- Lance Armstrong

photo by mischiru

When you are in the midst of creating your new life it is perfectly natural to have times when you wonder:

• is this really possible?
• am I actually going to go through with this?
• how soon until I start to see changes?
• why is this taking so long?

…and so on… and so on.

If you find yourself having one of those moments it’s useful to stop and have a quick look back at how far you’ve already come.

• How far you’ve come in your life.
• How far you’ve progressed with your goals.
• How much you’ve learned.
• How much you’ve grown as a person.

Don’t let yourself get so focused on where you’re going that you forget to appreciate how much progress you’ve already made!  Taking a moment to celebrate what you’ve already done (even if it seems like mere baby-steps) can be the confidence boost that you need to move you to the next level.

So ask yourself: “What kind of life am I actively looking for?“

photo by creativesam

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. The day where we go all out to celebrate our love for one another. Love will fill the air!

But don’t worry, on February 15th, we can all go back to normal!

I wouldn’t call myself jaded, but I’m always perplexed by our society’s need to set aside a special day to honor things that we should be constantly honoring.

• Do you only express your love on February 14th?
• Do you only cherish your marriage on your anniversary?
• Do you only celebrate someone’s life on their birthday?
• Do you only honor your mother on Mother’s Day? Your father on Father’s Day?

When we set aside these days, it can lead us to take things for granted the other 364 days of the year. This sort of thinking is exactly why so many people end up a funerals saying: “If only I had told them how much they meant to me.”

Years ago I wrote an article where I suggested that we replace the cliché “Carpe Diem” (Seize the day) with “Celebre Diem” or Celebrate the Day!

So go ahead and buy the chocolates and flowers tomorrow. But if you really want to show them how much they mean to you… do it next week too!

“But I can’t make changes now – I’m too old!”

Yeah.  Right.

You’re never too old to do something different! Especially if it’s something fun!  Just watch this…

photo by i dont make art anymore

Just because you’re hiding from something doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

In the past, (I’ll admit it) I’ve been guilty of trying to hide from my life. One of my favorite games of “hide and don’t seek” went like this:  “The bills aren’t really ‘valid’ until I open the envelope… so if I don’t open the envelope, I don’t owe any money!”  I KNOW I’m not the only one who’s ever played that game.

I have a friend who avoids going to the doctor for fear that they’ll find something wrong. “If I don’t go – then nothing’s wrong.”

Or what about this one: “I don’t want to discuss that issue, so if I just avoid it / deny it / get angry about it / cry about it / blame someone else for it, it will go away.”

It’s amazing the crazy notions that otherwise rational adults can come up with to avoid facing uncertainty, isn’t it?

The fact of the matter is that you simply can’t hide from your life.

• Financial issues
• Relationship issues
• Health issues

You can either face these, or face them. Yep!  There’s no other way.

However, make sure that you understand that there’s a BIG difference between facing issues and dwelling on them!

Facing your life as it really is, is a big part of embracing your life, which is just the first step in Choosing The Life You Want!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some envelopes to open.

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson
]]> http://choosethelifeyouwant.com/of-critics-and-courage/feed 0 http://choosethelifeyouwant.com/are-you-blocking-yourself http://choosethelifeyouwant.com/are-you-blocking-yourself#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:32:07 +0000 Patrick Mathieu http://choosethelifeyouwant.com/?p=319

Photo by kittyz202

Somedays the “Create” phase of Choosing the Life You Want can seem like an impossible task.

But what if “creating” isn’t about pushing, striving and working to make things look the way you want them to look?  What if it isn’t an outward process at all?

What if it’s as simple (and as difficult) as setting the intention of what you want for your life and then choosing to get out of your own way? What if the secret to creation is simply choosing to allow what you want to come into your life?

Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet and philosopher wrote: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Take a look at your current life situation and examine the thoughts you are thinking, the words you are saying and the actions you are taking to see if any of them are blocking you from the life you want.

• Are they blocking you from love?
• Are they blocking you from financial abundance?
• Are they blocking you from a fulfilling career?

Ultimately, you need to examine where you are blocking yourself from receiving the life you’ve chosen to have.

Let me warn you now – the process of self-examination can be painful and difficult because it involves taking responsibility for your current situation. No scapegoats.  No outsourcing of blame.  Re-read Rumi’s words above.  He’s very clear that the issue is “the barriers within yourself that you have built.” But the exciting part is that once you accept this great responsibility, you have access to great power. (Apologies to Stan Lee)

The video was on a website called the99percent.com and the site’s tag line is “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen”

Wow! What a powerful website with some great tips and suggestions on making things happen! TED is about big ideas and 99 Percent is about making them happen!  Do yourself (and your family) a BIG favor – for the next week, disconnect your TV and just watch videos and read articles on these two websites! (If any of you take me up on that challenge – let me know in the comments!)

So I’d like to share Seth’s video with you here.  Although his presentation is geared at a corporate audience and he talks a lot about “shipping” (which is tech industry speak for sending a new product out to the marketplace), the exact same principles can be applied to the CREATE phase of Choosing The Life You Want.

His main point is that we don’t suffer from a lack of creativity (or a lack of CHOICES in the language of CTLYW) but that we get paralyzed by our fears and never actually get down to the business of CREATING! He offers some interesting strategies for avoiding this.

So what steps are you going to take today in the area of CREATING?