How you talk to yourself is limiting you. “I can’t do that.” “I can’t understand that, did you see how long the contract was?”
How you think about activities is limiting you.
Exhibit A: I hate Mondays.
What are you waiting for?
What are you afraid of?
Why?
Whether you dream of starting your own business or taking your career to the next level, we all have obstacles standing in our way to achieve our goals – and most of them reside between your ears.
That’s right – it’s your fault you aren’t where you want to be!
Who else can you blame?
As soon as you do place the blame outside of yourself, that is where it will reside forever. What an easy solution!
Your job isn’t to find the barriers, it is to find a way around, over, or through.
We all grow up with aspirations & inspirations for life, so what happens when we reach adulthood? Finding ourselves “in a rut” or “trapped in a cubicle”; lost in a world that promised us so much more. What happened to your inspiration? What happened to fighting your way to glory? And when did you lose all the power to do so?
When I think of glory, I imagine a football coach giving an inspirational speech; a player making an impossibly athletic & willful move to win the game – blood, sweat, tears and victory.
The problem is that our glory is a picture painted by symbols of what we believe to be victory or success; the ultimate glories of life are forgotten because the idea of success is what we chase instead of fanning the embers that lights the path towards true glory & success.
In other words, success is not a thing or an end goal, it is an action – a continual action of adapting & creating in order to build up to your ultimate goals. I think that we all have one big-huge-out-of-this-world goal, but do we expect to just magically have it one day without putting the work in?
When we think of people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, professional athletes – we think that they are just talented beyond belief. Heightened, superior intelligences & abilities; they are the superhumans. But none of these people just stumbled upon success. Of course they are extremely talented, but to assume that is the only factor that led them to the top is absurd. Hard work, curiosity and a desire to learn, improve, & innovate is what separates them. The countless hours spent reading, coding, practicing, learning, succeeding, failing – it’s all about the quality time you pour into your passions.
The ultimate glory in life stems from the seeds planted by your everyday victories. It is easy to see yourself trapped in your situation or lacking motivation, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to you. If you are unhappy with your job, then move on. But ask yourself if you’ll be happy in your next role – or will it unfold the same way? Sometimes it is not the environment you are in, but what you are feeling within. When we struggle, I believe that people want to overcome – but people also do not want to fail! So rather than continue to fail they decide to move on. I think it is important to remember that failure is temporary & in the present moment; it can be painful, but it is only temporary!
There are millions of opportunities for success before,during & after failure – persistence is the key to overcoming failure, and failure is the key to evolving your ideas & strategy.
I have just recently started writing again & just can’t stop! It is so freeing & relieving to smear your thoughts on the blank canvas of LinkedIn Publisher or WordPress. Of late, my goal has been to spread Optimism & Realism through my interpretations of life & situations. In an article I published last week called “Life & Luck”, I wrote about how many things have been slopped onto my plate, and the ultimate lesson was that life happens – how you handle it will determine your success.
One thing I wanted to weave into this lesson, but wasn’t sure how to, was the concept of Faith. For some reason, with ~$10,000 of potential costs from replacing my furnace & AC, I was able to stay positive – I felt that everything would be okay even though it was far from it. I didn’t get a feeling of anger or anxiety, I didn’t question my luck or why God would do this to me.
Sometimes, things just happen. The good thing is that on the other side of that coin is the fact that sometimes, things just work out. No matter how tough life gets, or how nasty a curve it throws us, somehow it all works out in the end – and usually works out for the best.
When I look back at my life, the toughest of times, I never think to myself, “I really wish I knew that in high school.” Or, “if I could go back with the knowledge I have now…”
It’s limiting. It’s stupid. And without my roughest, toughest tests in life, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
You can sit around & believe that life has it out for you, but I promise – they’re out for us all, not just you! The difference in life is always the how of things. How do you react when your environment pushes on you? How do you sustain being you & preventing yourself from freaking out?
I believe this is where Faith comes in – this doesn’t have to be specifically tied to Spirituality, but for many people it may be. Faith, in my mind, is trusting in the forces that are beyond your control – belief that you are in the right place @ the right time & everything will fall into place; it’s all part of the Grand Master Plan. Some may call this serendipity or intuition, and I believe that Faith is something rooted in those ideas, but still so much deeper & all-encompassing.
Wikipedia defines Faith as, “Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing; or the observance of an obligation from loyalty; or fidelity to an entity, promise, or engagement.”
I think that the semicolons & ‘or’ that is listed in the definition could be switched to ‘ands’ – in other words, this definition looks like 3 different definitions, but I think they are all an embodiment of the whole picture of Faith. This is not 3 separate definitions, but helps to explain & set-up the relationship-like nature of Faith (I’m having flashbacks to Philosophy class; Kierkegaard anybody?)
This 3-part definition sets up with a couple things. Confidence in a person or thing (the self & others). As it relates to being loyal to the thing of Faith & to the world – it is interesting how they use obligation in this part of the definition, but then go deeper on the third section stating that it is fidelity to an entity, promise, or engagement. Fidelity is defined as faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support.
To me, this demonstrates that Faith is its own entity, but part of a 3-part system including the Self, the World, and belief in a higher order & higher power to things; a relationship to the Divine in Life – and not only that, but belief that everything is happening exactly as it should – and if it isn’t, good things are on the horizon.
