When you know things are not as you’d hope, it’s often a time for change. Look back on your life for just a moment and give it a score of one to ten. It’s true that our lives go through various seasons and experiences. For this exercise, just look at your life in totality as if to give it an overall contentment score.

Your Life Contentment Score

The lower numbers equate to a level of sadness, fear, and hopelessness. As the numbers move to five, it describes a life of just being in a cycle of trudging along. Six to ten indicates a life that includes confidence, encouragement, excitement, satisfaction, happiness…a life moving toward awesome.

We all know the things we DON’T want in our lives. Yet, how much of that stuff do we choose to carry along with us each day? Do those things set up your expectations when dealing with people and affect how you think or relate to them? Do past setbacks impact your willingness to pursue new things or opportunities? Do you find yourself not moving forward at all?

My point in this article is not to depress you. I want you to see that while road bumps from the past can impede your future, that’s only true IF you choose to stay there.

Some days it seems as though there’s a huge “Kindness” vacuum in our world. People see kindness as exhibiting weakness and avoid sharing an encouraging word when they can. Other people’s lack of encouragement are contributors to your own perceptions and self-talk. Listen to that long enough and you’ll stay in the 1 to 5 range of the life contentment scale. Given that, let me say this: I may never have had the opportunity to meet you but I know you are fully capable of creating the life you want. Given the life I came from, I was seen as the poster-child for the person least likely to succeed in life and realized it was a time for change.

Unless we make a choice for change, the life we want becomes a blessing to someone else. The world is not a bad place; it’s people with bad intentions that mess it up. There’s plenty of goodness in this world. God created it with the intent of love, kindness, and prosperity; why give that away and hang onto the life we’ve known and believed to be our existence? That’s what happens when claiming an identity based on a false belief that all the goodness in life was apportioned for someone else.

What Do You Want in Your Life?

Knowing what you DON’T want in life, what kind of change DO you want? Okay…maybe you’re stuck and unable to even want because you don’t believe it’s possible for you. Let’s look at it this way: What would be better than the life you know today? What would it look like and how would that make you feel?

Without an idea of what that life is and how it looks and feels, a person just opts for “something else”. That something else is just a louder form of noise pushing them away from contentment. It’s louder because we attract what we think about. When we focus on the lack of good things, situations or people, the noise gets louder, and sometimes becomes repetitive, bringing negative feelings, amplifying the noise even further.

Here’s a personal example. I worked at a place where seniors bullied those around me, integrity was rare, micromanagement was laborious and sucked the life out of the workforce. I dreaded going there. Each morning, almost like clockwork I’d start to dress for work and the internal conversations would start in my thoughts…the arguments that would likely never happen…the clever zingers I wanted to throw in the faces of egotistical fools bullying people around me.

Thoughts create feelings and by the time I drove out the driveway, I felt like I’d had a fight. Each morning the commute left me frustrated with myself because I let the noise go rampant in my mind. I’d tell myself I’ll just turn it off. Yet, I allowed the noise to grow so loud for so long that I formed a habit…an ingrained thought pattern.

Interrupt the Pattern

I recognized I needed to create a “Pattern Interrupt” – something different that changes the thoughts quickly and refocuses it on something else. When we carry a negative identification of ourselves for long periods, we often create a “negative alarm clock” that blasts its alarm regularly just to keep us off balance.

Find little pockets of time for you and fill them with positive moments.

If you listen to the news or political battles on the radio while commuting (Those are enough to depress anybody), try listening to positive ebooks, self-help audios or music that you enjoy.

• Do you sit at your desk each lunch period and work, or step away and take a walk or allow time for you?
• What movies or television do you watch? Do they add to your life or not?
• What do you read? Maybe you’re not a reader…maybe it’s a good time to start for so many good reasons.

In the same way a computer’s productive value is based on the data that goes into it, your self-beliefs are dependent on what you put into YOU. Change your patterns and you’ll change your beliefs. Change your beliefs and your life changes.

If you still internally believe the life you live is all you’ll ever have or be, then we need to talk. Don’t be like a human bumper car trying to get around the track without getting hit. Be like the hundreds of clients I worked with that now live a life that includes contentment. Reach out to me today. Let’s talk.

Helpful Resources for Your Success

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About the Author

Mr. Davis is the Director at the Center for Personal Leadership and Development. As a Certified Leadership and Success Coach, Accredited Stress Coach, and Natural Health Practitioner, he helps clients reach their goals and live a life of fullness.

He is part of an exciting international cellular health and technology company. He is actively recruiting entrepreneurial-minded people to join his successful team. Those selected to participate in this exciting opportunity receive training and support necessary to create and enjoy a successful business.

For information on becoming a Life-Changer, Contact him here.