Welcome to this week’s edition of my newsletter. In this week’s edition we continue our look at the nine steps to change.

So I’m curious, did you spend some time this past week thinking about some of the visions that run your life? If you did come up with some visions that run your life, I would love to hear from you. Send an email to darel@richbits.com and tell me about one of them.

Here are some of the visions I came up with.

• I am overweight.
• I’m skinny
• I’m too old to work anywhere else.
• It’s not ok to ask for help.
• It’s not ok to express my feelings.
• I can’t start my day without a cup of coffee.
• I can’t relax at the end of the day without a cocktail.
• I can’t go to a movie without buying popcorn / candy.

So, what vision(s) runs your life?

Actually, there are two ingredients to our vision that will determine the quality of our life. One is our concept of reality, our vision, and the other is our attitude about life. A change of attitude is a BEING choice. Our vision determines the content of our life; our attitude controls the quality of it. To change the quality of our life, we must take charge of both our vision and our attitude.

The life we experience will be a representation of our concept of reality and a reflection of our attitude about it. Our attitude is the power behind our vision. From the list below find which one best describes your attitude about life and according to your answer you’ll know what powers your vision. Are you positive, neutral or negative?

1. Positive – Optimistic – Powerful – Involved – I can – Proactive
2. Neutral – Pacifistic – Listless – Disengaged – I don’t care – Inactive
3. Negative – Pessimistic – Victim – Dissenting – I can’t - Reactive

How did you rate your vision, as a 1, 2 or a 3?

Our vision is our motivation

If we rate ourselves as a 2 or 3 in the above lists, we must know that it’s our attitude about life that keeps us boxed into a reality that no longer serves us. To find our way out of that box, first know that our current vision, our concept of reality, determines our attitude. Our vision is our motivator. Now take a look at where our current vision has taken us and ask ourselves if that’s where we want to be.

The chapter this was taken from is about acquiring the burning desire that will motivate us to make a new BEING choice. Our new vision will create that burning desire. Once we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the way out, our attitude will turn from negative to positive, from reactive to proactive. But to create our motivation, we must first change the vision.

What do we want from life?

What does being a success mean to you? If we were being as successful as we have always wanted to be, what would that look like, feel like? Who would we be BEING? What would we be doing?  What would we have that we don’t have now? The obvious answer:

Being successful means

Being able to live our desires and dreams.

But we may not have a dream! The problem with being stuck in a box is that we may not have allowed ourselves to dream, or if to dream, not to dream big. If we are like most people, we haven’t thought much about what our life would be like outside the box. We haven’t dreamed about enjoying a richer, fuller life, because up to now, it hasn’t seemed possible (the elephant’s twenty-foot circle).

To help us find our way out of our box, I will be reminding you again and again that we are each an individualization of God with the power to create our own reality—any reality we choose. The reality we have created with that power is the box in which we are now confined. We have thought ourselves into this box. We CAN dream our way out of it.

Every thought we think has the power to free us or put us back in the box. If we want out of our box, we must first imagine what life could be like outside our current box. It’s time to dream, and as long as we are dreaming, dream big! This powerful vision will create the burning desire that will be the prime motivation for our new BEING choice.

A new lease on life

When we make a new BEING choice, we have just signed a new lease on life. Like being reborn, from that point on, our life will become a whole new exciting adventure. Our new BEING commitment gives us a sense of personal power that makes us feel unstoppable. Our new self-confidence is exhilarating.

In one moment, we will have transformed ourselves from a powerless victim of unhappy circumstances into a powerful individual who is now fully in charge of the rest of our life. It feels great to be back in charge of our life.

Our new lease on life begins with a vision of what life might be like outside the box. Next week we will talk about how we create a new vision.

Please join us next week when we continue our discussion. I am please to announce that my new blog is now up and running. I would like to invite you to visit it at www.richbits.com/Blog. Have a wonderful week ahead and I look forward to talking with you next time.  

**For past issues of Relationship Solutions, click here. **