Importance Online

Some people have fantastic lives. Other people have terrible lives. Some “have it all” but are caught in a whirlpool of depression and loneliness. On the other hand some people barely have anything of material value but are extremely happy and content. What really makes the difference between two people and how they move through time and space? Is it simply fate? You could believe that, or you could believe something else. I choose to believe that our sayings about life create our experiences.

Different people say different things about their lives depending on either how their experiences and social groups have influenced them, or by a conscious decision to believe something different. We hall have different collages of experiences, and we all have different interpretations for what they mean. Lets say two people have both tried time and time again to succeed at something. One person interprets this to mean that “life is full of failure”. The other interprets it to mean that success is right around the corner and in the end persistence pays off. Which person do you think is more likely to succeed? I would root for the latter.

Photo by maureen_sill

Our life sayings and beliefs are influenced by many things. The family and peer groups are probably to two biggest things in a person’s life that influence his or her belief systems. If everyone around you when you are growing up is in the habit of saying things like “Oh, I always fail. I might as well just give up right now.” You too are likely to adopt such a habit.

The good news is that while social groups have a strong influence on our sayings about life, they do not have total control. You must remember that you have complete sovereignty over your own thought patterns. If you don’t like the way your environment has conditioned you, you can change. Imagine for a moment that anything is possible. What would you choose to think? If you’re environment has conditioned you to never take action for fear of making mistakes, you could pay heed to the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt. He once said “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.”

The choice is up to you. If you want to use the life metaphors that have been conditioned into you, go right ahead. But without really evaluating them to see if they are empowering, you are leaving your success up to chance. In order to really get going you must consciously decide what to believe.

When you convince yourself that you have no life, it can be a very painful thing to experience. This belief can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and out of control over your own life. In turn, these feelings will lead you to block yourself off from your own innate resources, causing you to take ineffective actions and reinforce the same belief. This may sound like a vicious cycle or a downward spiral, and it is.

The good news, however, is that you can break this cycle, and that doing so is very easy. The first step is that you’ve got to decide that the pain this cycle is causing you is too much to put up with, and that you must change it NOW.

Photo by Valentina Photography

Now, Decide What You DO Want

People cause themselves a lot of pain and dysfunction in life by continually thinking about what they don’t want to experience. But living your life is just like driving a car: You get what you focus on. If you consistently focus on how you have no life, you will continue to screw up in the same way. In order to create a new result, you must decide what you DO want, and immediately redirect your focus on that.

How to Direct Your Focus

There are many things you could do to change your focus. To start off with, you can simply ask more empowering questions. The fact is, our thinking process constantly involves asking ourselves certain questions, such as “why does my life suck?” Try asking yourself a different question for a change, such as “How can I improve my life?” Always be aware of the questions you ask yourself, and change them as soon as you notice so that they redirect your focus to things of importance.

Follow Your Passion

One great way to create the life you deserve is to find what you are passionate about, and follow it as far as it can take you. Often times, people who think they have no life really just have no passion in life. Whatever your passion is, whether it be gardening, playing music, or helping people, as soon as you commit your life to it, your experiences will explode with a new level of gratitude and joy. Perhaps you could resolve to play your guitar more often, or commit to buying an acreage and conserving it as forest land.

Exercise

These tips are great, but no matter what stage your life is in, you can take it to the absolute next level by adding exercise to it. You could start lifting weights three days a week, and going for daily bike rides. Extremely sedentary people may need a short adaptation period, but once you start exercising consistently, you will experience a new level of vitality and energy flow that you could never have imagined.

So in reality, having absolutely no life is only a perception. And not all perceptions are true, not all serve you. In order to change your perceptions, you can ask different questions. Following your passion will create a tremendous amount of momentum in your life, and to top it all off, exercise will help you keep your batteries charged at full. Take action and start creating your new life now!