No this isn't a bucket list.) Circle all the things on that list you have done. If you have not circled anything, place a line through all the things that have become fleeting memories. Of what is left, begin to focus on that one thing that you wanted more than anything else. Focus on it and feel it and know that it is yours. Remember, don't worry about the road in front of you, only concern yourself with the road ahead of you.
Focus your energy into that destination. Feel yourself driving on the road toward that destination. Plot your course. Lock it into your GPS and go!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Doubt & Fear
There is nothing more detrimental to success than doubt. What you will have to realize in the process of designing and building your dreams into your reality, is that doubt will destroy your dreams from the inside out. Most people don't care one way or the other whether or not you are successful. The Reality is, when you are successful, the primary person you are trying to impress is yourself. When you are not successful, the primary person you have let down is yourself. Every one else is either a residual benefactor of your success or collateral damage as a result of your failure.
Doubt is like a slow poison. It creeps in and it settles at the bottom of your gut. You feel it any time you are trying something new. It doesn't scream at you, no. It whispers in your ear. It impersonates those that love you. It distracts you from the goal and makes you "look down." Don't look down! When you take your eyes off of your goal and you "look down" you see all those things that stir up doubt and allow it to fester into its alter ego, "fear."
When we are afraid of becoming stronger, becoming wiser, becoming smarter, becoming richer, becoming healthier, becoming all that we were designed to be all that we desire to be, we are afraid of success. Fear, like its alter ego doubt, is also poison, yet it is quick acting and will kill your dreams way faster than doubt. Fear holds you back from reaching beyond your comfort zone. I like to call the comfort zone the PPZ - Personal Prison Zone. This PPZ prevents you from having that carpe diem spirit of adventure you will require in order to reach the goals you have set. Reaching outside of that PPZ is where growth begins. Outside of the PPZ is where REAL life begins. Outside of the PPZ is where you will find the spouse of your dreams, the home of your dreams, the business or job of your dreams, the LIFE of your dreams!
Look around your PPZ. What is in it? Is the job you desire in the PPZ? Is the spouse you desire inside the PPZ? Is the home you desire inside the PPZ? What about the body, is that the body you want your effervescence to be carried in? If you answered no to any or all of these questions, it is time for you to detoxify your mind and soul and break out of that PPZ. Expand your boundaries to include areas you have been afraid to venture into. Expand your boundaries to include those things you doubted you could do. Push yourself past the point where the old you says give up. Look beyond that small window you have given yourself out into the world and all it all it has to offer. Do you see your potential out there waving to you? Well don't just sit there on your tool box, get up and get out there. Embrace your potential and transform it into kinetic possibility!
Eliminate the following from your vernacular: "I doubt it." "I can't," "It wont work." These toxic statements send poison signals into the atmosphere and they reverberate through out every fiber of your being. They infect those around you. They repel any good that is trying to get into your tiny window to your world. They spoil seeds of success you have planted. No more. You will arm yourself with the following tools and these will help you during your trip out of the PPZ:
1. Hand mirror
2. Pen
3. Note pad
These three items will be the combination necessary to eliminate doubt and fear from your life.
Open your tool box and take out the mirror. Hold it in front of your face. Look at yourself. Look at your eyes, your nose, your lips, your hair, you ears, your eyebrows, your eyelashes, your chin, your forehead. Look at every feature of your face. Learn it. Know it. Become friends with it. I know, you are thinking, why should I do that? I see my face every day. You SEE your face every day, but do your KNOW the person that is staring back at you? Have you met the successful person on the other side of those eyes just chomping at the bit to get out. Or is that person lost in the PPZ?
From this point on, you will access your tool box on a daily basis. You will utilize your mirror and you will look yourself in the face and you will tell yourself you are worth every darn cell in your body. You deserve happiness, you deserve strength of body and mind, you deserve stability, and you deserve peace. No longer will you be trapped by doubt and fear. You will have all that you deserve and more. You will find out about the other tools soon enough.
Doubt is like a slow poison. It creeps in and it settles at the bottom of your gut. You feel it any time you are trying something new. It doesn't scream at you, no. It whispers in your ear. It impersonates those that love you. It distracts you from the goal and makes you "look down." Don't look down! When you take your eyes off of your goal and you "look down" you see all those things that stir up doubt and allow it to fester into its alter ego, "fear."
