Take Charge Of Your Life

Wouldn’t it be great if the economy turned around, a great job was offered to us, that “right” person showed up in our lives, the kids were well behaved, politicians made all the appropriate decisions, and the world was at peace? We could then coast through life, enjoying each moment as the outside circumstances showed up in our lives to our perfect satisfaction. Unfortunately I haven’t found that to be true in my life, and I suspect you haven’t either.

Hoping, wishing, wanting, and expecting things to change around us often leads to suffering, missed expectations, challenge, excuses, and blame. There is an alternative.

While we can’t control what is going on around us, we have been offered the responsibility to take charge of our lives, create as best we can, and “carve out our unique statue,” so to speak. It’s our life to live. We can grab the tiger by the tail, or retreat to the monastery. The choice is ours. What we do with our lives, and how we approach each day, determines our happiness. We can be joyful in the face of failure (although we don’t have to like it), or we can complain about everything not going our way. 

Here is the choice: take charge of our lives, or sit back. Claim our power and grow with it, or give in to circumstances. My vote is for the former.

Why Things Show Up as They Do

Here’s the way I view the context out of which we operate: we are each uniquely born into an intention held by our larger soul self, a combination of personality, environment, parents, and history—a history that is cumulative based on past experiences and possibly many past lives. So while we’re here on earth, free to choose our destiny, there’s already some kind of plan in place, lessons to learn, and unique qualities to express. But how that plays out each day is shaped by our awareness, our desires, and the beliefs we take on as a result of our interactions in the world.

Underneath our action taking is an accumulation of thoughts and beliefs, desires and intentions that send us off doing stuff. Want to change your reality? Get in touch with your underlying subconscious paradigm of how life works, and change it. Once you have a grasp on why things are showing up the way they are, due to the unconscious repetition of beliefs that don’t serve you, there are basically two ways to change:

1. Change your thoughts and change the old rules. Create a new belief system that counters the old one. This is somewhat like trying to swim upstream, but with enough time and force you will be successful. The key here is lots of repetitions, often. Your new beliefs will start to take hold and you will begin to see new opportunities and results.
2. Continue to gain awareness, notice, and tell yourself: “Hmmm. . . That’s interesting.” The power here is in not judging what is occurring, but just noticing. As awareness builds, a final “ah-ha” moment may happen in which the old just falls away.

Neither of these methods is particularly simple, but truly doable. If you are particularly tired of the old patterns and results that keep arising, you will have a much stronger commitment to make the change. And then, as if by magic, your new paradigm begins to energize different actions and a new reality will emerge.

While a new paradigm can be created out of which you shift to a new way of thinking and then begin to perceive a new reality, the old tapes will want to re-capture your attention. That’s just the way it works—the ego does not want to give up control. And it’s quite tempting to allow that to happen, but you don’t have to. You are the master of your thoughts, and ultimately have the power to choose whatever it is you want to empower or think about.

Your Unique Statue

You have a unique (I call it soul) purpose, and the opportunity to carve out your particular niche in life. You have a statue within you that wants to emerge. And you have the tools to carve it out. Three challenges, however, present themselves: discover your purpose, manage your beliefs, and take the disciplined and persistent action that brings it to life.

Owning your personal power begins with accepting this premise: how your life turns out is of your own making. The way it turns out, however, may be quite different from how you first intended, but you still get to choose your attitudes, your beliefs, and your happiness. And, I strongly believe, if you continue to focus on aligning with your purpose in life, along with clearly defining the intended results you want to achieve, many of those results will come your way.

Wherever you are in life, you can start over. And by understanding and claiming exactly where you are, you are better able to launch new attitudes and actions toward your intended outcome.