The Best Years of Your Life… Now!

You’re perfect!

Your personality, the way you think, your social skills, attitudes, opinions, beliefs, values, intelligence, the way you look, what you eat, how you speak… Are all perfect!

This is why your life is also perfect.

You have no problems, challenges, inner conflicts, self doubt, fear or uncertainty. You have achieved or are in the process of achieving all of your perfect dreams…and of course you’re so happy it’s downright ridiculous!

Every problem or challenge you face on a day to day basis is always being caused by someone or something failing to recognize your perfection. Because of this failure you are forced to “deal” with situations which are never your fault.

How can they be? Your world-view is flawless.

You “see” perfect truth always. Who can blame you when you get frustrated and angry with everyone else’s stupidity!

You routinely dismiss comments like “self involved”, “arrogant” and “narcissistic” as nothing more than the remarks of the jealous who are intimidated by your obvious superiority and leadership… How can you possibly take “them” seriously?

You’re perfect!

(The daily affirmation of the ego)

-Bob Baran

I happened to be listening to a radio program last night. The talk show host made an interesting comment. Let me paraphrase what he said:

“A friend of mine said I was fearless…

I’m not fearless, I’ve just accepted the possibility of failure. Therefore I apply myself completely to the task at hand knowing that however it turns out, I did the best I was capable of”…

There are three key elements to what he said:

1. I accept the possibility of failure.

2. I apply myself completely to the task at hand.

3. I know that when I’m finished, I will have done the best I was capable of doing.

The greatest fear, most people have, about doing something, is failing at it. Accepting failure, as a very real possibility, has a way of reducing the “dread factor” to being “just another aspect of the process”. Failure, in and of itself, no longer becomes the number one emotional trigger. Distracting you and robbing you of your energy and determination.

Treat failure as a matter of fact possibility. Then “put it away” and forget about it. You no longer have to review it or refer to it because you’ve given it all the consideration necessary.

By doing this you remove the emotional component of the fear of failure.

Now you are able to focus your attention and emotional energy. This allows you to become fully engaged in the steps necessary for the success of your endeavor. You are emotionally free to pull out the stops, and do everything you are capable of to the very best of your ability.

You allow yourself to become “fearless”.

Who would have thought accepting failure as a possibility has the power to unleash you, so you can succeed? An interesting dichotomy! After all, most people would be afraid to consider failure…

-Bob Baran

What if someone approached you and presented you with a fantastic proposition:

“Begin right now to live your dreams…

Money will not be a problem. Everything will be taken care of for you. Debts wiped clean, more money than you could possibly spend. Just stop what you are doing and begin immediately to live your dreams”…

Could you do it?

Now you have to face reality:

Will your (husband, wife, children, relatives) support and encourage you to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity? Could you walk away from your job knowing money will not be a problem? What about your other commitments, relationships and friends? Would you be able to keep them and begin right now to live your dream life?

If your dreams were handed to you on a silver platter with no strings other than you must begin at once to live those dreams …Could you do it?

Or would you be shocked to find out that your life has become a series of barriers which prevents you from living your dreams?

The greatest barrier being your inability to “see” how living your dreams, should be enhanced and supported by all of the other things which make up your life. If you couldn’t begin right now to live your dream life and “bring your existing life” along with you, then something needs to change. The relationship with your life is the first thing you need to think about.

Does your life serve you and your dreams or do you serve your life?

What if you could begin living your dream life right now? How many seconds or minutes would pass before the first “doubt” or potential problem comes up? Write it down and make a list. It may prove to be very self-revealing … and the best place to start the process of transforming yourself so you can live your dreams.

-Bob Baran

I have to applaud Bob for his being consistent in posting to this blog. I realize it has been a long time since I last posted and I have been letting Bob take the responsibility for keeping the blog fresh.

He is doing a great job. Don’t you think? I am amazed at how he finds something relevant to write about each day. The tips and observations he puts forth are valuable and can be put to work in your everyday life.

I decided I needed to do some research into consistency. What is it? What defines consistency? How do you find it in yourself to be consistent?

The first place I looked was in my old tattered and duct taped Webster’s Dictionary. The definitions of consistent are: “1. in harmony or agreement; compatible 2. holding to the same principles or practice.” The definitions for consistency are: “1. firmness or thickness as in a liquid 2. agreement; harmony 3. conformity with previous practice.”

The reference to liquid doesn’t apply in this circumstance. I was surprised to see “in harmony”. I like having harmony in my life …And then there was agreement and compatible. Who wouldn’t want an agreeable compatible relationship with life and those you choose to share your life with…

But the definitions that most closely relate to Bob and his daily posting are the second for consistent and the third for consistency. They are about practice or holding to a previous practice or principle.

Bob practices writing for your benefit everyday! I’m sure his ability to do this comes from being a musician. To be any good on any instrument you need to practice.

So, the question of “what is consistency” is answered. To the question of what defines being consistent, the answer is practice. Now, what we are left with is the third question I posed which is: how do you find it in your self to be consistent?

When I asked Bob what his secret was to being able to write everyday, he responded with another “C” word. Commitment! …But that is a subject for another posting.

I thank you for your time and until my next post…

Live your dreams,

Gwen Baran

Polyanna refers to an excessive or blindly optimistic individual.

A person who refuses to “see” the obvious, looming, unavoidable downside. Sounds like the description of an extreme individual who doesn’t want to acknowledge the reality of a situation. Okay, but what if you truly adopted a positive outlook as a strategic approach to solving the challenges you face on a day to day basis?

It means you would put into place an attitude which would not automatically presume a negative outcome as being inevitable. What if you were to give yourself the opportunity to think out of the box of cynicism and entertain other possibilities?

I call this “hopeful analysis”

Let’s assume for a moment that no situation is really a forgone conclusion regarding how it must pan out. Viewing a situation this way, you could conceivably imagine alternate endings. Then reverse engineer backwards from that ending to create the necessary alternate pathway through the situation. In other words, what aspects of the situation must change for it to work out in a new way? Are these things that you can influence? Is it worth you time and effort to try?

Whenever I need to make a situation work out I have always applied this simple formula…And it has always worked! Sometimes the various aspects of the situation didn’t change in the way I thought they would… but because I applied my energy and action, the situation ultimately came out the way I had hoped. Often times better than I had hoped.

If it’s important for something to turn out a certain way, (other than what appears to be a foregone conclusion) it’s going to require you to observe the situation from a different perspective. Play the “what if” game. Then focus your time and energy on accomplishing the simplest and most easily doable tasks which will alter the pathway through the situation.

Sometimes it only requires a 1 or 2% alteration to the current pathway of a situation to change the outcome!

-Bob Baran