The principles of success require that we maintain an optimistic mindset. Negative life experiences take their toll, leaving us more conservative, fearful,  and less trusting as time passes. This trend seems to worsen with age, causing many to lose the fresh and optimistic expectations that come more naturally to the young. As we grow older, more than ever, we will need to push ourselves to overcome negative thinking.

This conservative and more fearful approach results in a need for predictability and habit. We see people choose the comfortable and known path, rather than venture out or attempt change, even when it is far less than they want. We see many elect to stay in safe though undesirable conditions, such as what hapens in many marriages, until that safe known becomes so painful that it is unbearable. Rather than actively creating desirable circumstances either by leaving or attempting to change the circumstances, they keep the status quo. Rather than giving them the measure of control they may feel they have, it represents more of a managed failure.

Managed failures exist in relationships, in career, and in health matters. Fear of attempting something different, or even believing they can have something different based on past experience, causes people to hang onto undesirable circumstances. The conditions afford safety, if nothing else. And predictability and safety seems to become more of a priority as we age.

An area where many exhibit untrue belief systems is in relationships. More people than ever resist commitment, and fewer people re-marry following divorce. Fear of hurt and rejection is one of the most profound fears humans experience, because of early loving, or unloving, experiences with parents, siblings, and others. So, as men and women collect negative experiences, they reinforce the programs that keep them from opening their heart in a loving and innocent way. They learn to protect themselves from the pain of failure and rejection by acting in a manner that seems clear would sabotage any chance for a fulfilling intimate relationship. Destructive behaviors might be unconscious, but just as often, the individuals are completely aware of their actions. Rather than modifying their behavior in the hopes of producing success, they continue to follow the same patterns. If not unconscious, we can only say it is deliberate.

When, with awareness, we continue to sabotage our health by following a particular path, how can we explain it? If we have gotten bad results in the past from following a physician’s advice, treatment path, or taking a prescription medication which only exacerbated a condition, why would we continue to do it?

We should gain knowledge from experience rather than fear. Do we learn from those experiences to go on and produce better outcomes with some necessary modification of our own behavior, or do we simply repeat the process over and over, to get the same results each time? While we become fearful and less trusting about what awaits us, it is our own repetitious thinking, behavior, and choices that bring about the same negative results.

Choose to learn from experience. With wisdom, alter self-sabotaging choices and behaviors that bring about failure. Then, armed with awareness and change, develop positive expectations for success. Expect the best outcome, and believe in miracles and luck with every risk and choice. No matter what has passed before, always expect miraculous change in your life. Risk success!

If you feel you have waited too long to create effective and satisfactory change in your life in a particular area, you should belive that it is never too late to alter that trend. The only reason it may appear to be more daunting is because your patterns, most notably your thinking patterns, are more habituated. There is nothing more worthwhile than love, happiness and success, at any stage in life.

 

Success comes to those willing to commit with unwavering persistence. Committing to change first requires an open and willing attitude. You’ll find yourself tested with challenges that require you to develop tremendous inner courage. Ultimately you hope to see outer success as a result of the inner work you have done, but it usually takes some time. This will require you to develop the patience of a champion.

Unfortunately, while people may decide they want change, they rarely want to do the work for the time required to see tangible results. Understandably, they often get impatient to see change on any level, whether in regard to physical healing, mental healing, or life healing. While it has taken an entire lifetime to create what we see in the form of our financial condition, relationships, health, and general happiness overall, we may irrationally want instantaneous results. We tend to lose focus and move onto something else that offers a quicker return. There really is no easier or quicker way than inner healing work. That is ultimately the only way.

If you are going through a divorce that is causing financial and emotional difficulties, you need to look at it from the perspective that a bad situation is moving out. It is a situation undergoing the process of change. You may have traded what appears like one bad situation for another, but in reality, you are working towards an improvement. You have to view any negative circumstances in that way, when you are actively working on improvement.

Many people often neglect to realistically assess their starting place when working towards goals of self-improvement. If you have heard about the "illusion" of time, forget it now. If you have heard that it only takes the universe "one second," forget that one, too. It’s a whole lot more fun to contemplate change when we think it might take a second, but it’s unrealistic, given our starting point, to transform negative conditions in a second, in a week, month, or possibly even a year or more! Understand the necessity of cultivating the art of patience.

Do not allow your current situation to weigh upon you. It will pass. You may look at this and say, "How can I feel positive with this going on around me?" or "How can I feel healthy when I am sick?" Optimism becomes part of the healing process. Not only must you believe that the situation will pass, you must believe that it will ultimately produce the best possible results. The current situation is a part of yesterday. At some point, it will merely be history. Then, you can forget it entirely. For today, plod through with courage, and do not focus on negativity, as bleak as circumstances may seem. Focusing on the negative will encourage negative conditions to remain. Use the momentum of change to swing to the positive as you focus on positive change at all times.

