Well, we are officially in the month of May. We have almost reached the halfway point in 2023 and it has been so busy for me. It is exciting to see goals manifesting, possibilities unfolding and dreams realized. At the same time, it can become overwhelming trying to manage so many different projects at once. I hope that you are finding the right rhythm to your life and reaching your goals for 2023. I want to share some insights with you about aiming higher and daring to go after the life that you want. One thing I want you to understand is that aiming higher will require the expansion of your mind and the expansion of your life. You must be willing to make adjustments if you want to achieve your dreams.
It is impossible to aim higher without clarity. A lot of people are repeating cycles in their lives because they are lacking clarity. As you have heard me say many times before, whenever I feel stuck the first thing I do is pause and gain clarity in my life. Why is clarity so important? If you are not clear about where you are going, then you will waste time and energy pursuing things that have nothing to do with your purpose. Time is a valuable resource and we squander it by living recklessly. Clarity empowers you to chart the course to change in your life. More importantly, clarity empowers you defy odds and to create defining moments in your life. We are often crippled and constricted because we lack clarity. It is clarity that will develop the resolve in you to realize your greatest potential. Before you dive into your next project, I challenge you take the time to get clear about what you want, the path you must take to get there and the resource that you will need along the way. Clarity shortens the distance to success and brings you into proximity to your promise.
You cannot aim higher without adjusting your paradigm. It is troubling to me when I see people trying to make progress without ever taking the time to examine their paradigm. If you have followed my work for any length of time, then you know that your body will always follow your belief system. We often believe that in theory but not in practice. Over the years, I have watched people get frustrated about the lack of momentum in their lives. However, they never stop to consider that their mindset is the thing that is holding them back. Your paradigm shapes your path and defines what is possible for your life. Your paradigm is comprised of your thought pattern and thought process. In other words, it is the ideologies, philosophies and psychological constructs that govern how you live your life. It is your mental faculties, how you process information and how you arrive at conclusions. It is impossible to aim for what the mind has not adjusted for. In other words, no moment in your life will ever accommodate what the mind has not been expanded for. We spend a lot of time on the development of our dreams and very little time on the development of our minds. Your mind must be expanded to embrace what is possible for your life.
You cannot embrace the next level without courage. In my life, I have discovered that the key to accessing the next dimension is daring greatly. 2023 has been an interesting year for me. While I have seen incredible breakthroughs, I have also encountered great resistance. From the outside looking in, it would appear that it has been an easy road to results this year. However, behind the scenes it is has been a lot of battles to get to breakthrough. In particular, 2023 has demanded me to be more courageous than any other time in my life. Essentially, if you want something that you have never had then you must be willing to do something that you have never done before. The price of change is discomfort. The price of revolution is inconvenience. As my goals have become bigger, my courage has also had to grow. In other words, you cannot shatter ceilings in your life without courage. For every dream you want to see realized, you must be wiling to be bold and courageous. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the activation of faith. Courage is not blind to obstacles and opposition. Courage is perceptive of what is possible. Courage is a muscle that cannot be developed without resistance and uncertainty. Courage will never be developed until you are willing to step into the unknown.
You aim higher by keeping your promises to yourself. I want to ask you a very important question. What promises have you made to yourself? Are you keeping the promises that you made to yourself? Most people go into a new year with lots of excitement and optimism. However, after several weeks that excitement dies and optimism is eclipsed by obscured vision. Why does this happen? It happens because you make promises to yourself that you often have no intention of keeping. Honestly, at the start of 2023 I made some big promises to myself for this year. At the time, I knew they were big but I am not sure I realized the level of commitment that would be required of me. As I broke down my goals, developed my strategy and formulated my plan I was immediately hit with challenges. At first, I was tempted to question my commitments and even break my commitments. If you know me, then you know that breaking my commitments was not even an option. Instead, I decided to hold myself accountable and to visit those commitments every single day. As a result, I made progress, achieved great results and I have consistently prioritized those commitments. Essentially, what I am trying to say is that we often want people to believe in us when we do not really believe in ourselves. How can you talk to others about accountability and responsibility when you are not practicing what you preach? If you cannot keep your promises to yourself, then you will never honor the promises you make to others. When you keep your promises to yourself, you are empowered to show up for the people in your life. Most of all, you prove yourself to be a trustworthy person that honors their word. The difference in seasons are not the commitments you make. The difference in seasons are the commitments you keep.