I was standing in the bathroom at a friend of mine’s house the other night and on the wall are framed magazines from years ago. One in particular caught my eye. The February 7th, 1980, edition of Rolling Stone featured Fleetwood Mac on the cover with the subtitle: “They Dared to be Different.”

That was 36 years ago…

How long has it been since you dared to do ANYTHING different? Most people are creatures of habit.  The mere mention of “change” causes fear, anxiety, depression, and a whole slew of other emotions that prevent us from really experiencing and understanding the real, actually positive, power change actually contains. We drive the same way to work every day, do pretty much the same things, order the same thing at restaurants…etc. In fact, when we really look at everything we do in our daily lives – VERY little of it changes from day to day.

Some people even refer to this as finding their “groove.” The only problem with a groove is if you stay in it too long, it becomes a rut. I work with so many people that claim to be stuck. We find ourselves stuck, because we fear change, and then we allow that fear to keep us from going anywhere… so we just tell ourselves we’re stuck. It certainly sounds better than saying “I’m scared to death of doing anything different because it might not work out and people might think less of me…so I’ve decided to just stay in this exact spot and be miserable.” Or worse, “it’s just the way it goes for me…I must not deserve to be happy.” 

 

James Allen’s book, “As A Man Thinketh” talks about why this frame of mind is so devastating:

“We may imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.”

We’re never really stuck, because stuck implies helplessness and immobility, and when it comes to our subconscious, an immobile state doesn’t exist. We’re not stuck, we’ve allowed the IDEA of being stuck manifest itself through our actions and become a habit; thus, creating the circumstances we experiencing. In reality, we’re always just one new thought and action away from something new. In fact, we’re never more than one thought away from an entirely different world. Let us radically alter our thoughts, and we will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of our lives.

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.” -Earnie Larsen

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”        -Albert Einsten

Einstein was basically saying that at some point we have to realize that the world we live in is actually just the reality that we have created for ourselves based on the feelings and emotions that we continue to harbor.

Maxwell Maltz wrote about this in his book Psycho Cybernetics when he said we’ll never be able to outperform our own self-image. The image we create for ourselves either establishes our potential or creates our limitations…the outcome of either is 100% up to us.

When things aren’t going the way you would like for them to, or you hear yourself start saying you’re “stuck” – change. Something. Anything. Just do something different. That is what is so amazing about the human mind and spirit…you have the ability to create whatever reality you want. If you don’t like where you are – change it. The old adage “you have to play the cards you’re dealt” is a lie. If life has dealt you a crappy hand…throw it back and ask for five new cards.

You can live your life one of two ways: by design or by default. If you choose to live by default, you’ll just fall into someone else’s plan and they never have anything planned for you.

Take responsibility for the one thing in your world that truly matters…your entire world. The longer you wait, the longer what you truly desire just continues to be a dream.

Dare to be different.

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