You know the routine. You get up in the morning, drag yourself out of bed, get the kids up and dressed and send them off to school. Then you get yourself together and go about your day. You do the same thing every day wishing things were different. It’s your comfort zone. Your Facebook friends have such exciting lives, so rich, so much more interesting than yours. Why can’t you have that? You’d give your left arm to have even a fraction of what they have.
What you’re not seeing is their same old dull routine. We all have one. Even celebrities who appear to live such glamorous lives have a dull routine. They aren’t always as happy as they seem. It’s what goes on behind the scenes that counts. We get to see the glamour shots. We don’t see them dragging themselves out of bed and dealing with the day to day that we all deal with.
Life is what you make it. Now, there’s an old cliché. But it’s true. Something else that’s true is you get to create the life you want. It’s not an easy thing to do but it is possible. First, you have to know what you really want.
Clarify Your Vision
What do you really want? You may think you want an endless stream of money in your bank account, a huge mansion, 10 cars, people to wait on you hand and foot as you travel to exotic lands and meet fabulous people. (Hmm, that doesn’t sound half bad.) But is it really what you want? If you had all that would you be comfortable or would you worry that it might all disappear some day?
To get to what you REALLY want, take a little time to go inside and FEEL what you want. Yes, material things are great to have but they come with a certain need for responsibility. Are you willing to take on that responsibility? OR is it more a feeling of comfort that you’re after? Is it a feeling of freedom from the same old dull routine that would satisfy?
Find some time and a place where you can be completely alone for at least 30 minutes. No interruptions. If you can’t get 30 minutes, take 10. Either way, when you have that space, take a few deep breaths, clear your mind and focus on your breathing. As you begin to feel calmer and the thoughts have become more still, focus on what you’re feeling. Notice any tension you feel and release each muscle, one by one.
Now picture the life you would love to have. Rather than noticing the visual, notice what you feel. What emotions come up? Do you feel at peace? Do you feel excited, energized, content, happy? When you’ve come to a place where you have the feelings you want and you can name them, open your eyes and write them down.
Outside the Box
This is your starting place. You know what you want. You may think you want to live a glamorous life, traveling the world and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, but do you really? Or do you really want to feel at peace and content? Can you achieve those feelings in your everyday life?
Name one thing you could do differently on a daily basis that will kick you out of your usual routine. What if you told the kids they have to get themselves up in the morning? It may mean they’re late for school one day but would that be the end of the world? Instead of running around nagging at them, you can sit and have a relaxing cup of coffee. At first, you’ll be tempted to push them but hold yourself back. This little exercise, if done consistently, will have a double effect. It will take some of your morning stress away and it will teach your kids to be more self-sufficient.
What if you don’t have kids and that’s not your regular routine? What IS your morning routine? How can you make one change to put a little more of what you want into your day? Maybe you take the same route to work every morning. What if you took a different road that provides different scenery? What if, instead of thinking about what you have to do when you get to work, you think about something more pleasant? You get to choose what you think about.
Excuse Me?
That’s all well and good, you might say, but how is taking a different road to work going to get me the life I want? Maybe on that road you come across a sign that says “Help wanted, come in and find your perfect job.” It won’t be that blatant, or it could be, but there may be a sign of some sort that leads you to do something different. Even if not, you have the benefit of shaking things up. Your brain waves are used to the same thing day in and day out. On this new road, your brain wakes up and says, “Hang on a minute. This isn’t the same thing we always see.” It then starts sending signals out to other parts of your body, “look here, this is new”. Before you know it, you’re getting other ideas of what else you could change. By the time you get to work, you walk in with a resolution to the problem you couldn’t solve yesterday. All because you turned left instead of going straight.
Too Good to Be True?
Does this sound too good to be true? Absolutely it does. But it’s the start of doing something different if your life is going to change. You just stepped outside your comfort zone. And you survived. Not only did you survive but you got benefit from it.
Whoa! If it’s that easy, imagine what else might be possible. Was it an earth-shattering change in your routine and in your life? NO. It was one small step. You did something you’re not used to doing on a daily basis. And that’s what it’s about. If you want your life to be different, it can be. It’s easier than you think.
Instead of seeing your life as a huge monumental boulder, you break it into tiny little pebbles. One step at a time. Make tiny changes and they’ll begin to stack up on each other. Over time, momentum will build and you’ll soon look back and see how far you’ve come. Give it a try.
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