People seem more willing to put time and energy into areas that do not hold as great a promise to transform their lives. Perhaps the pain of looking within serves as the impetus for seeking outer distractions and material possessions. But at the end of the day, no amount of money or stuff can substitute for inner peace and happiness. While you may at times feel overwhelmed by the inner work required to change your thoughts or habits, know that the longer you put off the necessary inner work, the more ingrained and habitual the patterns become. The best you can hope to achieve, lacking real change, is tolerant complacency to your own dissatisfaction. Eventually you will find that change is an inside job.

You will not find any better system to change your life. There is nothing more worthwhile than committing to your own growth. You can effect powerful change in your life right now with your growing awareness. It’s reasonable to want change to motivate you to keep moving forward, and this will happen. With the internal changes, your perspective will change. You will change. And then life will transform.

Success starts with a dream. Inspiration and fire transform that dream into reality. Feel passionate about your desires! Dreams are meant to inspire you to live with passion and purpose to attain them, not to make you long for what you cannot have. In the process, you grow, you develop, and you discover the truth of who you are.

Our soul urges us to grow by placing desires in our heart. These desires push us through our limits, challenges, blocks and fears. If the desire becomes a driving need, or being deprived of our heart’s desire proves painful enough, we will work to overcome anything that limits us from getting what we want. Many times it is only the limits in our mind that keep us from what we want, and in this way, we are pushed to grow. Without a dream, we would not want more. We would not be driven to go beyond where we have been.

Many people give up on their dreams without trying to reach them. They may have been taught early in life that their dreams were simply unrealistic fantasies. If you hold a dream in your heart, you have the ability to attain it.

Sometimes people don’t have a problem coming up with a vision of an idyllic life, but cannot imagine ever actually achieving it, given their current mindset. Current law of attraction teachings have come to the rescue by telling us that positive thinking, affirmations, writing checks and rubbing lamps will bring those dreams into reality. But if we feel this vision lies so distant from our present reality that we couldn’t possibly achieve that kind of change in one lifetime, we won’t be able to manifest those ideals. We must take the necessary step to admit that deep down, we believe those goals are unattainable. Awareness and self-honesty is always far more empowering than denial. Taking the step towards recognition of blocks, and then working through them until you feel that your dreams are within your grasp, is how you will manifest your visions.

Perhaps we can use law of attraction to bring conditions to us that have eluded us in the past, simply by changing our focus, being positive, and defining our vision. Maybe we only needed to learn that it was okay to want what we want, and to believe we can have it. Maybe we need to learn to dispel negativity and belief in lack. But perhaps, if we are to manifest those goals, more in-depth healing is needed. When conditions exist for real shift and growth, the sooner we "get" what we need to learn, the closer we are to each and every single goal, no matter how unrealistic it may seem. The same vision that we think impossible, was very possible for many others. Why them, and not you? Imagine manifesting the love of your life, creating a successful and fulfilling career, feeling healthy, vibrant, and happy. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it, with commitment and patience.

It is the same thinking that created your life that continues to limit your vision. Eliminate those thoughts, and a new world will open to you.

Through the study of quantum physics, we find that our thoughts have great power in shaping our life on the imperceptible level through law of attraction. Armed with this knowledge, we finally realize the importance of the content and quality of our thoughts. Every negative and limiting thought limits our ability to create a positive life experience.

We may believe that our thought systems present unchangeable truth. In reality, we need to eliminate or alter these beliefs, which range from universal ideas about how the world operates, how people behave, what conditions exist, as well as personal beliefs about self-worth, intelligence, talent or capability. These untruths need to shift before we see a change in our conditions. These thoughts continue to draw circumstances and people to us. Can we diagnose sick thoughts, based on what we attract? 

Any initial discomfort brought by healing and change is only temporary, whereas the dissatisfaction you would feel from remaining as you are, comfortable as it may be, is permanent. You can attempt to develop complacency and tolerance, but frustration and unhappiness will develop on some level. As you numb yourself to your dissatisfaction, you also numb yourself to many of life’s joys and pleasures. It takes a significant amount of energy to hold off those repressed feelings, and eventually buried negative emotions leak out into our lives, affecting relationships, physical health, and emotional well-being.

It is never too late to take the time the time and effort to create a life that you are happy to wake to every single day. Ask yourself, if not now, when?