We’ve all had a vision or a great idea and had someone who knows better squash it. We’ve all decided to clear our debts and been tempted by the next great offer. We’ve all been determined to save up for a holiday or some other thing that will enhance our lives and then been clobbered by a bill that sets us back a month or few. We’ve all affirmed a diet in one moment and been offered chocolate in the next. We’ve all ran a mile from heartache and nightmare, as well as from our dreams or love affairs and we’ve all laughed when we should have cried, cried when we could have laughed and ran ourselves into a downward spiralling place. We’ve all judged ourselves too harshly: beaten ourselves up for what we’re not, what we don’t have and what we believe we can never be. But let’s not do that anymore. Let’s resolve not to define ourselves by our weakest moments. Let’s resolve not to make harsh judgments on ourselves for our failings. Should we really give ourselves a hard time – slaughter ourselves for trying, but not achieving? The answer to this my friend is no. Life purpose is more important than all our outcomes. It’s more important than money, cars, houses, your children’s private education, your career success, holidays in the sun and all of the winning and losing in life. What is important is what we experience and how we change because of that experience. Some moments in life are all about just showing up, or taking part. Some moments are about just hanging on, gripping onto what you have and hoping the pain passes. It’s moments like these that humble us – make us realise that maybe something else in our life had greater importance than our work, or the gadgets we crave or the TV soap operas that hook us. But pause a moment, right here, right now and just mull over your day – not the results: the winning or the losing – but the choice whether to take action or not – and if you did define yourself by your decision to take action or not, what have you been today? Who have you been? What are you on the way to – a greater life or a more sorrowful existence? I tell you this… It’s not all about right now, or even today. It’s not even about looking at what you have done and understanding it better. But a life full of purpose is a life full of making better choices – choices from your highest place that line up with who you really are and what you really want to do with life. I ask you: have you come to this point in your life, through all your toils, troubles and experiences, to be without a vision and be financially broke? Have you made it to this point to be hard on yourself, to be fat or sick or too feeble minded to stand up for your beliefs, your dreams and your hopes? No. What you have done is this: you’ve been busy defining who you are not. Because unless you define who you are not, how can you ever define who you really are. It is from within the definition of who you are not that you define who you are. And when you know who you really are you can begin living life, enlightened by your own sense of purpose. In every thought you make a statement. In that statement you define your current belief. In every belief about your current situation you build your history and ultimately that history comes to this point… To do or to die. If you find yourself habitually saying: I don’t have the confidence instead of saying, I’ll try, I can’t afford that, instead of saying, I’ll find a way, I don’t have the time, instead of turning off the telly, or Diets don’t work instead of finding one that does; Are you living or dying? Ultimately what defines you is not what you achieved, but whether you live your life with purpose – making choices that bring you closer to the truth about who you really are. Everything else is just existence. What will you do improve in your life?
About the author:
Jo Ball (LCA, Dip) invites you to join her tips, tricks and stories newsletter at Unstoppable Life, free. And as a way of saying thanks for joining, she’ll send you the e-book Greater Steps to Happiness. Join now at www.unstoppablelife.com
