What happens, happens…

reprogrammedliving — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:01:43 +0000

Over the past few months I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a blog that could change people’s thinking, although up to this point the most that I had accomplished was purchasing a domain name and jotting down some ideas for what it might look like. I’ve gone through the basic blog-starter questions [What is your mission? What solution does your blog provide?] and even came up with a few possible tag lines. It seemed whenever I went to start writing my first post, though, I just felt too unstructured to get started. Should I research what the ‘perfect’ first post should look like? Should I complete a blog mission and vision statement first? Do I need to follow certain blogging rules?

Nope. Whatever happens, happens. It’s OK.

In a sense, that’s what Reprogrammed Living is all about: recognizing the thought patterns that hold us back (or keep us from starting) and then working to change that thinking to something more positive and productive. There are so many ideas and invisible rules that we follow blindly without even a thought as to why. Some of them help us survive, while others can be destructive.

I became aware of this kind of mental noise about a year ago, when I had reached a nice balance between my safe corporate day job and a growing artistic career that was allowing me to be more creative and expressive. As larger opportunities were showing up, I thought I wanted to leave the corporate world and pursue a life of art… until I started hitting mental blocks of all sorts.

These blocks drained my energy and made it difficult to accomplish much of anything. I felt more burdened than excited, and my focus was wavering in a way that had me question my intentions. These new opportunities were challenging me to leave my comfort zone and I was hitting a wall: a wall of fear and restrictive thoughts that were buried deep in my mind.

Fortunately, that inner conflict was the beginning of a new passion for development. I started attending courses and seminars, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and I raided the library for anything that dealt with success and overcoming obstacles. The amount of information out there is impressive, and the process of taking it all in has been amazing.

While I thoroughly enjoyed going down this route and even began to notice some definite changes in my life [happier and peaceful, healthier body, better finances], I realized that most people probably don’t have the time or the inclination to do the same amount of research. I also noticed that, despite the books and programs that claimed to be whole and complete ["this book is all that you'll ever need!"], those structures could never contain or satisfy me. Why would I want to stop learning after one book? Isn’t evolution and progress about constant change?

So with that in mind – that we are always changing, always discovering, always expanding – here is the Reprogrammed Living blog. It’s a collection of simple thoughts for positive change. You can take as little or as much of it as you wish, and feel free to share your experiences. It’s all good.