Over the course of the past 12 – 18 months I’ve struggled with the “why me” complex.  You know that complex that makes you question why God has allowed every bad thing, every struggle, every burden, every difficult person and all the times He says no, to enter your life.  In that time I’ve learned that sometimes God has to knock you down to build you back up into the person you were meant to be.  This process doesn’t happen overnight and it’s definitely not easy.  So while you’re working and waiting for the life you want, here are some steps for living in the now.

Accept where you are and make a plan.  Whether you’re trying to lose weight, starting a new business, wanting a new car, want to start traveling, accept where you are and then begin to plan for whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.  Be grateful for what you have now and you’ll get what you want later.

Tell people to back off.  People are nosey (and that’s probably why I don’t like them) and are always trying to figure out what you’re doing.  Many will try to undermine what you’re doing or try to discourage you from going after what you what.  Tell them to shut up and mind their own damn business.  Since they’re all in your business, most likely they don’t have any business or their own.

Don’t be too sensitive.  If you’re trying to achieve a life bigger than what you have, at some point you will seek out advice and guidance from others.  When receiving feedback, try not to get in your feelings if it’s not what you want to hear.  A lot of the times, this feedback will take you off the road leading to nowhere and get you on the path to accomplishing your goals.  At the same time there will also be people who chose not to share or give you any advice (I hate these kind of people because they act as as if they made it on their own…screw them because they suck anyway).  Don’t take it personal.  Growth is painful and so is change, but nothing is more painful than staying stuck in the same place.

Don’t be ashamed.  Be empowered by your struggle instead of spending time being ashamed of it.  No one is perfect and neither are you.  You will make mistakes so learn from them and move on.  Accept rejection, it happens.  Someone telling you no doesn’t mean you can’t have what you’ve asked for.  It simply means you can’t have it with that person, so ask someone else!  If Howard Schultz gave up after being turned down, by banks, to expand a small coffee shop company that operated six small stores, there would be no Starbucks.   And I’m not sure how my life would’ve turned out had I never been introduced to a chai tea latte….thanks, Howard.

Try in silence (you don’t have to tell everyone everything). Silence is golden. Shut up!    Stop talking about it and be about.  No one wants to hear (and you shouldn’t tell) about your every move.  Think of it this way, if you try something and it doesn’t work, you don’t have explain your failures to anyone.  You just keep trying until you figure out what works and then let your successes speak for themselves.

Don’t get comfortable.  When God wants you to grow, He make you uncomfortable.  Often times that uneasy feeling is God telling you that you have the potential to be greater then you are or that a major change is about to happen, in your life.  Stop being content with where your are right now.  Pray for direction and strength.  You’ll need the direction to get to your destination and the strength to keep going in the times you want to give up.

Set a goal(s) and stick to it.  What do you want?  One thing I learned while studying the law of attraction is 1.  Ask for what you want and write it out (in every area of your life), 2. believe (have unwavering faith) that it’s yours and 3.  receive it…feel the way you will feel once it arrives.  That good feeling will help you stick to your goals.  Most of us (including myself) struggle with allowing ourselves to want what we want because we can’t see how it will manifest.  Dwell on the end result and the rest of the steps will fall into place.

This is a big one.  Stop complaining.  Affirmative thoughts are much more powerful than negative ones.  Be careful about what you speak, whether good or bad, because you have the power to create its existence.  Each time you complain, that you can’t catch a break, nothing is working out for you, you’ll never get that promotion, you can’t start a new business,and every other negative thing you claim, that is exactly what will happen in your life.  If you constantly think and speak that your life won’t get better, it won’t!

It’s a journey.  journey noun | jour.ney | \ˈjər-nē\ something suggesting travel from one place to another.  Who you are and where you are currently (or in the past) is not your final destination.  Everything you’re going through right now, is preparing you for what you asked for and what you will be, in the future.  Keep moving, on your journey.  The road ahead may seem long, difficult at times, broken and with no end  in site, but keep going because the best is yet to come!

Live now!  It’s never too late to be what you might have been.