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"People who make decisions go to the top. Those who fail to make decisions go nowhere." ~ Bob Proctor
Most people fail to make decisions out of fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the unknown. When we make the decision, it is coming out of a place of inspiration, in Spirit. In the spirit realm, there is no failure, no limitations, no fear. So, where is the fear really coming from? Perhaps we will succeed beyond our wildest dreams. And yes, we may just get the fill-in-the-blank that we have been desiring.
Remember what Marianne Williamson said? That our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. Yes, this is a bit scary to wrap our brains around, especially if we have had years and years of someone telling us that we weren’t good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, this, that, and the other thing enough.
I have a question for you. Let’s suppose it was, or is, your mother who told you, or continues to tell you, these limiting beliefs about yourself. Now, remember back. Your mother told you lots of things; especially what not to do and who not to hang around with. Are you remembering? Good. Some of what she told you, you bought into and some you didn’t. Some you believed and some you didn’t. Some you chose to make your story and some you chose to ignore. What was the difference?
Just for today, ponder the difference. Make the decision. Take a leap of faith and do it afraid.
Coach Carolyn
"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
From Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a decision is a determination arrived at after consideration.
We have been given the incredible power to choose, to make a decision. The main reason we are living lives that are not satisfactory, is because we have not decided what kind of lives we desire.
Don't focus on "how" is this going to happen. Just do your part: make the decision. Once you make the decision as to what you want to be, do and have, the "how" will show up. Like Emerson said, once you make the decision, the universe will conspire to make it happen.
"A decision is what a man makes when he can't find anybody to serve on a committee." ~ Fletcher Knebel
Several years ago an amazing little book exploded on the scene and caused people to rethink what they were thinking about. It was Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Dr. Richard Carlson. It is a book of meditations on keeping the proper perspective. Dr. Carlson reminded us that it's all small stuff in the bigger picture and not to let those little things become big things.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
I love this quote because this can be applied to all of the areas of our lives. Everything that we repeatedly do, we become masters at. This includes the constructive as well as the destructive behaviors and habits. When we repeatedly do things of excellence, then we become excellent people. Yet, when we repeatedly talk negatively about ourselves and others, this also becomes our reality.
It is said that it takes 21 days to break a habit. I personally don’t believe in breaking habits. I believe in replacing a destructive behavior with a positive, more constructive one. For example, if I am prone to speaking negatively about myself when I have made a mistake, instead of trying to refrain from saying anything negative, I can try a visualization exercise where I imagine the outcome I would have liked. I don’t beat myself up, I just imagine. And if I choose to beat myself up, I will use a feather.
As Aristotle says, excellence is not an act, but a habit. Perhaps we have been beating ourselves up for the last twenty years. It will take time to reverse the habit and replace it with a new behavior. The trick is not to give up when we fall short of the mark. We tend to give up way too easily. This is why diets fail to work. We try one diet, then if it doesn’t work within the first three weeks, we think well, it just doesn’t work. So we move on to another, then another, then another.
Imagine your inner child. She is learning to walk. She will stand up, take a few steps, and then fall. She will do this over and over and over again. Yet, you don’t condemn her, stop her progress or yell at her because she isn’t doing it perfectly. You allow the process. You allow the chance to make the mistakes because only in this will she learn. And you allow the learning and growing. It is a process. It is not about perfection. Life is not about perfection. Life is about the journey, not the destination. During the journey, there will be bumps, bruises, stumbles and falls.
Take the time to stop. Stopping is a spiritual action. When we take the time to stop, we can make the proper decisions. We have this incredible power, it is the power to choose. We can choose to take the next right action. We can choose excellence, if we will repeatedly do excellent things. Or, we can choose negativity by focusing on the negative.
The power is ours. The choice is ours. Choose wisely.
"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise." ~ Robert Fritz
