In most cases, what is no longer working for them has not been ideal for some time. They’ve been too busy to notice, and very few others have the courage or the insight to point this out.

While ‘out with the old, in with the new’ may sound like a familiar and straightforward concept, it’s far from easy. Why? Because we cling tightly to what is familiar. In this case, ‘familiar’ is who you were yesterday.

Life is changing in every direction around you. It’s up to you to maintain thought patterns and behaviors consistent with this change. Better yet, lead the change. Allow others to follow you into the brave new world you are creating for yourself.

Joseph Campbell writes: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that’s waiting for us.”

When you hold on to the past, you overlook opportunities that arise in front of you every day. “That’s just not me,” I hear clients eagerly claim to keep the future at bay. My question: “But what if it was? How would it shake up your world?”

Your past experience has a bearing on who you are today, but it need not create your total reality. Allow your personal concept of reality to consists of everything that is imaginable and possible. There is nothing around you that was not first created in someone’s mind before it became a reality. What magnificent things exist in your mind that have not yet come to fruition?

In order to make room for your dreams, you must accept that there are parts of you that are obsolete. Here are two examples of how you can become so much more than you are at this very moment by simply letting go of who you were:

• A teammate gets promoted to manager. She is now in the driver’s seat and thus needs to let go of some of the privileges of being a passenger such as surfing the net, complaining to co-workers about anything, watching her work hours. As she allows these entitlement behaviors to fade into the past, she creates a stronger focus on her new role, how she can steer profits, how she can improve herself in order to more exquisitely lead others.
• A playboy gets married and has a child. Clearly, past behaviors will no longer work with his emerging family; however, many men fight this. Old thought patterns and behaviors need to change in order to fulfill the loving and responsible roles he has now chosen. The media is filled with former ‘bad boys’ who have come to the realization that staying home is now their greatest source of joy.

Here is an example of not letting go of the past, thus not accomplishing your dreams:

• A CEO suffers a heart attack and dies. This individual has had poor health most of his professional life, having never learned to deal with stress (most of it self-imposed.) He appears angry, never quite satisfied with his team, always looking at what isn’t done rather than progress they make. ‘Enough was never enough’ with this guy. Sad to say, he worked himself into an early grave by not utilizing the myriad of tools and strategies that were made readily available to him. He felt that he had nothing to learn. In the end, I guess he didn’t, and that was his choice.

Being yourself is a freedom awarded to you that few humans enjoy either today or in history. The opportunity to grow into more than you were yesterday is a tremendous gift, one that you can only give to yourself.

Begin today to notice what is working in your world, from your relationships (including the one with yourself) to your health and wealth. As you focus on what is working and what thought patterns and behaviors honor this, the rest will fall aside. You needn’t make any drastic changes, just small ones that will add up quickly.

Have a grand week and enjoy your discoveries!

Ann

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Permission is granted to either reproduce copy or distribute "Your Success Thought for the Week for December 13, 2006" as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. The author is Ann Golden Eglé, Golden Visions Success Coaching, LLC, 541.385.8887, 21775 Rickard Rd., Bend, Oregon 97701, www.GoldenVisionsSuccess.com