I have spent some time reading a book again that truly inspires me in many ways. The title of this book is “I Am Discourses” and it was written in 1932, however, it is just as prevalent today as it was back then. One of the first sections that really caught my attention, reading through this book again, is the following.
“You need to acquire the habit of stilling yourself. Sit down three or four times a day and simply still the outer self. This will let the energy be supplied. Learn to command and control the energy in your body. If you want the energy still—be still. If you want the energy active —be active. You must stand up, face a thing, and rise above it. There is no other way.”
There is certainly a lot of powerful information within the above few sentences, however, I believe the main premise is that we have forgotten ourselves in this modern society. We seem to live in a world full of distractions that harbor our attention and steer our energy down a path that does not promote the greatness that we can truly become. Human beings have all the tools that are required to achieve all our dreams and essentially anything we want out of this life. Society seems to be mesmerized with the pathway towards “success” that comes nowhere close to what our potential can propel us to become.
I am a psychic medium, and I help them discover where they have become stuck, however, the predominate reason comes down to them not getting out of their own way. Many of us have become stuck in this rat race, down a path that leads to the same place that everyone before us has gone, and we simply can’t or don’t want to see that we are going to end up just like everyone else. The crazy pathway of working, eating, consume, and die. We all seem to wander around with now real purpose, while putting away all the dreams we had as a young child, and then wonder why we don’t like where we are. If we don’t know where we are going, we may not like where we end up; or another way to say it is, if we don’t change directions, we are going end up where we are going. Too many people across the table from me have found themselves going nowhere with no purpose and without a dream. The question I always ask my clients is: if this session sets everything right, and you could design what your life would bring you the greatest joy, what would that look like? Very few people can answer that question and that is sad; we have forgotten how to dream and have lost ourselves completely in this process of life.
Let’s look at the passage above a little bit closer; I would summarize this by saying that if we want change, then something must change. Change has never happened by repeating the same things repeatedly, expecting a different result; this is the definition of madness after all. This passage speaks loudly to me about a couple of things; first we must learn how to meditate and pray and secondly, we must take charge of ourselves and not let our environment oversee us. We must leave all the excuses aside and go after what makes us happy in life; one of the best and most frequent excuses that I hear is: I don’t have time”, which is an absolute fallacy. I guarantee that if something is a priority, then you will always find time to get that something done. When I begin to analyze what a person does with their 24-hour day, I find that they have filled their day with many meaningless activities that will get them nowhere near what they desire out of life. Society is full of massive distractions, such as the television, the cell phone, video games, clubs, dancing, alcohol, drugs, etc. and they pull us away from the important things in life. I am not saying that all these things must eliminated from your life, but they can certainly be minimized to find time for the important task of working towards your dream.
We must also put our big boy and big girl pants, put away the excuses, and simply work on the more important things in life. Too many of us are living in the past and making excuses that are completely outside of ourselves. When I ask my clients what is stopping them from pursuing what they want in life, I hear the most amazing and insignificant excuses. It is my husband’s or my wife’s fault, I was raised by terrible parents, I have been through too many bad things in my life, I don’t have enough time, and the list goes on. Although on the surface, these excuses surely sound like a valid reason for not doing anything spectacular with our lives, but let me tell you, no excuse is truly adequate to justify why you are not taking charge of you, your body, and your life. Nothing that has happened, is happening, or is going to happen, can absolutely keep us from our destiny, unless we allow them to stall us in our tracks. We are not what has happened to us, however, what has happened to us are experiences that have shaped us and brought us to where we are right now. Experiences are necessary to grow and become a great and wonderful human being, for no one has ever succeeded without failure or having to overcome troubles. No matter what you learn from a book can ever replace what life has and will teach you.
Just like the above passage states, “You must stand up, face a thing, and rise above it. There is no other way.” In other words, no one else can really fight your battles or chase your dream better than you can. We must take charge of our own bodies and minds, take charge of our own destiny, and begin to live on purpose. If we are not living on purpose, then we are simply just drifting lost on the sea of life. I spoke to a 65-year-old client a couple of days ago, that is considering retirement, but has completely lost her desire to dream; they have simply been going to work, eating, consuming, and only looking forward to the “golden years”, without any idea of what these last years should look like. I experience this same situation almost daily when I speak with clients; it is so sad to hear how many people are simply just existing, and not thriving. If I could only change one thing in the population, it would be to remember to dream again – we are simply lost and wandering listlessly through life, only to end our lives with regrets of what we did not accomplish.
I am not downplaying any of the terrible things that have happened to people, that tend to change their outlook on life, but there needs to be a time to realize that living in the past will never create a different future. For things to change, you must change something, and that must start with yourself, for no one is more vested in your change than you are. Also remember that I am not suggesting that you leave your job, your family, and your situation and run away to a convent, however, I am saying that you must start somewhere and begin the process, or you will find yourself looking back on your life, as an old person, with terrible regrets. Put away the excuses because they never serve or contribute to any goals. In the military we have a saying, the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters; in other words, excuses get you absolutely nowhere.
I know that I am making this process sound easy, however, I know that it is difficult. It is hard to be a loser and it is also hard to be a winner; so there will always be struggle and pain, but you must decide if you want the pain of regret, or the pain of success. I have been there, done that, and still must remind myself daily to lay aside my excuses and keep putting on my big boy pants; we are all human and we can choose to avoid all the distractions and learn to thrive and not just survive. I hope and pray that you examine your life and decide to avoid letting the world dictate who you become. Remember, that when you awaken every day, you have everything you need to become anything you want to become.
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