subject: Life is a Journey. Are you still asking 'To where exactly?' [print this page] Life is a JourneyLife is a Journey. Are you still asking 'To where exactly?'
The truth is that in this day and age, more frequently we are so focused on what we are doing right now, that we lose sight of the direction that we set out to head for, in the first place.
Think about this for a moment. You're constantly in tune with the distractions, the priorities, the deadlines and all the other commitments that are filling up your life space, not to mention your brain space. You're diligently meeting your deadlines and the price you're often paying is the stress and the anxiety that goes hand in hand with them. At the end of any typical working day, while you're feeling worn out, exhausted and dissatisfied and unable to give time to those you love the most, it suddenly occurs to you that you're so caught up dealing with this avalanche of stress, fear and undisguised resentment that it distorts your desire to move forward, to do what you've all along, really wanted to do. That is; To get out of the rut so that you can have the much desired time to spend with your family.
Then the real crunch arrives. You realise you haven't adequately fed your own hip pocket with the harvest of your efforts. You have filled somebody elses. Further more, there you are feeling as though you're running in a race you know you can't possibly win. And if that isn't enough, now you might even find you're asking yourself, 'Where am I going in this life?' Worse, you may not even have an answer.
Perhaps, like I was, you're staring down the barrel of absolute hardship, wondering where the dollar is coming from to pay the next bill. Maybe you're staring down that darkened tunnel that inevitably, if we let it, leads to bankruptcy. That is the darkest place anyone can travel toward and for many, the most frightening. When it happened to me, it alone was the one thing that was enough to make me want to start over. Begin all over again.
Of course, I could not. There was nowhere that I could make that U turn. I was here in the now and there was no turning back even if I did find that facility to make the turn. The past had already been swallowed. Now here I was dealing with that reeling emotion that makes you sick deep in your stomach. The sleepess nights that plagued and the absolute horror in the thought that I might just finish up on the street. Yet, for all of those thoughts and the feelings, I knew that nothing came even relatively close to knowing that if I had an opportunity to embrace the change presented to me and didn't take it, then I would finish up somewhere equally undesirable. It was my choice and to use an old adage; I could sink or I could float. It was entirely up to me.
So what was my life's ambition? I asked myself. What was I put here on this earth to do? Certainly not to stare bankruptcy in the eyes. I needed to ask myself these two serious questions and these same questions deserved two very serious answers.
The best way I knew how to approach this was to spend some quality time alone. Somewhere quiet so that when I asked myself these seasoned questions again, I would need to be utterly honest. I would need to grasp the essence of what really mattered to ME.
I did not have the wherewithal to ask who moved the book that contained all the answers.I knew in my heart of hearts that there is no such book on this earth ever written with the answers to my dilema. So, I asked why I was looking for it in the first place?
Looking for a book that would give me nothing and take me nowhere?
I also had to remind myself that absolutely no one, nor even that misplaced book (never written) was going to yield the solutions to my problem. There would be no, 'I-told-you-so,' answers. I had to discover those on my own. When they came, they were the voice' of my soul. A voice I listened to.
You must ask yourself the big questions and listen carefully to your heart.
That you hear your inner voice and heed it is what leads you to your destiny. When at first you hear it, you might only realise how your life has been wedged in a no-where place, or you may feel as though you're descending into a chasm that seems utterly bottomless.
You're not the Lone Ranger!
Perhaps it is then that you feel an urgent need to do something about it.
Whatever life is tossing at you at any given time, it can improve. And when the time for you to improve it arrives, it will smack you on both cheeks. The penny will drop.
You might be on your way into town to meet an appointment. (Remember those deadlines?) Or you might be on a peaceful country drive when suddenly, Oh Dear; it's as though you have just remembered you forgot to lock up the house or you've left the oven on or the garage door up. Then in romps that quickening. Your heart begins to race and like quick silver, your skin goes prickly. When you know, or even have an inkling as to what you could be doing, (I never use the word 'should') then do it. Take that leap into the unknown and hit the ground and sprint. While you're running to catch the moment of change, know it is the right thing to be doing. Do not procrastinate. If you do, it is then the door of opportunity might just take a change of mind and slam fair in your face.
