I used to live my life like I was an actor in a play. The Director shouted “ACTION!” every morning when my alarm clock went off. I’d get out of bed and follow the script faithfully: I’d get dressed, go to work, and say my lines in all the scenes that happened as the day unfolded.
Here’s the kicker: I couldn’t see the script.
I didn’t know how the plot would unfold, or what the climax would be. I only knew the setting: a Groundhog Day–like routine that played over and over, like a single song playlist set to repeat. In those days, I believed that God had a specific plan for my life, and that was nice in a way. It freed me of any responsibility for my own agency. All I had to do was follow God’s unseen script.
Of course, that also meant that I was powerless to make changes in my life. If my life was predestined and planned out each moment, I didn’t have to give much thought to my actions. I had to be ‘good’, but beyond that, I simply had to wait for my day to play itself out according to the plan that was written for me. I believed that life happened to me, not the other way around.
Right now some of you are thinking, ‘yes! That’s what I do!’ While others that have more awareness are thinking, ‘what a terrible way to live Brad!’ One of the problems with that way of thinking is that I would spend all of my time reacting to life as opposed to acting upon it. It took many episodes of me crashing head long into the wall of failure to get me to begin to question the lens I was using to view my life. I call this becoming aware. I was becoming aware that the choices that I had in life weren’t limited to just my actions throughout the day. I also had choices in regards to attaching powerful meaning to events, choices about my attitude, choices about the larger scope of the direction of my life and the like.
The majority of people who come to me for help have just begun the process of becoming aware. They know that something isn’t working in the way they’ve thought and acted in the past, or even currently, but aren’t sure how they make different choices and think in new ways. Helping them isn’t complicated. It’s just a matter of offering a few suggestions on how they might become even more aware and reframe the stories they’ve been telling themselves since they can remember.
Are you aware of the stories you’re currently telling yourself? Take a moment to write down the stories you’re telling yourself about these three simple areas of your life…
Relationships…
Money…
Purpose…
Do the stories serve you? Do they serve humanity? Do they empower you? Do they empower the world around you? Are they the kind of stories that when lived out inspire others to live a higher quality of life? If you can’t say yes to all of these… congratulations. You’re becoming even more aware.
Now how can you change these stories? How can you move forward with more awareness to make even the tiniest of shifts. Tiny adjustments will have exponential impact on the trajectory of your life over the long haul.
If you aren’t aware of something, you can’t change it. Once you’re aware, you can choose to do whatever it takes to make the changes that empower you and serve the world. If you don’t know how to move forward, ask someone. Pray for Divine assistance and couple that with bold action. Becoming aware always requires action. It’s completely worth it.
"You can have a spiritual awakening and discover a new side of you at any age. And best of all, love can happen at any age. Life can just start to get exciting when you're in your 40s and 50s. You have to believe that." -Selma Hayak
"There's a time in your life where you're not quite sure where you are. You think everything's perfect, but it's not perfect... Then one day you wake up and you can't quite picture yourself in the situation you're in. But the secret is, if you can picture yourself doing anything in life, you can do it." - Tom DeLonge
"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
-Henry Miller
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