Nothing to Look Forward To?

Do you feel as if you have nothing to look forward to in your life or do you have nothing to look forward to because you think you have nothing to look forward to? If you can get below the surface a little bit, you’ll understand that I’m not talking about your next vacation or your plans for the summer. I’m talking about your life. I’m talking about that hopeful glimmer; that anticipation for a new day; the consideration of possibilities that aren’t always negative. Living life as quickly as we do, there isn’t always time for honest reflection. We sort of go though the motions carrying out responsibilities and dutifully moving to the next thing requiring our attention. It’s almost as if we got automated, but no-one informed us. We wake up and adhere to carefully devised morning routines, if at all, then it’s off to work, some lunch then more work. We come home and eat then watch TV then go to bed and before you know it, it’s the next day. Oh boy. How sad. It’s not like we need to scale the Himalayas to feel accomplished, but seriously, that’s it? Seems like life absent the life, ya know? More like a settled for compromised life. But, lurking behind life absent excitement are real causes heretofore unidentified. It may surprise you to know that it’s not always just how life is, though it may be just how your life is. To wrongly conclude that life is boring and bland and predictable is indicative of a secret assailant that crept in unawares and took something from you.  You’ve been robbed or should I say suffered a thievery still prevalent until this day. Whenever or however you arrive at the place where you feel in your life you have nothing to look forward to, something that is rightfully yours has been taken away from you. Not violently, as you cooperated fully, but the end result is the same, feeling as if there is nothing to look forward to in this life.

Life as it was created for you and me is always good. It is chock full of anticipation and expectation. It is lively because it is alive. It would be a mistake to conclude that it is inherently dark or full of pitfalls and danger or that it is predictable with hardened stone limits that can’t be exceeded. It feels this way at times because we are navigating a journey. Every day we are presented with new choices, new chances, new decisions to make. We can think this and we can think that. We can conclude this and we can conclude that. We decide and continue to decide. Our decisions are not final, but we are loathe to deviate from them. Before you can perceive it, we have a little pattern going on. We designed a not nice little synapse loop. We go from thought to bad to thought to negative to thought to worry to thought to fear and fear, my friends, is the real criminal. The fear that you allow to remain in your mind is the fear that steals, in direct proportion, your life from you. Those tempting little bastions of doubt work day and night to occupy your thoughts and from there begin multiplying until all of your thoughts have been defeated. Where did your mind go? Nowhere really. It is just sitting there mired in negativity. How did your house get so dark? Someone closed the blinds one by one until there was almost no light left. You were navigating your journey quite well until you veered off course. Sadly, in this journey a little off course can really hurt you; can impact you in profound ways; can present quite a challenge of restoration. But, restoration you can achieve if you will begin to pay attention to what you are thinking about. What thoughts are you allowing free entree’ into your mind? How are they disguised? Do they often appear as other people’s judgments playing out in your own processor? However they got in, it is now your job, your most important job, to get them back out again. You have to invest yourself. You have to commit! You have to banish the negativity! If a thought diminishes you, judges you, accuses you, threatens you, mercilessly rides you, points out your every flaw, makes you feel unworthy or guilty or ashamed, it is a thought you need to banish. Stop thinking it. Stop considering it. Stop responding to it. The reason you are in this pickle is because you got roped into considerations you had no business considering. You weren’t getting smarter, you were being deceived. If you feel as if you have nothing to look forward to, you have to take back your mental ground.

So what are you going to do? You only have one solid shot at this thing. What if there is light on the other side of this tunnel? What if your enthusiasm for living isn’t gone because you lost a few hormones, but really because you got talked out of your real life. Oh my God! Your real life! We are all at a different stop on our journey and we all have some lessons that are harder for us to learn than others. But, if I can save you a little time on one lesson, it is this. Your life, your enthusiasm, your happiness, your everything depends heavily on what you allow into your head, or at least let stay. The better you get at keeping the negatives at bay, the better and brighter the day gets, the better and brighter you feel and the better and brighter become your possibilities for the future. Your problem has never been the circumstances or the conditions. Your problem is not recognizing your responsibility to control your own thinking, a problem you can overcome. Start today. Wrestle that mind of yours under control for a day and see how good that day feels. Imagine a week! Imagine a year! Don’t worry about having nothing to look forward to. Instead get back on the path in your journey, paying attention and moving forward. Your prize awaits you. Your life awaits you.

Just some good thoughts…