Change your story, and you’ll change your life.
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*There is an audio version below*
This headline alone is probably making some of you cringe. You think, “Not another self-help dude that’s selling unicorns and rainbows.” Hear me out! I’m one of you—trust me.
I have an interesting story, and what seemed like an improbable experience. I hated life for 12 years; I was 170 pounds overweight, and I lived in a place I hated. It took three years of hard work, but I radically changed my life.
There are, however, too many of us who can overcome difficult circumstances and live our dream life. |
I lost 170 pounds, I quit a horrible job to write, speak, and coach full-time. I moved our family from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Maui, Hawaii, and I did it without winning the lottery. I didn’t get any lucky breaks along the way. I came up with a plan and worked hard on that plan. I created my dream life through hard work and determination, which led to opportunity and income.
As soon as someone is exposed to my story, they’re skeptical. It could be society’s conditioning or rough experiences in their life, but guys see my story and think, “that’s not possible for everyone.”
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There are difficult situations some guys deal with that are beyond words. There are some things guys deal with that they’ll never recover from. I get that. There are, however, too many of us who can overcome difficult circumstances and live our dream life. We just don’t want to try because it’s hard work.
We start to think about everything that’s involved, and we start to make excuses. There are things we tell ourselves that keep us from even trying. Here are three excuses that could be keeping guys from their dream.
1. “I’m living a good enough life.”
There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable—hell, living comfortably would be great for a lot of us. Comfortable can be dangerous if left unchecked. Before we know it, we’re simply cruising through life not thinking about what we want from it. We think, “Things are going well. Why ruin it?”
We tell ourself that we don’t need to try because we’re living a good enough life. Life is full of so much that we’ll never get to experience. There are so many things to do and see—the possibilities are endless. There are dreams, goals, and desires that are in our minds and hearts for a reason. We can’t let a “good enough” life keep us from our dreams.
Leaving our comfort zone is hard and scary. It could be a place where we crash and burn. It also could be an area of growth and progress. It could be a place where we discover who we are and what we want from life. Never settle for good when great is just around the corner.
2. “I should be grateful.”
We are blessed in our lives in more ways than we realize. If we woke up each day and said one thing we’re grateful for, the attitude change we would experience would be shocking. We would see things we didn’t realize were there.
While we should be grateful, we can’t confuse gratefulness and complacency. Just because we’re grateful doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for more. We should practice gratitude while we chase all of our dreams.
If we can’t see what’s possible, we won’t take action. |
We can and should have an incredible life, and we can do it while being grateful. Never settle because we deserve more in life. We can get it and still be grateful while avoiding being complacent.
3. “It’s just not possible for me.”
This is one of the biggest excuses and lies in our minds—it’s widely spouted in society at large as well. Too many guys fall victim to this excuse and lie. Look, many guys reading this have their guard up and are skeptical—I get it. Bad stuff happens in life, and we become jaded. That doesn’t have to be the end of our story though.
If we can’t see what’s possible, we won’t take action. We figure there’s no chance so we won’t even try. Living our dream is damn hard. It takes time, and it never works out how we planned, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible! I could list story after story of guys who found success through struggle, but I won’t. We have to look inside of us and get honest about what we want. We have to start believing it’s possible!
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Making progress starts with getting honest and then taking action. Life is short, and it ends before we’re ready. We can live our whole life playing it safe and die empty, or we can get past our fears and claim the life we truly deserve. It’s only take one ripple to create waves in your life.
Audio version:
What are you telling yourself about your dream?
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Flickr/ vandys
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