Every Day Is A New Day

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Every Day Is A New Start

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start”

Nido Qubein

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”                                                                   T.S. Elliot

It’s funny how we have come to see New Year’s Day as the best date to start a new plan or make a new commitment.

But the sad fact is that before the end of the New Year 88% of the resolutions we have made have been forgotten. Well, probably not forgotten but put on the shelf to be done later when the time is right….

The vast majority of resolutions are simply not kept. It’s gotten to the point that even though we all know that no one really keeps a New Year’s resolution we like to go through the charade of believing it anyway.

It’s like we’re all in on a great conspiracy of pretending. If you believe in my fantasy, I’ll believe in yours, that way we enable each other to “believe” in our own fantasies….. . It's almost as if by making the resolution and telling other people about it you've already accomplished it! The bigger the goal the better because you get a bit of pre-glory just by resolving to complete it. It's weird. 

                                                       

I see it as a symptom of our society’s loose approach to integrity. We don’t really have to keep our promises because we can just change or modify our commitment to match our change of heart. It seems we can always find a good reason or excuse.

Still our lives are filled with beginnings and endings. 

Everything has a rhythm, a beginning and an end, although not all endings are necessarily final, many “endings” are really just a sign that you have reached a certain point and now things need to change.

Knowing and accepting this can be a great help. It helps you let go and understand that there is a flow to life and that embracing this flow is one of the keys to understanding this journey.

Yes, we feel pain when we lose loved ones, when friendships change, when our lives seem to take a left turn and things fall apart.

It can be hard because change is very, very difficult. Our ego personality likes things just the way they are, sometimes even if those things aren't so pleasant, because it craves continuity.

But everything has its season, listen to the Byrd’s classic song “Turn, Turn, Turn” sometime.

The way I see it is that every day is a new day, a new start. But no matter what program or new praxis you have committed to, you have to do it every day.

It’s not like you start on day 1 and poof! you are finished on day 20.

You have to do it one day at a time. Every day has to be lived day by day.

So don’t look back and don’t look forward too much.

Stay right in today.

No matter where  you start, no matter what you have committed to, do it each day and if you get off track tell yourself you’ll start again tomorrow.

Create a discipline and try to stick to it.

Of course we all get off track and screw up.

But so what?

Forget about it.

Don’t beat yourself up. Remind yourself that this is a journey and that goals are not end all’s or even destinations really. They are just things we focus on for a time that take us down the road.

So get back on track, forget about yesterday and move forward one day at a time.

It’s this day to day process of learning, doing right, and striving to be the best you can be that is important.

That is the real goal.

It takes time, probably more than a lifetime.

But that’s why we’re here.

www.stevengriggs.com

A Few Definitions

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

A Few Definitions

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“It does not require many words to speak the truth”   Chief Joseph   “Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision”   Joseph Joubert

Many of my articles contain words that I have created to help convey a concept or process, or to condense an idea into a single word. While other times I may use other writer’s words, such as Stuart Wilde’s, to help describe some concepts and situations. 

The other day my wife was reading one of my articles and she asked me if I thought my readers understood what these words meant. I responded that I was sure they did but after I thought about it for a minute I realized that maybe she was right and maybe not everyone “gets” these words.

So I decided that I should devote an article to clarifying and explaining some of these words and concepts.

Here we go:

• Comfort Level or Comfort Band
• Victitlement
• Tick Tock
• Fringe Dwellers
• Fintiloc
• Your Exterior vs Your Interior
• Nummified
• Long Learner
• Your CTF, (your Claim To Fame)
• Under Programing

Your Comfort Level or Comfort Band

This refers to a range of limitations that we place on ourselves by taking on limiting beliefs. We have certain beliefs about every aspect of our lives. We have an upper limit that we create as a limit of what we feel we can accomplish “comfortably” and we have a lower limit below which we will not allow ourselves to go.

It varies with each of us but we all have our range of comfort, our own comfort band.

If you look closely at your life you can see your own limits. The upper limit sets the range for your band.

It is usually related to our upbringing and social identification but not necessarily.

Victitlement

Victitlement is an attitude or mindset that someone takes on that has them believe they deserve certain things or that they are actually entitled to them.

This type of thinking contains an element of victim hood because when the entitlements stop

they have someone to blame, that is anyone but themselves.

The truth is no one is entitled to anything, not freedom, not security, not anything. And each entitlement you do accept always comes with a price. To be secure in an unsecure world you need to let go. 

Stop trying to control outcomes and learn to accept what is. Of course you can work to change your circumstances and create better outcomes but depending upon the government or anyone else to take care of you will not end well.  

Tick Tock

Tick tock is Stuart Wilde's term for the daily 9-5 grind. The “Go to work, Come home, Eat, Go to bed, Then do it again” routine. We become lost in the comfort of our routines.

Fringe Dwellers

Stuart’s term for those of us who have escaped the tick tock world and have chosen to march to the beat of our own drummer. This doesn't require disavowing society it simply means you are in it but not of it. You do your own thing, if you can do it by being self-employed, good. If you are locked into trading your time for money, you adapt and plan for how you will escape. You live your life by your rules. You are not caught up in the tribal mindset, the tribal emotion. You have stepped back from all that.

Fintiloc

Fintiloc is an abbreviation for Financial Freedom, Time Freedom and Location Freedom. The idea is to create a lifestyle that allows you to live a free life. You create a business or income stream that you can manage from anywhere with a minimum of time. This funds your lifestyle and allows you to travel and live wherever you want

“We keep working towards retirement so we can live the life we wished for.... later. Meanwhile the years fly by and soon the children go off to college or start their own lives and you wonder where the time went. Now you want to make up for lost time but your energy seems to have gone, your interest has lessened…… you've waited too long to live your dreams…..” 

