Climbing the Stairs

Now we have spent some time getting ready to climb those stairs!?You want change so badly you can almost taste it.?You are excited but a little hesitant.?Will goal setting, planning, affirmations visualizations really work??You need it to this time, something has got to give!

You are standing at the bottom of that stair case, your heart is beating an encouraging rhythm in your chest, your breathe is constant and easy,?“I am strong!?I am able! I am ready!”?You close your eyes and actually feel the triumph of getting to the top of that stairway.?You can sense the wonder and the beauty that is there.?

One foot on the stair, you push off – you know you are going to do it.?“I know I can I know I can I know I can” is going through your mind, just like the little engine that could.?You are almost half way there, your breathing is a little more difficult, but you planned for this, you slow down a bit BUT you don’t stop, you breath more deeply.?You?keep going, now your heart is pounding away in your chest and your knees begin to ache but you knew there were going to be obstacles, you knew it wasn’t going to easy so you remind yourself of the feeling of exuberance that you are going to have, the anticipation pushes you on.?You know it is going to be so worth it.?Almost there, you close your eyes for a second, one big breathe, one last step and you have done it!?You are at the top!!

You look around at the beauty that I there, the view is stunning, it is everything you imagined and more.?Your heart rate slows, your breathe begins to come easier?“I did it!”.?Your sense of accomplishment soars.?You sit down and look around and realize there is another set of stairs.?You are faced with more choices, what do you do??

You may say to yourself, I knew this was a gimmick, nothing has changed but the view.?I am still the same person, there was no meaningful change.?There is a slide on the side of the stairway that will quickly take you to the bottom – so down you go – the easy way out back into the sameness that you so badly wanted to change but now you know you never will.

You could say, this is phenomenal!?it really worked! I made it! I challenged myself and did what I had to do.?This is it.?So you settle in and stay right where you are.?The only problem is that you are here for just a short while, soon all that you wanted to change hasn’t really stuck.?You know better than to sit in complacency but you don’t move up, you hit the first step on the way back down those stairs and you get a little bruised, you feel sore and angry at yourself, but you don’t use affirmations, you only beat yourself up.?Down another stair, more pain, now self-pity and down you go hitting every single step on the way down.?No lasting change, back into the position you were but it is worse because you know the way – you just don’t believe in yourself.

OR you can say “You are an amazing person!?Look what you just did!?I am so proud of me!”?I am so ready to see what is up that next stairway,?I know it is going to be fantastic!?I know what to do.?So you set a goal, you make plan, you visualize the next landing.?You are now living your life with positive expectancy.?Not everything is perfect, not everything will go according to plan BUT you know in your deepest core that you are capable of handling anything life has to offer!

I have been through all of these choices.?I have chosen to?believe that nothing will work and nothing will change so I have stayed in a mud puddle of life too long.?I have tried and lost and beat myself up and fallen down with bruises that I thought would never heal.?BUT I have?learned that it is habitually attitude that needs to change in order for ME to change the circumstances of my life.

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING! (Paul J. Meyer)