Daily Gratitude: This is so true. It seems that when we want something so much, there is often some form of fear (or even more than one form) standing right in front of us. It’s embarrassing to think of the number of things I’ve missed in my life because of fear. We couch that fear in many “outfits” or “costumes” such as “I really don’t want to”, “it doesn’t matter that much”, “I’m too old so it’s too late”, “that’s not in my wheelhouse”, “I don’t know how to do that and there’s no time to learn”, etc. These are all coverups for fear. We need to recognize what we’re doing and how we are avoiding pursuing our goal and then figure out the things we are fearing. Once we find the underlying fears, we can develop strategies to overcome them. Some we can overcome on our own but others might need help with it. It takes work but take it from me, it’s worth it.

Daily Gratitude: How many of you read this and thought “how selfish this is”? It’s not selfish at all. In fact it’s essential. We have to start with ourselves and making changes within before we can have any real hope of changing the world. For 70 years I thought I was just stuck being the person I was – and it was not a very good image. There was despair thinking I could or would never change. But then I discovered IFS (Internal Family Systems) and learned that change is possible at any age. Once I applied the principles of IFS, I not only became a changed woman but also a much happier woman. It takes work (just as curing chronic pain takes work by you) but I can tell you that this is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done – either for myself or for others. Once you decide you want to change and find the method that works for you, you’ll go through some grief because you are losing parts of yourself. But once your brain and your parts are realigned, you’ll wonder why you didn’t discover this a long time ago. Everything comes in it’s time and I am so grateful my time finally came.

Daily Gratitude: Can you relate to this? I certainly can. Ha! How well do things get done in your life when you have very little (or no) enthusiasm for them. I noticed this today. I was tired and just went through the motions for most of my daily routine always thinking about how nice it would be to just go back to bed. Then i had to do something with my van to get it fixed up more and all of a sudden i wasn’t tired any more. I was interested and engaged. It was truly intriguing. Since everything in our lives is not unique we might want to put some effort into figuring out how to make something interesting or somehow up our enthusiasm. For some one will be easier than the other. Remember, though, that if we can act enthusiastically, we will become enthusiastic. Generate the emotion somehow (make a game or a challenge of it) and then it will light the fire under you. Kind of like creating a spark and that will lead to a raging fire. You can also make a game out of the “boring” thing you have to do. Figure out a reward you can give yourself in order to motivate yourself to complete it. Do anything you can to generate enthusiasm and do those great things on your way pathway to greatness!