Lessons Come in All Forms

I took my family to hear a person speak about expectations, self perceptions and goal setting.  We sat in the back two rows trying to be as un-interruptive as possible.  Considering, besides my boys, the youngest person in the room was in their twenties, I wanted to make sure we could make a quick break for it if they were too loud.  Fortunately, they were really well behaved.

It was wonderful because I got to hear all the things I needed to be reminded of.  Ideas and beliefs that I held real tight to when I was younger but have slowly loosened my grip on as my life has gotten busier.   Beliefs that were so ingrained in my being that it was automatic in my thinking.  As sure as when I planted tomato seeds, tomato plants would grow—that absolute.  It was refreshing to be reminded that my words and thoughts carry power. 

I kept thinking about a little saying I learned when I was in my teens.  “Act as if.”  As the speaker talked about, thinking into action what you want in your life, the words that pounded against my thoughts, over and over again were—Act as if.

Who’d thought that three small words would resonate with such validity that it could change our life experiences?  I’m not saying we could sit around all day, claim to “act as if” we are something, without putting in the work.  We can’t sit around all day doing nothing and repeat it until we’re blue in the face, and expect something to happen.  It doesn’t work that way.  It’s when we say those three little powerful words and then get off our butts. 

It’s the little things we do that give us reminders of what we want.  Want a better job, start a family, have a baby, own a house, get married, finish school, lose weight?   Look around and ask yourself—am I acting as if?   Are my words and actions showing people who I am and what I want?  If not, choose to change it and start right now.  Don’t let other people define who you are or what you want.  It isn’t their job to do that, it is yours.  And guess what?  You are the best at it.  Believe it and know it, because you deserve it.

I want to be a published author.  I act as if—I read and write every day, I follow agent’s and writer’s blogs, I edit my work and clean up my manuscripts, and yes,  I keep working on the perfect query letter.  Because I know that “acting as if” is the catalyst(ic) moment in which my belief switches from an unpublished to a published author.  It’s when I truly believe with every ounce of my being, and without a shadow of a doubt, that I am a represented and published author.  That is when the real ah-ha moment happens. 

So challenge yourself today, see if the words that you say and think are harmonious with what you want in your life.  If not, choose to change them.  You have the power! And don’t forget to— “act as if”.