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Living Life in the Moment
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
By Jay D. Allen
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One Step at a Time.
The number-one reason why people are
not doing as well as they know they could
is negligence. Negligence and complacency
are like an infection - if left unchecked
in one area of our life, they will spread
and eventually manifest themselves in
all other areas.
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I remember a conversation with a friend who
went hiking with his wife. He told me that going
up the mountain was a lot of hard work, frustrating
at times, and took longer than expected. What
kept them going was the fact that they could
quite literally see the end in sight. They had
a clear goal, which was to reach the top of
the mountain. They took one step at a time and
had each other for encouragement along the way.
Interestingly, he said that going down the mountain
had actually hurt more! The momentum of going
down forced them to slow down, so they would
not stumble and fall; as a result, they experienced
a deep burning sensation in their leg muscles.
Because they were not focusing on a goal, they
experienced only pain and discomfort on the
journey down the mountain.
Life can feel like a journey to the top of
a mountain. Only you can decide if it is worth
the effort to climb to the top of the mountain
of life. Remember that change has its own momentum;
we move either in one direction or another.
If we stay focused on our goals and take life
one step at a time, we will be aware of the
momentum and keep it going in the right direction.
Negligence and complacency help no one, especially
not ourselves, to realize our dream and purpose,
and furthermore, we cannot help anyone else
if we do not continually improve our own life
and take it to new levels.
When we are not doing the things we know we
should and could be doing, it causes us to feel
guilty. Our guilt leads to a loss of self-respect,
and with that comes a loss of self-confidence.
When we lose self-confidence, we end up taking
less action and therefore get fewer results.
When we do not get the results we want, it is
often reflected in our attitude and the spiral
continues downward. As we have all experienced
at one time or another, momentum is a very powerful
force, one you should want to see working for
you and not against you. In other words, the
more you have - love, happiness, power, success
- the more will be added to you; the less you
have, the more will be taken away from you.
The further down the hill you go, the more difficult
it seems to be to get going in the other direction
until, of course, the Universe gets your attention
and you have no choice but to surrender to the
Law of Life.
Be Who You Want to Be
Do not make the common mistake of comparing
yourself to others or measuring yourself by
yesterday's standards. Our capabilities are
always growing and expanding, so we must not
let yesterday's self-image linger in the shadows
by hanging on to the belief that who and what
we are now - our image of ourselves - is who
and what we are always going to be.
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About
the author: Jay Allen is alive 15 years
after being diagnosed with a mid-brain tumor
and given only 15 months to live. The diagnosis
hasn’t changed and modern medicine
cannot explain why he is still alive. The
only advice doctors have given him is to
“keep doing whatever it is you are
doing.” So he wrote the book that he
was dying to read 16 years ago and shares
what he has been doing and why it works. |
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