Friday, September 28, 2012

Feeling STUCK?


How can YOU get unstuck? Could it be as easy as changing your perspective?

In my travels I am learning that people from different places are all the same… in the sense that they are ALL just people. Old or young, male or female, from here or there... And guess what – your parents are just people too. They might seem really old to you but they were once the same age as you are now… and they were also children, perhaps with a sad childhood or even a rough one.

Sometimes it is hard for us to look past our own perceptions and imagine what life is like for others. We see things the way WE see them and that’s how they are… right? 

WRONG - This is an important concept to understand and take some time to think about… this can be extremely helpful in many situations because once you become more agile in your thinking, you are able to grow and become a better version of yourself. J

Often if you ask someone about WHY they haven’t reached all their dreams and goals they can provide you with a list of excuses longer than their arm… You can make excuses, or you can create an amazing life – but you can’t do both…

Some excuses are really reasons… just kidding – ‘reasons’ are just excuses that we have justified to ourselves.

The sum of all of your experiences is now sitting in your chair. That’s right… YOU are the sum of what you remember about the experiences that you have had… how we ‘remember’ something is often quite different than what actually happened.

If there is a car crash and it happens in front of a group of 12 different people, do you think you would get 12 statements that are exactly the same? Not one chance – you will get 12 different accounts of what happened and if you didn’t know they were talking about the same thing you may not even realize it because their individual accounts will be SO different… another example – ever played ‘Telephone’?

Are you wondering yet how you can have different perceptions that can lead to real change?

Here is the secret to permanent change:
1.             The perception you have of your memories is not based on reality. Your memories are LYING.
2.             Believe the truth instead of the lies… easier done than said so don’t think about it – just do it. (believing the truth is not as fun, sometimes it can be quite painful – it’s not easy but is worth it)
3.             Change your perceptions of your past and your childhood by reviewing your memories and the ‘feelings’ you have attached to them. Challenge the memories that are frozen into your brain about your childhood – rediscover them now with the rational thinking you have developed as an adult. As you gain a new perspective, based on rational thinking rather than emotional childhood memory, you will alter your self-talk. And when you adjust the conversation you are having with yourself, all day long, you can change your thoughts and your behavior. Changing your behavior will yield you different results :-)

Changing your perception of your memories from childhood will change the perception that you have of yourself TODAY!

Now, back to our parents – can we look at their life from an outside perspective and use our logical, rational thinking to imagine what life might have actually been like for them? Remember that they didn’t have the same luxury of technology that you did growing up… in fact they had many struggles through life, including carrying the burden of the stories their own parents shared with them as they grew up…. And they certainly didn’t have the benefit of reading this J

So is it fair to blame your current problems on something that happened years ago? NO

Let’s explore ‘humanizing’ our parents. Is it possible that they didn’t have a very good start in life? Weren’t they just a result of their own conditioning and environment, the same as you have been?

By exploring how your parents became the way they are, by using logical reasoning and our adult thinking, we can move them from possible abusive failures or whatever category we have them in to fellow strugglers – real people with real problems. It certainly doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it does help us to understand and revise the memories we have by looking at them today, instead of from the memory we created so many years ago.


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