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I am just like you. How is that possible? We are, of course, all different.
As human spirits we have an inner need to grow, or our life starts to perish. Ever see someone whose only goal was to retire and then when they reach the goal of retirement they soon die?
That’s one reason a commitment to ongoing personal development and being motivated is so important. It lets us know that we are alive; that our spirit is being nourished. As human beings we have great opportunity to do and be anything that we want to be. Just look around you for proof that shows this to be true.
As human beings we have invented and continue to invent new and wonderful things. We develop ideas, and express ourselves in the arts.
I believe that we have free will that allows us to choose what we want in life. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just tell ourselves “I want this” and “I want to be like that” and then have it magically happen?
I know that it doesn’t just happen for me that way, and I know that just by making a choice it doesn’t mean that my life will change. It only means that I want life to change. So how do I get the things that I want and quite frankly deserve? Don’t you deserve great things for your life too?
St. Paul lamented in the first century, “I know what is right, but often I do the wrong thing.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just make a choice and then do the thing that we want?
What makes us make wrong choices? Why do we do the wrong things to ourselves?
Is it our character? Do we have poor habits that we have grown up with that we cannot correct? Why is it we cannot just fix our character flaws and become great?
Do we even know that we have character flaws? Or do our egos and self prevent us from seeing our flaws so that we can’t fix them?
Our human machines are extremely complex, and there is no one easy answer. I believe that there are many answers and that the machine and the spirit that we call human have tremendous potential.
But of course potential can be the problem. Potential is often not realized for many reasons. Having run and owned businesses I have hired many people in whom I saw potential only to be let down. Why did these people not live up to their potential? Well for one, perhaps I did not give them the right training or guidance. And second maybe they really didn’t want the opportunity. There could be a hundred other reasons for these failures. And after some of these people left, they became very successful in different organizations. Guess I wasn’t the supreme motivational person. But I also know from my own career that I didn’t fit into some organizations, even though I had potential. So I failed in many places where I thought I would have success.
And there is nothing wrong with failing, it happens to everyone. It’s how you decide to deal with that failure that makes the difference. If you don’t even try because you are afraid to have failure you lose a lot of your potential.
Success has a price. What price are you willing to pay? The only true price that you have to pay is believing in yourself.
If you believe in yourself, then you have the ability to overcome failure. Are you doing what you want to? Why not? Feel the responsibility of something weighing on you? Why? What life choices did you make that put you into a position where you feel trapped? And what can you do to get out of the life choices that are holding you back? Did you marry too young? Have children too young? Or decide not to become educated? Spend too much money on things that give you no value, and now you don’t have the resources to do some things that could be important to you?
Do we put ourselves into situations that we feel we can’t get out of and feel stuck in our life?
You can do one of two things. Accept your current situation as permanent reality, or choose to accept your current situation as temporary. If you decide that something is temporary, then there is a way to go to another place with your life.
Move Forward
How are you going to move forward in your life, especially if you lack support from those around you? What do you do?
Well, first you have chosen; but just because you choose won’t make it happen. You have to have some other help for yourself. First, is this what you want to do? If it is not what you really want to do, it will not happen. And you have to accept that you are going to have some failure or temporary defeat along the way. Will this get in your way of achieving your dreams?
Have you done a gut check? Is this what your inner self, your instinct, says is right for you? You know the feeling; you feel one way, but something inside of you is saying something else. Maybe you should listen to what the little voice in your head is telling you right now.
Is it a dream that you have always wanted to accomplish? Dreams do come true. There are many people just like you that got a hold of their dreams and made them happen. Is this a little crazy, little voices in your head, your gut telling you something? I have made plenty of mistakes ignoring my intuition; can you look back and say that maybe if you had followed your instinct you would be better off right now? How do you frame this instinct and make it work for you?
How do you feel about yourself right now? Shouldn’t you feel good about yourself most of the time? And why don’t you feel good about yourself?
What are those dreams locked away inside that you want to make happen?
Let’s start with attitude. Not what your attitude is of the outside world, but what is your attitude about yourself? Do you feel positive about yourself inside, or do you have this little negative feeling that you are not good enough? With this internal negative attitude gnawing on you what are you saying to yourself? What is that self-talk that is going on inside your head? Are you promoting yourself, or are you telling yourself that there is no hope, you are stuck, and the best thing to do is nothing, try to grin and bear it?
You can have more. And the way you can have more is to think your way to a new and better position. It is the only way you can grow. Continue to have personal development and increase the quality of your life.
But how do you think? It cannot just be a choice that you make, although that is a beginning. It isn’t just attitude. It’s more than what your self-talk is. It is all of things and more that will make you have a change in your life.
Are you stuck in that mental model of yours, you know: “This is where I am, and I have to do these things to be responsible to whomever.” We have locked ourselves in the world and have given up on things that we think we could have, or have been at one time if this hadn’t happened in your life.
You can change your mental model and create a new world any time you are ready. Are you ready yet? Got your plan together? Have you made a commitment to yourself that you can be different? Change your view of the world. Change the self-talk in your head. And change the attitude that you are wearing. Use what we call the 4-dynamics and build character that is important to you.
You deserve anything in life that you want. Don’t think that you don’t. Do what you love and the rest will follow. Life is an adventure to be lived. Don’t shortchange your adventure. It is never too late.
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