There's a quote Patrick Overton penned:
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. That there will be something solid for you to stand on or you will be taught to fly.
Your dreams and your goals are precious and they're yours. Chase them. Give them a 'High Five' as you fulfil each one or you may as well down tools and watch as they melt.
Put both oars in the water and row for your life. It takes courage and dedication to breathe life into your dreams, to ripen and nurture them. The truth is, we are all born with attainable choices. We were all given the potential to be prosperous, to be complete. We were given the power of choice. Use it.
When you make any choice, be it to change your life for the better or even to change direction - you can ask yourself two things. First of all, 'What are the consequences of this choice I am making?' In your heart you will know immediately what these consequences are going to be. Secondly, 'Will this choice that I am about to make bring happiness to me and to those around me?' If the answer is 'yes', then run with that choice and do not drop it. There is an army of opportunities that will have you soaring to sometimes overwhelming heights. Listen to your heart.
It is important though, to do it your own way, in your own time and however you do it does not matter. Just so long as you do it.
There will be times, as you make the decision to live your dreams, when many people, particularly those who love you the most, will try to thwart you. They will try to convince you that what you know in your heart you can do you really cannot do. They are only acting on what they believe to be your best interests. They are reflecting their inner most fears. They in reallity, are in awe of your move because you have made your decision and you are acting upon it. That in itself is awesome and yet it scares them because their courage to do what you are finally doing is, for the moment, eluding them.
That was enough for me to want to prove all those people who told me I couldn't do it, wrong. To prove to them I can do it. And you know what? Knowing that you can do it is such a breathtaking experience.
Knock the 'T' off Can't.
Stick tenaciously to your beliefs for they will transform everything about you. You will overwhelm yourself in a way that will make you look back upon the path you chose to follow, and say, with absolute collectivity, 'I did it!'
You will travel from a world of ordinary to extraordinary. You will notice a change within your very being. It will be a change that will intrigue at first but then it will take you on the most wondrous natural highs you've ever experienced. The best thing of all this is while listening to your inner voice, which incidentally, is never wrong, and knowing absolutely that you Can do this, you will incite someone else to go after their dreams. You are all the living proof they need to fan their fire. Isn't that something magnificent?
So there it is. That is how you change your world. Aspirations will ever increase and each one will become what you give it. Even if your progression is ever so slow, that is not a bad thing. When you go to sleep each night you will know in your soul that you gave today all you had to give and you will wake up tomorrow looking forward to a future that you are making in all its exciting and wondrous glory.
There is a song in my heart that sings it's tune as constantly as I breathe.
'When you wish upon a star,
makes no difference who you are,
anything your heart desires will come to you.
If your heart is in your dream,
no request is too extreme,
when you wish upon a star as dreamers do.
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true ... ' and so it goes.
That song was written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney's 'Pinocchio'. They must have known something that has been around for all man kind for eons.
But the message in that song reminds us all that to aspire to our dreams, our goals, our absolute belief that we can become who we really are, to shed the leaves that shroud our heart, and to know without a shadow of a doubt that we have that choice to make it happen absolutely, is a message filled with truth. Run with that.
Deepak Chopra said in his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success; 'Today I will factor in uncertainty as an essential ingredient of my experience. In my willingness to accept uncertainty, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the problem, out of the confusion, disorder, and chaos. The more uncertain things seem to be, the more secure I will feel, because uncertainty is my path to freedom. Through the wisdom of uncertainty I will find my security.'
I truly believe and live each day with these words and I sincerely hope you will find your security too.
On that note, I bid you wealth, happiness and the freedom to live the life you choose. And remember, Knock the 'T' off Cant.