When we are afraid of becoming stronger, becoming wiser, becoming smarter, becoming richer, becoming healthier, becoming all that we were designed to be all that we desire to be, we are afraid of success. Fear, like its alter ego doubt, is also poison, yet it is quick acting and will kill your dreams way faster than doubt. Fear holds you back from reaching beyond your comfort zone. I like to call the comfort zone the PPZ - Personal Prison Zone. This PPZ prevents you from having that carpe diem spirit of adventure you will require in order to reach the goals you have set. Reaching outside of that PPZ is where growth begins. Outside of the PPZ is where REAL life begins. Outside of the PPZ is where you will find the spouse of your dreams, the home of your dreams, the business or job of your dreams, the LIFE of your dreams!
Look around your PPZ. What is in it? Is the job you desire in the PPZ? Is the spouse you desire inside the PPZ? Is the home you desire inside the PPZ? What about the body, is that the body you want your effervescence to be carried in? If you answered no to any or all of these questions, it is time for you to detoxify your mind and soul and break out of that PPZ. Expand your boundaries to include areas you have been afraid to venture into. Expand your boundaries to include those things you doubted you could do. Push yourself past the point where the old you says give up. Look beyond that small window you have given yourself out into the world and all it all it has to offer. Do you see your potential out there waving to you? Well don't just sit there on your tool box, get up and get out there. Embrace your potential and transform it into kinetic possibility!
Eliminate the following from your vernacular: "I doubt it." "I can't," "It wont work." These toxic statements send poison signals into the atmosphere and they reverberate through out every fiber of your being. They infect those around you. They repel any good that is trying to get into your tiny window to your world. They spoil seeds of success you have planted. No more. You will arm yourself with the following tools and these will help you during your trip out of the PPZ:
1. Hand mirror
2. Pen
3. Note pad
These three items will be the combination necessary to eliminate doubt and fear from your life.
Open your tool box and take out the mirror. Hold it in front of your face. Look at yourself. Look at your eyes, your nose, your lips, your hair, you ears, your eyebrows, your eyelashes, your chin, your forehead. Look at every feature of your face. Learn it. Know it. Become friends with it. I know, you are thinking, why should I do that? I see my face every day. You SEE your face every day, but do your KNOW the person that is staring back at you? Have you met the successful person on the other side of those eyes just chomping at the bit to get out. Or is that person lost in the PPZ?
From this point on, you will access your tool box on a daily basis. You will utilize your mirror and you will look yourself in the face and you will tell yourself you are worth every darn cell in your body. You deserve happiness, you deserve strength of body and mind, you deserve stability, and you deserve peace. No longer will you be trapped by doubt and fear. You will have all that you deserve and more. You will find out about the other tools soon enough.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Building on Change
You are in the business of building the best life you can have. You know nothing ever changes while you stay the same. Some times when we feel like "something" is missing or "something" isn't right or we feel like we are not making progress, it is because we have outgrown what we are doing in life and we need to move on and move up. If you are one of those people that feel like being in the same spot all the time is normal, you are in denial of your potential to grow and flourish. If you are struggling to become the "you" you have always wanted to be, perhaps you should remove fear from your line of sight and just step out there. It takes courage to do something different. It takes courage to change the routine. It is ok to feel afraid to do something and it is ok to feel pain while you are doing that "something" what ever it may be. If you feel afraid, you feel real. But fear is clearly an illusion. Ask yourself, "what am I afraid of?" Now make a list of all those things you are afraid of: failure, rejection, being different, not being liked, and other emotional responses to change. Follow that up with another question: "How many times did (fill in the blank with some one you look up to) fail at (fill in the blank with that thing your role model has be come successful at) before they were successful. Ask yourself: "If they had given up, would they be my role model today?" More than likely the answer is no. More than likely, you would not even know who they are. Are you the pebble on the bank waiting for some one else to come along and toss you in before you make a change or are you the person that comes along and tosses the pebble into the water that causes the ripples that cause the waves that cause the change? You see how that works? You have to be the catalyst for your own change.
