It’s amazing to me that no matter how much I think I’ve done in life that there is always more to experience (and learn). And, I have also learned that life stagnates because I allow it to. Even though we have brilliant resources inside each of us, we also may have habitual tendencies of the mind that play like endless tape loops, tendencies that cause us suffering of one kind or another. It can be a “snap” to get caught up in this play field, and begin a downward spiral into the vortex of latency, fear, and self pity. And each time it is allowed to happen, the climb out can be treacherous and exhausting. So, why do this to ourselves? What is going on? The answer I discovered for myself may surprise you. “I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop”. And what I have since discovered (and the reality) is; “There is no such thing as the other shoe unless I choose to participate and thus create it”. We sometimes become so accustomed to allowing our environment to “rain down” on us that every time we try to move forward we stop and wait for the “other shoe to drop”. This is not an uncommon feeling as many people remain so set in their situations that they fear what might occur if they move on with their lives. Many of us have made that choice on a myriad of occasions inadvertently creating that “other shoe”. Think back to different experiences in your life where you were saddled with fear. Most of the time, we eventually got what it was that we desired, but there was such a struggle. The root of the “other shoe” belief is our belief that in order to get what we need, we have to struggle for it. Many of us have a learned expectation to make things worse than they may need to be. We do this by focusing our attention, and the momentum it will build, upon what could go wrong. And the interesting thing is that the key to creating new solutions is completely dependent on where we decide to direct and focus our attention. It’s not how “challenge free” a life can be, but how those challenges are managed that makes a life fulfilling. In other words it is about tuning into our current visual expectations and no longer allow what’s been our reality to render us powerless. We all have habits of thought. These include things like: what we believe, what we’ve experienced and have come to believe as the only reality and the only way that things can happen. You already know that the performance of athletes improves dramatically with the power of visualization. It’s not rocket-science. You eventually become your what you focus on. – If you continue to smoke a lot you become a smoker. – If you continue to drink a lot you become a drinker. – If you only watch TV all the time you’ll be a TV “drone”. And…if you do something constructive, positive, and tangible in your life on a consistent basis you will be… Happy, successful (in your own unique way), and create a life you enjoy living! “What if Beethoven had never played again after he encountered his first piano?” and “What if I had never decided to move to Philadelphia after college, and instead moved back to my hometown because this is what felt comfortable. It isn’t however just the big things that we need to encounter and experiment with but the little details are equally important; things like finding the “perfect” pair of sandals or how many hours of sleep is just right for us. How easily we can assume that we are just a particular way or that we are sentenced to live a certain way forgetting that we can shuffle the deck, juggle the balls, or switch horses mid-course. How often do we give up on ourselves (or another human being) assuming we have tried “everything” when the next combination or new possibility is just waiting for us to notice it? Our “habits” can ensnare us in a straitjacket of comfort, reassuring us that we know what we like, and/or we know who we are. It isn’t that we just need to “stay open” or “try new things”. It is much more critical than that. We have an instinctive desire to keep discovering until the day we die all the possible ways to do and to be. So, instead of waiting or worrying that there will be nothing at the “end of the rainbow”, start making plans for your next dream so that you can achieve the life you desire. Don’t just hang around in hopes that something better will come along, go out and find that something better, and take it! Life is an enormous pu-pu platter, a giant offering of possibilities, and it is up to us to keep sampling the delicious tidbits until we find the ones that make us dance on the table with satisfaction and exultation.