New You

We are fast approaching a new year. Would you like to have a healthier you? Here’s the secret to achieving that goal.

Decide that this is going to be your reality.

I know, you’ve tried that before and it didn’t work. We all have the experience where we decide to do something and then when it comes to it, we act as if we had never made that decision.

It isn’t easy, I know. Here is the key that works for me.

Talk to your inner self and tell that self that things are going to be different. Tell it that you want to live life differently and so new ways of dealing with life will have to be learned. No longer will you relieve stress by eating a half gallon of ice cream, you will go for a walk instead.

Your inner self won’t like this change. It is used to dealing with life with all your old defense mechanisms and excuses. It doesn’t want to learn new ways.

When old ways of dealing with things crop up, remind your inner self that this is no longer the way things are done.

Now that you have that part under control, you can begin to decide what types of health issues you want to deal with. Do you want to lose weight? How much? Do you want to become stronger, more flexible? How will you do that?

Learning to take control in this way is a much better way to have the life, the body you want. Without the control, you are at the mercy of your inner self and what life throws at you each day.

Namaste!

What I didn’t understand is that if I want to improve my life, if I wanted to be more successful, in whatever I wanted to achieve, setting goals and working toward them was the best way.

Sure I might not achieve them. I also might exceed them. the point is that I do something. The goals are not cast in stone and are adjustable. Now that doesn’t mean you get to make things easy on yourself by continually adjusting the goal, it just means that if you slip on some pickles, you can adjust the goal out.

Another problem I’ve had is keeping the goal to myself and thereby, cutting myself off from any accountability. The best thing is to go out and tell your friends and family about your goal. That way, even if they never say anything to you, you know that they know and that makes you work harder. You might be thinking that you don’t want them to know your goals. What if they are embarrassing? Well, if you can’t stand behind what you want to do, does that say something to you about whatever the goal is? Is it something you should be doing in the first place? Are you so weak in your self esteem that you cannot stand up for your goals? That might be a whole other blog post!

Set a goal today! Don’t wait, don’t think about it until you have it all figured out. Set a goal and put it down on paper or on your computer. Get it down someplace where you can look at it.  Look at it everyday and think about what you can do to move closer to your goal that day. Maybe it’s just a baby step, but it’s closer than you were before.

One of the Principles of life is that you are responsible for your life. Take some action, take some control today for your life and you will feel so much better. Leave victim-hood behind you and become all you were created to be!

Steve

A Common Path

These conversations were about how to best reach people who are seeking not only a connection to the Infinite, to God, but also seeking a better life. The general consensus was that the old wisdom of how to go about that does not meet the issue anymore. I thought it was most interesting to hear these people talk about what they thought and how like each other they were, although not together at the time or place.

I recently read something in a course on online SEO that I am taking from Dan Thies. What he said was that following conventional wisdom without thinking can lead to trouble. I thought this was a insight!
Albert Einstein said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. How is it that we look to conventional wisdom, that may have been very true at one point and not see that time, circumstance, and culture may make that wisdom less or completely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what the subject.

I once worked in industry and had to deal with people coming into our shop and telling us how to produce product. These “customers” would try to force us into doing things their way when it was obvious to all that it wouldn’t work as well as what we already had. Conversely, there were times when a new idea worked very well, but the workers didn’t want to change because, “we’ve never done it that way.”

What is the insane thing you are doing over and over and expecting different results? How are you trying to better your life, but using the things you have done before and didn’t work? Do you even know where you want to go and what you want to do? Take sometime to evaluate your life. Are you going where conventional wisdom says to go, even though you feel strongly that it is not the right way? You are in charge of your life. You determine where to go and what to do. Don’t let faulty wisdom interfere with your goals in life.

Stephen

A Common Path

Can we ever be perfect? I don’t think so. This life is a journey, not a destination, and we never stop learning, or shouldn’t, until we breathe our last breath. Some people think they are too old to learn or change. Others think that they are incapable of changing. This is nonsense!

This past week-end, we had some friends over for dinner and some reiki.  We
enjoy treating people, but we enjoy more having the conversation. The couple that was over are friends that we feel comfortable sharing our beliefs with. Anyway, during the conversation something was said, I don’t even remember what now, and it caused me to reflect on myself. I realized something I wanted to change and I have been thinking about this for most of the day today.

Everyone I know has aspects about themselves that they would like to change.
They are too dependent on others or they are not assertive enough. They think they are lost causes on a one way road to oblivion. They see no hope of anything better than what they have right now. Their dreams have died and, for the most part, so have they. Does this describe you? Why not take just one little thing about yourself and see if you can’t, over the next two weeks change it. It might not change completely, but it might improve. If you can do it with one, then you can try another. Don’t be one of those people who are either afraid, or too lazy to change! Give yourself a chance and do what needs to be done. You can have the life you dream about. It takes work, sure. The old saying, “there ain’t no free lunch,” is true, but it may not be as hard as you think! Those who have gone through this change process will tell you that it is well worth the effort! Don’t stop now! Become who you were created to be!
]]> http://acommonpath.com/2009/08/31/a-two-week-challenge-to-change/feed/ 0 http://acommonpath.com/2009/08/27/how-to-improve-your-life-by-making-choices-2/ http://acommonpath.com/2009/08/27/how-to-improve-your-life-by-making-choices-2/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000 Stephen Thomas http://acommonpath.com/blog/2009/08/27/how-to-improve-your-life-by-making-choices-2/

Does your life seem to go from one drudgery type experience to another? You get up and go to work, drudgery, then you come home and do
around the house chores, more drudgery. Everything you do seems to be a “have to” type situation. Well, not only is there hope, you are wrong to boot!

You don’t have to do anything you don’t want! That’s right! You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. You may be thinking that I’m wrong, you do have to go to that job you hate. After all, there are bills to pay. The truth is, you choose to go to work. You choose to because you choose to pay the bills. I know, you’re thinking I don’t know what I’m talking about, but give me a chance. You don’t have to do those things. You can choose not to.
Sure there are repercussions! Your house may be taken away, your partner might leave you, any number of things, but in the end, you choose. There is a principle that states that ultimately, you are responsible for your own life
and happiness. That means you take responsibility for making the choices you do.

I once had an employee that wanted a job that would be a promotion. I had to tell him that he was not going to get it since someone else was more qualified. He wasn’t happy! He started to get angry and I told him he didn’t have to stay working for us if he didn’t want to. I would understand if he felt under-appreciated and wanted to go somewhere else. He got angrier and
said he had to be there. I told him no one was chaining his leg to his desk. He
said he had bills and a family. I said I knew that, but he still had a choice.
He started to speak, but then thought for a minute. He admitted I was right. He could just quit and take the consequences or, he could stay. He stayed and was promoted about a year later.

The truth is we choose, and by choosing, we are expressing our wants. You may not want to work where you do, but you want to make money and you want to not have to look for another job.

We all have choice. Once we realize that our lives are our own responsibility, we can begin to have personal growth and success. We begin to feel more in control and our life improves.