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One of my favorite quotes is from the Roman Emporer, Marcus Aurelius.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
That quote resonates with me. It’s also one of the first quotes I ever memorized, and not because I had too. I found it a few years ago, and it stuck with me.
You see early on I didn’t have the life skills to use that quote to my advantage. It would have flown right over my head. When I was growing up:
- I lacked confidence.
- I was afraid to use my voice.
- I didn’t understand the positives of failure.
- I had no knowledge about the power of my thoughts.
- I was missing key life skills such as mindfulness, meditation, gratitude and many more.
I know now that I was playing small. As a result, I missed out on a lot of opportunities.
As I entered my twenties, I got into personal development and received some life coaching. I started to crack my shell. I was like, “Ah hell no!” I found my voice, and I wanted to use it. I began straying from the herd and learning new things.
I grew to love personal development, and I craved a career change so I could help serve others with my new-found knowledge and experience.
However, like any Hero’s Journey, I had some dragons to slay along the way. I’ll share one below and save the rest of another time.
The Big Dragon: Resistance
I wanted to become a life coach, so I could help others to find their voice and no longer play small as I had done.
Resistance did a number on me. I didn’t understand what it was and the power that it had over me.
Steven Pressfield explains resistance brilliantly in his book, The War of Art
Anytime I got serious about becoming a life coach resistance shut me down with limiting beliefs.
“I can’t be a life coach; I haven’t done anything yet.”
“Who would hire a coach in their twenties?”
“I need to be much older and possess many different degrees before becoming a coach.”
“I can’t afford to leave my corporate job to start a new business.”
It took me many years to eventually realize all of those limiting beliefs were negative noise I created myself… with a little help from resistance.
In time, I learned I had power over my thoughts, and thus, I could fight back and turn the volume down on the noise.
These days, in my early forties, my “Hero’s Journey” is still going on. However, I have slain the Big Dragon called resistance. Actually, I’ve wounded it pretty bad. I know resistance will always be around, so it’s good to be knowledgeable and fight back.
Today, I am a Life Coach. How you like me now, resistance? Kapow! Take that. Boom!
Let’s connect if this post resonates with you. Even if you are not looking for a coach right now, please check out my free ebook: Thought About It, 3 Strategies to Kick Ass at Life
Let’s see if we can slay some dragons together.
Cheers,
I can relate and so thanks Jace for the reminder to be conscious of it.
” How you like me now, resistance? Kapow! Take that. Boom!” ….Thank you for that belly laugh!
You are so right. Sometimes we take our beliefs way too seriously, but we can absolutely exercise our thoughts in a way that supports us and beats resistance on the way.
Thank you, Cherie! It’s nice to hear someone can relate. Cheers
Thank you, Catarina! I actually wrote some curse words in there but I decided to keep it clean. I’m happy it made you laugh. Those sneaky beliefs can get us and as you know they can affect our gut health as well. Good thing we can fight back. Cheers
Hmm, not sure what my “Big Dragon” is…. Well, I know it’s something other than a dragon, ’cause they’re good guys in my worldview. 😀 I think my Big Monster is the self-doubt that manifests as “Imposter Syndrome.” Which might just be a different way of describing exactly what you’re talking about here, come to think of it…. BOOM!!
Thank you, Diane! Oh yeah! Self-doubt and imposter syndrome… I’ve met them before. I hear you on the dragons. I should put a disclaimer that no dragons were hurt in this post. Good times. High five.
Great quote from M. A.!!
“Straying from the herd” is also key to “being you”!
Thoughts! Those things are powerful! Boom! Great stuff!
Thanks, Brad! I love that quote and I love straying from the herd. Boom Cheers