Your Exterior vs Your Interior

In my article your exterior vs your interior I describe your exterior as the current life you are living, your current circumstances. We tend to think our exterior life is the real life and our thoughts and dreams, our interior life, is just that, daydreams.

The truth is we create our exterior life by what we visualize in our interior life. The current life you’re leading is the one you have created or allowed.  You may disagree and argue that your current circumstances are not what you dreamed of, that you imagined a very different life.

But what is really happening is that your imagined life was sabotaged by your underlying beliefs, the beliefs that lie underneath your conscious mind. Your true interior life vision is exactly reflected in your current circumstances, what you really believed was possible for yourself.

Nummified

Being nummified describes a person who is humming along through life, safe and secure in a predictable and rigid mind set. They are safe and secure in their place in the world, validated by all their social amenities and tribal status. They have a belief system that keeps them within a rigid construct that allows for very little variation. They are defined by their home, their car, and their ‘things”. They like things the same, they prefer itineraries and schedules. They usually travel in groups.

Long Learner 

This word describes me. I am a long learner. I sometimes need to get smacked upside the head a few times before I really “get” something. It’s not that I’m a slow learner, I just take longer to really understand certain things and then when I do “get it” I move on. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there.

Your CTF, (your Claim To Fame) 

Every person has a claim to fame. You usually hear a person’s claim to fame within the first 10 minutes of meeting them. They tend to slip in their CTF's during any conversation. Sometimes it's astonishing to watch and see a long list of CTF's spewed forth.  

This is because people have a need to let you know where they fit in within the tribal hierarchy and in the process usually try to elevate or “improve” their status by showing some connection to someone special or famous or some other connection to specialness. 

Many times it is a list of money statements, wherein they let you know how much they make or spend, where they live and what they drive and other things they own. At the same time that person will need understand who and what you are and how you “fit in” to the world, that is into “their” world. But sometimes they are too involved in their story to hear yours.

Under Programing

Our under programing is the belief system that we have taken on throughout our lives. These are beliefs that are primarily created during our childhood through events that became imprinted in our "child" mind. As we go through life we firm up these beliefs based on our experiences and other events that reinforce the beliefs. Over time these beliefs become embedded and act as a filter for the way in which we live our lives. There are ways to modify or eliminate these limiting beliefs. 

I hope this helps.

www.stevengriggs.com

Dealing with Contradiction

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Dealing with Contradiction

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

  

“In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory”

Alfred North Whitehead

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find one of them is wrong”

Ayn Rand

We all have moments of doubt and despair.

From time to time we may find ourselves falling into a deep funk. You know, those times when you lose sight of the good in your life and melt into a heap of self-pity and sadness.

I am not talking about clinical depression. That type of depression is much more serious than the feelings I am talking about.

What I am talking about a temporary side trip into a negative mindset.

What causes this?

Contradiction.

It is always caused by a contradiction of what we were expecting and what we received.

You were expecting this and you got that.

You wanted “x” and you got “y”

You may say, but I’m sad because I am splitting up with my wife or husband or I lost my job and now I don’t know what to do.

You may say these are not contradictions, they are negative events.

Experiencing a negative event is not actually what is happening because there really are no positive or negative events.

There is only the opinion of the event as interpreted by our ego personality. Our ego mind does not like any type of change, so anything that brings change or even threatens to bring change is seen as a negative event.

It wants status-quo at all times.

How can we sort out the feelings that our ego mind lays on us?

If you are feeling despondent, depressed or funky look at what could be causing the feeling.

 Look underneath the feeling.

What has happened that could be the contradiction? What is a recent event that you could be interpreting as “negative”?

If you can get to the source of the feeling, the next step is to think it through.

What really happened?

For example, if you lost your job did it really come out of the blue? Is it really a total surprise? And if you say yes, is there something you may have missed? Maybe you knew changes were coming but you chose to ignore them. Or maybe you were just cruising along on auto pilot, comfortable and confident because “these things happen to other people…”?

Either way you will have all kinds of reactions- shock, surprise, anger, indignation…, fear.

But what has really happened?

Nothing.

You weren't instantly transported to a life living like a troll under a bridge somewhere. You are still right where you were. The only thing that has changed is you won’t get up in the morning and go to your old job.

That may seem daunting and scary for many people. But if they could let you go so easily doesn't that tell you something?  If it wasn't now it would be later. What kind of security is that? They had your loyalty but obviously you didn't have theirs.

So forget that job. You now have time to find a better job or better yet, forget working for unappreciative people and start your own business.

My point is that the underlying thing that’s happening here is fear, fear of change. Yes, change can be scary but remember the universe is all about change. Sometimes we have to be kicked in the rear to wake up, to understand that it’s time to make a left turn, it’s time for a new career.

But no matter what the event is, it involves some form of contradiction. Yes, many times the event is painful and one that may require major adjustments and it will take time to recover.

And yes it’s hard to remember to look for opportunity when you are in pain.

But the pain will pass and soon you will be more open to seeing the new possibilities. Eventually you will look back on the experience from a more solid place and realize that all is well.

So whenever you feel sad, hurt or funky, review recent events and try to see what has happened, what is the contradiction?

Once you identify the event, analyze it, accept it and change your opinion of it. It is neither good nor bad. It just means it’s time to turn left, it’s time to change.

Look for the opportunity revealed within the changes. Look through the event and try to see what’s possible on the other side, what door is being opened?

Stay centered. Don’t collapse into self-pity. Take walks outside, meditate, talk to a close friend or counselor but also get moving.

Try to see the opportunity revealed within the changes.

And step forward.

www.stevengriggs.com