There is a great quote by Walt Disney "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
One of our most precious resources we are given is time. Yet it is the one we tend to waste the most. This was something I observed as a child at a very young age. I also recognized the amount of time people spent talking about their frustrations.
These ranged from how life wasn't fair, or they had to work harder, give more and seemed to always get less. There were hours discussing people from their past they were so glad to be rid of yet, here they were years later again investing their time on these very people that had somehow ruined years of their life.
I knew I did not want to repeat this pattern. I knew I wanted to avoid this rabbit hole of thinking. Yet, too often when I face setbacks I find myself tumbling down into the very dialogue I knew I wanted to avoid.
Some people have this notion that success comes easy because we sometimes don't realize the amount of effort those who have attained success put in. We also don't hear about the struggles they had to overcome in the beginning. Walt Disney, Henry Ford and even athletes like Tom Brady weren't just born successful.
They did however, all begin doing. When you spend your couscous time talking about why you aren't reaching your goals, how you are waiting for this in order to get that, you are not doing. Take the advice of Walt Disney and start doing from where you are. Do the best with what you have. Then consider, what you can do differently, more of, or learn to move you towards where you want to be.
Life shifts when we shift our perception. When what we focus on is what we can do and we begin doing what we focus on shifts even more and we begin doing things differently. Suddenly, our subconscious stops repeating the negative chatter and begins to align to our conscious thoughts.
We create a ripple effect and things begin to move in the direction of our goals. There will be set backs, life comes with bumps. This is why keeping a journal is so valuable. It reminds us where we have been, what we have overcome and keeps us moving towards where we want to go, rather than talking about what we don't have. It limits the amount of time we spend in the rabbit hole when we face setbacks.
What if you stop talking and begin doing from where you are?
What if you stop defending your position and began taking responsibility for your position?
What if you broke your goals down into smaller pieces what would you need to do today? Tomorrow? Next week?
Where could you be a year from now if you took the energy you were putting into what is wrong and started to take action to change?
Time is something we can't purchase more of, however, awareness enables us to change. To shift our thinking and to take action. Would you rather change or be here 5 years from now having the same conversation? The choice is yours, always has been.