Make your choice and see what you can become. The options are endless.
I am often asked by people about how to be happy in their job, their relationships and their life.
My belief system is grounded in behavioral therapy and has been further adapted to include other methodologies and mindfulness.
This does not mean it has a religious or spiritual belief behind it but that each moment is impermanent and we have a choice to live our lives, by choosing our thoughts and behaviors, which affect our emotions, each nanosecond that we live on this planet.
I used to search for jobs, friendships and relationships that would be “the one.” The more I looked, the more I found that no matter how much I believe one job is better than another, one person is better than another or that “this new thing” will allow me to be happy, I was incorrect. My hypothesis was that something else would make me happy when I wasn’t willing to do the hard work to re-frame my automatic negative thoughts and my biases to the outside world. I wanted everyone else to change instead of realizing that it is my fault, in a very positive way, for each and every interaction that I have and what the outcome will be to that interaction.
We all have this ability to be exactly who we are and what we are right now.
We are that job we don’t like, which is a job someone else would love to have.
We are that person we hate, who is that person someone else would love to love.
We are all those things that we despise.
I was the thing I despised because of my ego and my insecurities.
In the end, we may just be specks of dust and atoms that scatter back into the universe.
This is exceptionally freeing to me because that means I can live my life with less regret and less pressure to have to “be something” or “prove something” that doesn’t really count in the long term.
This allows me to take on as many roles, and personalities, as I want and make changes whenever I choose to make them.
Many people I know see their life or their life choices as a linear spectrum.
They see it as a flat line that goes in one direction.
There is good on one end and bad on the other.
I prefer to take the ends of those lines and bend it into a circle. I see it as those ends are not the opposite. They are actually very close together and can oftentimes be interchanged.
I’m not saying that every US president is the same but, in many ways, they are probably not that different when you look at it: both human, both “male”, both work in politics, both think they are doing the right thing, both believe they are chosen to lead, etc.
I recently went swimming with sharks in Malaysia. Some were about 3 feet long and I was right beside them without any protection. I also went skydiving after I received my Marriage and Family Therapist License as a way to prove to myself that fear and anxiety are lies and I have a choice to overcome what I choose to overcome. I continue to do that every second of my life and love how my mind and body respond to the mastery of a new skill.
I feel it is my responsibility to take the positive in me and let it flow into what I do. If I don’t, I then encourage negative energy from other people to build and take control of my life.
I encourage you, in your own way and style, to be willing to feel the fear in new adventures, to make mistakes, and to revel in the changes that result.