Many people wish that things were different in their lives, but they don’t necessarily want to actively go through the process of change.
Let’s face it. That process involves work. That process involves changing things you are currently doing. It involves getting out of your comfort zone. It probably involves changing how you live your life and maybe even who you spend time with.
Thanks sounds like an awful lot of effort to get to a different place in your life, doesn’t it? I mean, is it really worth it? Well, you just figured out why so many people stay with someone they’re unhappy with; continue to work in a job they are unsatisfied with; or never pursue a passion they are truly interested in doing.
Just call it “the Lazy Factor.” Most people choose to continue to suffer in their own mediocrity because they assume it’s too much work to change the circumstances that they live in or with.
I used to be that exact person. I’ll admit it. I endured horrific challenges at a job that I actually enjoyed, but spent time there with some of the most toxic people I had ever been around in my life. The money was good and I did get satisfaction out of the work that I was doing. It was just having to deal with my boss and co-workers that gave me perpetual heartburn, sad to say.
It was only until I started reading lots of self-development books, listened to hundreds of hours of motivational tapes and CD’s and began working with a life coach that I started to realize, I really do deserve better than what I was allowing to happen to me. My perspective changed. I understood I was attracting those circumstances and those people into my life. I was settled into the victim role. I realized how angry and how much of a victim I chose to be myself. I was choosing to stay in that job, with those circumstances, for nine years.
I finally had decided it was much more painful to continue to live like that then it would be to start taking all the steps to change my life for the better. That’s usually what happens, when you know you’re ready for the change. I so desperately wanted to be rid of the negativity of those people with whom I was spending 40 hours a week, every week…of every month…of every year….for 9 years!!!
Once I made the decision to quit and move on to something different, things began to change for the better almost immediately. I later realized that by releasing my enormous burden of negative energy and bad juju, all the “good” now had room to pour into my life. My only question to myself was, “Why hadn’t I done this sooner?”
Well, like everyone else, I was lazy. I thought it would be too much work, too much effort, to try to change. I also had a fear of the unknown. Should I leave this great paying job with stability to move into something which could potentially backfire?
Then it occurred to me. All of those thoughts were just that….thoughts. They were nothing more than stories and ideas of potential outcomes that I was making up in my own head. Why did they all have to be negative? My new attitude was that I was able to identify those negative thoughts and was able to flip them around. What if this is the best thing I could do for myself? Why have I waited so long to start being nice to myself?
When we can look at the potential outcomes of a current (and perhaps, negative) situation, it behooves us to focus on all of the potential positive possibilities instead. Fear tends to lead us to think of all the negative options. That is a habit that most people have learned. That is what most of us have been exposed to all of our lives. This is where a new habit of focusing on positive effects begin.
When you can shift your thoughts to “positive” rather than “negative,” the energy you put out, and consequently, the energy that you begin attracting, also becomes more positive. Decide if you wish to continue to suffer in mediocrity or if you would rather live a life of unlimited, amazing, prosperous potential instead. As with everything else, it is YOUR choice.
River of Opportunities 