Remove the barriers to change. Put the baggage on the curb. Stop sitting on the tool box and open it up and take out the tools you need to build your dreams into your reality. You are the architect of your own world. I don't know you from Adam, but what I do know is you are the sole proprietor of your existence. I don't know what you believe, faith is the foundation from which all strong people are built. Faith strengthens many from the inside out. Faith can fuel the fire for many to make the necessary changes that get them where they want to be tomorrow. Think of your life as if it were a car. There is a specific direction you want your car to go. There is a specific destination you want your car to take you to. If life is a car, would you rather be in the driver's seat or the passenger's seat. Trust me, being in the passenger's seat watching the scenery zoom past will land you in a place you definitely do not want to be. There are no breaks on the passenger side. There is no steering wheel on the passenger side, and strapping yourself into the seatbelt wont always keep you safe. The ride might be nice for a little while but what about when you turn down that road you did not want to turn down or you look up and there is that "detour" sign in front of you. Now what do you do. Suddenly, you become motivated to take over the driving and get things back on course. Of course you are. But how are you going to do it? Stop the car. Pull over. Get your bearings, and set your course. Make your plan by visualizing where you want to go.
Visualize what your destination will look like. Visualize the smell, the taste, the colors, and every aspect of that destination from the feel of the carpet to the feel of the brick to the feel of the fabric your clothing will be made from. Know it like you know the sky is blue. Keep that image in your mind. Create reminders of your destination and call it "MY REALITY." Create your dream map. On that dream map follow a deliberate course toward your reality. Create a tangible image of each and every benchmark you want to reach. Don't worry so much about the road in front of you, focus on the destination. Is it a home you want? Then visualize that home what it looks like from the shingles to the grass to the drywall screws. Concentrate on that image. Don't worry about the how. Concentrate on the what. The stepping stones will reveal themselves and you will be surprised how things fall into place. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will happen for you and do not for a moment doubt that it will happen. Doubt will rob you of the good that is coming your way. Don't let doubt, fear, self pity, low self esteem, and a lack of confidence rob you of your good. I know that you can do it, what ever it is. I know you will be the best. I know that you will soar. I am confident that you can .
Remove the barriers to change. Put the baggage on the curb. Stop sitting on the tool box and open it up and take out the tools you need to build your dreams into your reality. You are the architect of your own world. I don't know you from Adam, but what I do know is you are the sole proprietor of your existence. I don't know what you believe, faith is the foundation from which all strong people are built. Faith strengthens many from the inside out. Faith can fuel the fire for many to make the necessary changes that get them where they want to be tomorrow. Think of your life as if it were a car. There is a specific direction you want your car to go. There is a specific destination you want your car to take you to. If life is a car, would you rather be in the driver's seat or the passenger's seat. Trust me, being in the passenger's seat watching the scenery zoom past will land you in a place you definitely do not want to be. There are no breaks on the passenger side. There is no steering wheel on the passenger side, and strapping yourself into the seatbelt wont always keep you safe. The ride might be nice for a little while but what about when you turn down that road you did not want to turn down or you look up and there is that "detour" sign in front of you. Now what do you do. Suddenly, you become motivated to take over the driving and get things back on course. Of course you are. But how are you going to do it? Stop the car. Pull over. Get your bearings, and set your course. Make your plan by visualizing where you want to go.
Visualize what your destination will look like. Visualize the smell, the taste, the colors, and every aspect of that destination from the feel of the carpet to the feel of the brick to the feel of the fabric your clothing will be made from. Know it like you know the sky is blue. Keep that image in your mind. Create reminders of your destination and call it "MY REALITY." Create your dream map. On that dream map follow a deliberate course toward your reality. Create a tangible image of each and every benchmark you want to reach. Don't worry so much about the road in front of you, focus on the destination. Is it a home you want? Then visualize that home what it looks like from the shingles to the grass to the drywall screws. Concentrate on that image. Don't worry about the how. Concentrate on the what. The stepping stones will reveal themselves and you will be surprised how things fall into place. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will happen for you and do not for a moment doubt that it will happen. Doubt will rob you of the good that is coming your way. Don't let doubt, fear, self pity, low self esteem, and a lack of confidence rob you of your good. I know that you can do it, what ever it is. I know you will be the best. I know that you will soar. I am confident that you can .
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