The Courage To Leave Behind A Life Without Progress

Like many, when I started my journey, I decided that I would do all that I could to make my future better than my past or present. But that suggests that whatever situation you are currently in… isn’t one worth staying in for the rest of your life, right?

It is at this point where you are faced with a difficult decision to make. Are you willing to give up who you are to become who you know you should be… in order to achieve the things, only the latter can achieve?

I have written this question down for you to see, but I am not sure if you can understand the emotion and tension that comes along with asking it at the right moment.

The right moment?

When you feel like there are opportunities you aren’t able to cease as you are. When you are tired and frustrated. When you feel like you have not been dealt a good hand in life. When you can’t bear to live another day like it was yesterday.

I probably sound dramatic. But that is the problem with merely writing down words… they may be able to replay history, but they leave out all the significant emotions that played a key role in defining that part of history.

When faced with the reality that you are stuck or that life doesn’t seem to be flowing in your favor, what do you do?

You decide. You have to decide. Whether or not to accept things as they are or to change your situation the best you can.

Because if you don’t decide, you risk living a life that knows no peace. A life where you can never really know actual happiness.

I once lived that life of limbo or indecision for a long time and it felt like… well, let’s just say I’m glad I got out of it.

How did I get out?

I asked that very same question, “Am I willing to let go of the person I am… who has no business of his own, no property of his own, no personal network of financially successful people, unhappy and too often frustrated… for the person I could be… who would own successful ventures, has appreciating assets, associates with the affluent, is happy, fulfilled and always willing to grow?”

My answer was obvious… Hell Yes!

But it was going to require more than just an answer.

It was going to require action, sacrifice, and most importantly… a shift in how I thought.

Before any action, there is always thought. ALWAYS!!!

You cannot be miserable without thought. You cannot be happy without thought. You cannot become a success and remain a success without thought.

If our minds weren’t important in every single thing we did in our lives, our bodies would be as useful to us as the bodies of those who rest in cemeteries.

The secret to mastery and victory begins with the state of mind. Most successful people know this so they learn to master their own minds. Most unsuccessful people do NOT know this, so they risk being mastered by the minds that do know this.

You can fill your own mind with ideas and concepts you personally want to believe, or you can allow your mind to be filled with ideas that others want you to believe.

Answering that question had so much weight. It meant that I would have to be different. Not just hear or see different…. I also had to listen to and see different things. Instead of looking at the problem from a different angle, I had to pick a different problem.

Side note: A significant number of people often think that pursuing a dream is about pursuing an easier life or a less stressful one. But it’s not. In fact, more often than not, it’s much harder and has a lot more obstacles than not pursuing it.

But the dreamers CHOOSE their problem. They are willing to work themselves to odd hours for something they personally love. Something that has meaning to them. It’s harder to sacrifice all your energy and all your 24 hours for the rest of your life on something that doesn’t belong to you or that you don’t entirely care about.

Anyway.

I had to evaluate my associations. The REALLY CLOSE associations. Those that I had allowed to speak into my life and actually influence my growth.

I had to evaluate my everyday actions. See the role my daily actions played in shaping my current reality.

I had to evaluate my choices of every single thing I could think of and identify the role those choices played in giving me my current reality.

Only then was I able to truly see what needed to be done to begin me down a path I would not regret walking.

It’s amazing how such an experience could remind you just how in control of your own life you really are.

The lives we lead, are more often than not… a result of the choices we make consciously and unconsciously.

After looking at every single area of my life as though I had been asked to analyze the life of a complete stranger… It was clear to me, what needed to be done.

I wrote down a plan that involved a lot of learning. But because I needed to be different, the learning was going to be on topics I was completely terrified of diving into.

Well actually, it was my old self that was terrified. My new self was excited.

I had to identify the skills and habits I would need to develop to be like those that were in the situations I wanted to be in.

This experience felt empowering.

Before I realized it, I was slowly saying goodbye to the life and person I never wanted to be. And say hello to the person that would inspire me to be all that I could be.

Now, I’m not a mad success story right now. And I often think to myself when I publish stuff like this to the world that there are people that are going to be thinking, “What the hell is this amigo yapping about without a Ferrari to his name?”.

This isn’t why I started this blog.

Let me ask you this question: Suppose you were to be in the mind of anyone successful person that you respect. What kind of thinking do you think you could expect to be in there? Is it not possible for a person to think of success before it manifests itself into the physical world? Do you expect to find thoughts of despair, unhappiness, or defeat in the mind of the successful? Or do you expect to find thoughts of growth, positivity, and success?

Now, does one really need to have the world around him/her “look successful” before he or she can “think successful”?

Is it not possible for one to “think successful” before he or she “looks successful”?

I believe in the phrase, “You don’t need money to make money”. Money was never discovered. It was created. So was every mammoth building, every railroad, and every aircraft… These all began with the idea and in the imagination of someone person.

A person who was courageous enough to pursue dreams that most termed impossible.

Now I don’t know if you have ideas for building rocket ships or teleportation devices. But whether or not your dreams are grand or modest, I’ll still ask you this question…

Do you have the courage to leave a life you are not content with, to pursue a life that you know you would love every moment of?

#makeProgressNotExcuses