When I was but a young boy, about eight years old as I recall, I asked my Mother one evening if I was allowed to eat some bread before dinner. Her response still resonates with me til this day. It was; "Honey, I'm sorry, but we can't afford it."
Why couldn't we afford to eat bread that we already had? Well, she was trying to ration it out for my lunches for the week. I don't actually believe she was part of the food equation that particular week. As unrelated as it may seem, this sparked a lifelong journey that I still strive for.
My answer in my eight year old head upon hearing this news was; "I am never ever going to be in this situation! I will never let my Children go hungry, and I'm never going to be poor!" As profound as that may have seemed coming from an eight year old, it was actually quite negative, and led to a life of living just above broke, and then as I aged well below broke. It hurt.
The message that I had essentially sent myself all these years (until I learned to change my thinking) was that "I don't want to be poor. Ever!" You get what you focus on as they say. Well, the good old universe works in somewhat frustrating ways at times.
Despite me trying, and failing so many times, I was still focussing on 'not being poor' whereas the universe could only hear the feeling I had with the sentence. This was fear, and the focus was 'poor.' The universe very carefully gave me as much poverty as I could possibly handle.
It gave it to me in buckets, barrels, and baskets. It gave me so much poverty I nearly snapped. Until one day, I did just that.
I had focussed so much energy on not being poor, that all I had brought to me was poverty. The down-turn came when I was precipitously fired from a role that I loathed. It was in a financial mecca of sorts, and despite the slightly above-average pay, I was nowhere near happy.
I was working over twelve hours per day, and was losing hair, sleep and sanity fast. I despised coming in to work each day, and it began to show. As mentioned, I was fired. It hurt, but strangely felt so good.
My lowest point came when a week away from bankruptcy I had to borrow money off my girlfriend. We had been dating for only a few short months, and I was living at her house as I had no money to pay rent. She is an angel, and I made her my wife.
The pride I had to swallow to ask for money just to live was unbelievable. At the end of the day, I would rather have food than pride, so I remained faithful that my life would change.
When you have fallen down, and are lying on your back, the only place you can look is up. I use this as a metaphor for life in some ways. The only way was up as they say. I had to change, and my low point was the catalyst that I needed to save me from myself.
I started focussing on what had got me to this point. What patterns in my behaviour, what thoughts had I projected, how had I acted to bring this situation into fruition. There is incredible power in taking responsibility for your life.
Even the bad stuff you create along the way. If you take responsibility for everything, you suddenly find yourself in full control of yourself. You then realise that anything that has happened is of your own doing. If it is of your own doing, then surely you have the power to change that too?
To any readers of this, you don't need to hit rock bottom to change your life. You do need a couple of things to find your success. One is a deep and plentiful hunger for whatever you desire. The second is to understand that every moment of your life whether good or bad is of your own doing. Taking responsibility allows you to change. Change propels you forward.
Make your success a priority. Remember that your only obstacle is you.
Go achieve your dream today.
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