I am aware that I have somewhat butchered Mr. Franklin's words in this title, but I needed a mantra or slogan that fit me and this one pretty much covers it all. I've been listening to Mike Dooley in the car since my transfer, and one of his suggestions was to break down your goals and desires into single words so you can create a mantra to repeat to yourself all day. I've done this before in various forms and had some real success with it, so I'm going to go for it again. Last year I had "focused, productive, accountable" on a label on my monitor. It was a great reminder and it really helped me achieve a great deal at work.
This year, I've been struggling a bit as I decided to take a promotion here at HQ and spend less time focusing on my scrapbooking businesses for the moment. My identity has been a bit off. I don't feel as much myself as I usually do. Don't ask me to define that feeling. If you've had it, you know what I mean. I just feel "off". At the same time I also feel fat, in pain and somewhat concerned about my cash flow going into 2008. Very motivating, right?
I have goals for the year that include releasing some unneeded pounds, healing the deterioration of my spine and increasing my earning potential in my new job, while still searching for that perfect role in life that also pays extremely well. Should be pretty achievable right? Are you laughing at me???? Stop that!!!
I chose the words in my mantra very carefully, in other words they just came to me as I was driving. Honestly, many of my best ideas come to me when I am not trying at all. As I was thinking about a mantra and what my goals were I began to hear words in the background of my mind. I realized I was hearing good old Ben's Early to Bed proverb, and I knew I was on the right track. Ben Franklin happens to be one of my heroes so it was a good sign from the universe.
As to the specific words and their meanings to me, here's my thinking. Healthy might seem obvious, but in my mind I am specifically tackling the weight that I have gained, and the problems with my spine that are supposedly permanent and inoperable. At the very least releasing the weight that I have gained will certainly help with my back, but I also believe that if people can heal themselves of cancer I can heal my spine. I just need to focus, be mindful and have faith.
Happy and wise should be easier as all I need to do is look at my family and the happy is there. I just need to remember to stay in the moment and enjoy the little things and I'm good. Truthfully, for someone who has the specter of depression in her past, happy is something that requires mindfulness and strong focus at times. I have worked very hard to reprogram my mind to respond to stress and tragedy in a healthy and constructive way, and I need to continually reinforce that training. Wise, well with all the time I spend reading and writing about personal growth I would hope I'm getting wiser every day, LOL. Wisdom supposedly comes with age and time, but the kind of wisdom I'm thinking of is more like enlightenment and peace. In my mind it is the Grace that can only come from those quiet moments we spend alone with God. So, I need to remind myself to take the time to be still and know God, as the saying goes.
Wealthy. Ah, yes. Wealthy. Let me tell you why I need to focus on that in a big way. I immediately cancel out wealthy when I say it in regards to myself. I have been programmed from birth to be poor or at the very least on the edge financially. I'm not joking! As my mind formed I was repeatedly taught that people like us don't have nice things, nice homes, or money to take vacations. No matter how much success I have in life, I always end up with a nearly empty bank account. In my home people with money were looked down upon as being lucky and superficial and somehow not "good" people. Whenever someone in the family, who did manage break out of the mold, bought a big house or an expensive car the rest would say "must be nice" in an incredibly sarcastic and menacing tone. It was as if the person had done something to wrong them by being successful. This can really, really twist your beliefs about money. Since what we get is what we believe, you can see where this is a problem.
Yet with all of the work I have done on my personal growth and overhauling my beliefs I have always kept my distance from this particular issue. I have to fix this in myself, if not for myself then for Gracie. Oh did you see that? I just made this about being a good parent. It's like I cannot make it okay to be wealthy just for the sake of myself being wealthy! Geez Louise…
Here are some real thoughts that go through my head when I think the word "wealthy":
-other people
-not me
-hard
-not right
-impossible
-unrealistic
-never
-when I become a speaker I'm never going to teach about wealth because that is so superficial (really, i have thought that while hearing other speakers speak about their millions).
-guilt
-greed
Okay then…I think I'll stop that for now. Believe me, I could go on and that's the problem. So I've got some work to do on this area. I hate to admit it, but I even skip chapters in books and on CD's about wealth building. Yeah, that's embarrassing.
What I find even more curious is that I have tackled things about myself and my life that are probably way harder than this. When I say depression, I'm not talking the blues. I'm talking suicide. Only the knowledge that my death would destroy my family kept me going some days. The thought of my grandmother getting the news that I had killed myself forestalled my hand over and over again. So, if I can bring myself out of that darkness, if I can get through the loss of my husband after only five weeks of marriage and if I can get over hating God, life and the universe, I'm pretty sure I can do this. I just need to believe that I can be wealthy and that I want to be wealthy and that it is okay to want it. I don't want just enough money. I have that now. What I want is a lot of money. I'd like it relatively quickly as well. A couple of years from now I'd like to be buying my dream house and sending Gracie to private school. I'm not even remotely kidding. I know I can do this. Other people do it every day, why not me?
It all starts with my mantra. I am healthy, wealthy, wise and happy. Yup, that's me in a nutshell.
What are you? Got the wealth and not the health? Want love but it just doesn't seem to happen for you? Have you given up on having dreams because things like that don't happen for people like you? Too old for your life to change? That's a bunch of crap and you need to know it. Listen to what your heart and mind are saying behind your back about your dreams and goals, then shut them up once and for all and insert your own words in their place. Words have power and you have power over your words. Never forget that.
Let me know what mantras or slogans you come up with!
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