1 INSANELY POPULAR WAY TO WRECK THE NEXT YEAR OF YOUR LIFE
Angel Chernoff
Remind
yourself: It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our
abilities.
And yet so often, against our better judgment, we make the wrong choices.
Our pride has us holding on when we need to let go.
Pressure from peers sways us left when we mean to go right.
Negative thoughts provoke frowning on otherwise beautiful days.
And so it goes…
One choice at a time, one moment at a time, we ruin the most promising days of
our lives.
If you can relate at all, it’s time to answer your wake-up call!
How many times have you thought “this isn’t working” or “something is not
right” or “things have to change”? – those thoughts and words are from your
inner voice. It’s your wake-up call calling.
You really don’t need some scary, life-threatening diagnosis or major crisis to
wake you up. And no one needs to tell you because you already know. Your inner
voice has been trying to tell you for a while now, but in case it’s been a
challenge to find time and space to listen through the chaos, maybe you’ll
resonate with one of these situations:
- If your life is on auto-pilot and you’re always feeling worn down and stressed out, this is your wake-up call.
- If you never put yourself first, this is your wake-up call.
- If you are constantly numbing out with food, shopping, booze, TV, or other distractions, this is your wake-up call.
Getting
your wake-up call is not the hard part. Answering the call is. Choosing to
answer the call instead of ignoring it is HARD! Right now, it may feel much
easier to keep going, and going, and going. But you know if you don’t find a
way out of the endless cycle you’re in, it’s going to get worse…
Remind yourself that a big part of your life is a result of the choices you
make. And if you don’t like your life it’s time to start making changes and
better choices.
Based on over a decade of one-on-one coaching sessions with hundreds of
students from around the world, and hearing dozens of personal stories every
year from attendees at our live annual events, here is the #1 way we as human
beings gradually wreck our own lives, and some clear ideas on how to make
better choices going forward:
Decide YOU ARE STUCK!
Seriously,
that’s the most popular way we as human beings hurt ourselves! Take a moment to
reflect on evidence of this in your own life…
Think about ONE self-limiting belief you
have—one area of your life where you believe you absolutely CANNOT make
progress. It can be about any
part of your life you hope to change—your health, your weight, your career,
your relationships – anything at all. What’s one thing you’ve essentially
decided is a fact about your place on Earth?
And then I want you to shift gears and think
about ONE time, one fleeting moment, in which the opposite of that ‘fact’ was
true for you. I don’t care how tiny of a victory it was, or even if it was a
partial victory. What’s one moment in time you can look back on and say, “Hey,
that was totally unlike ‘me’—but I did it!”? Because once you identify the
cracks in the wall of a self-limiting belief, you can start attacking it. You
can start taking steps forward every day that go against it—positive daily
rituals that create tiny victories, more confidence, gradual momentum, bigger
victories, even more confidence, and so on.
And
yes, I also understand that we all face our share of incredibly difficult
circumstances, many of which are not the results of anything we’ve done. But we
still have choices when it comes to how we’ll respond to these seemingly-random
tragedies that afflict us.
The choice is as simple as it is universal:
- Grit our teeth and try to move the immovable object, and become frustrated and bitter when we realize we can’t.
- Answer our wake-up call. Let it be. Let go.
Paradoxically,
the first choice is easier because it’s our default action. We want full
control because feeling out of control is utterly terrifying.
It’s essential to know how to let go—how to understand the difference between
what you can control and what you can’t.
Empowering yourself to relinquish control of the wrong attachments is one of
the greatest gifts you can give yourself—the ability to exist peacefully and
productively amidst the chaos of life.
If you feel yourself slowly collapsing under the weight of life and circumstances,
we have a proven path to a more peaceful and productive life. We’d love to
share it with you.
French philosopher François-Marie Arouet once said:
“We are free at the instant we wish to be.”
Choose to be free in the midst of
life’s uncertainties, so YOU CAN make progress again.
And of course, if you’re struggling with any of this, know that you are
not alone. Many of us are right there with you, working hard to think
more clearly, respond to life more effectively, and get ourselves back on
track.