“Following up on a previous blog point. Many, many years ago I was doing okay. Then some bad things happened. One after the other more bad things occurred. I wondered, ‘Why all this bad luck? Everything is going wrong!’ I used a lot stronger language I can assure you. It seemed everywhere I turned it only got worse. I complained, I whined, I tried to fix it desperately, but it continued.

At the height of it all, I gave up. I was confused, angry, desperate, dazed and I had tried everything I knew at the time to make it better. Things continued getting worse. I threw up my hands, ‘F it!’ I screamed. I was so made. In the midst of this horrible mess, I suddenly had an awareness.I realized, at some point, I couldn’t change it as I was. I had been completely focused on the wrong thing.

I was fixated on the events, the circumstances, the people causing me problems trying to remedy those. I realized suddenly I didn’t need help changing that. Instead, I had to change myself! I was the problem causing the problem. Well, not me, but my mindset. My attitude. My crappy feelings. I had to be better. I had to change.

Your Attitude Determines What You Think, Feel, Say, Do And The Results You Get!

I made it a point to begin reading positive, inspiring material every morning! The first thing. I’d read a page, a chapter, whatever I could make work for the day. I’d do it thirty days or more. I dove in. I read and listened to inspiring audios whenever I could. Slowly during the month my negative mindset relaxed and started losing its grip on me.

My attitude began to change bit by bit. I cautiously began to apply some of the things I was reading about and learning. I felt grateful. I was taking the initiative. I vowed to stay sane and not get carried away or become one of these ‘pink’ energy bubble people I had spent so much time around and even dated in years past. I wanted solid, practical, applicable skills, thoughts, and behaviors.

I want methods and practices that would transform me without me becoming doe-eyed and hugging trees. I didn’t want to become a cosmic cosmonaut floating six inches off the ground. I didn’t want to become a pious meditator looking down my nose while exploring airy fairy subjects. I wanted to live in the everyday world and get some relief from nagging issues I carried with me.

Your Attitude Determines What You Think, Feel, Say, Do And The Results You Get!

Even though I had been a lifelong student and proponent of personal change and development I realized I had been neglecting my walk and was suffering the consequences as a result. It wasn’t the world or god that needed changing. I did. Again, I was fine, but my mindset and attitude were not. If I had to become a weirdo to be happy then I wasn’t all that interested.

I’d spent too much time around weirdos during my life. Yes, really. I reread things from ancient texts, I reread Napoleon Hill again. I had slacked off reading him for about a year. I read other authors and practitioners of New Thought, Science of the Mind, Theosophy and Buddha, Lao Tzu, and eastern mystics as well as well-known Western ones like Watts, Pearce and others. I tore through texts.

Through all of this I was reminded there was, and is, a realistic way to make wonderful things happen without relying on ‘woo woo’ and other ‘beings’ to do it for me. What can I say? Those days I vowed to remember and reinstate my previous practices transformed my life. Once 30 days arrived I continued the practice. I do to this day. I have learned and grown and have seen and understood.

Your Attitude Determines What You Think, Feel, Say, Do And The Results You Get!

I have much to learn and yet to understand. Life though, is much more incredible than I could’ve ever imagined. I filled myself with gratitude and joy. I felt confident and successful! I felt happy! Again. Happiness and feeling confident and secure has nothing to do with things or accumulations. It has to do with what you think, say and feel about yourself. What you put in your mind affects you.

Just as what you put in your body affects you. I was glad to rediscover myself and my practices after that time of backsliding. Funny, I let my positive practices slack off and encounter difficulty in the world. I got my mindset right again and the difficulty that showed up after that was no less difficult, but I could handle it better. It didn’t derail me anymore. I could get through it resourcefully

It’s not that the outside changes that I celebrate so much. It’s the depth of the change within me that I value most. I discovered I could enjoy possessions in ways I never did before. Today, I am excited and eager and enthused in ways I never was years before. I live and love living. Really, about all I can say is ‘WOW’! I feel so blessed and so thankful! It’s good living in light and gratitude!

Your Attitude Determines What You Think, Feel, Say, Do And The Results You Get!

I can trace back to precisely the first incident and then the second that made me begin to realize I needed to approach things differently. It was a very difficult time for me as things went from bad to worse. I point this out because it seems this is often the way we come to change ourselves. Something gets so bad, or we bottom out and we say, ‘stop, no more, never again’ and we move on.

Hopefully, because some don’t. Others move into new ways of thinking and being. Every moment of life is amazing EVEN when it appears not to be. I had done some incredible things in my life, and I settled and was coasting. I began to take things for granted. It was easy to complain when things started getting tougher. I even enjoyed complaining. Misery loves company, you know.

Except when I did complain, more and more of the joy and goodness and delight drained from me. I learned to put a guard on my thoughts and speech. I AM SO GLAD IT DID!! Had I kept going as I was going it would have sucked even more. Fortunately, some glimmer inside me told me I had to take the driver’s seat of my own life again.

Your Attitude Determines What You Think, Feel, Say, Do And The Results You Get!

I am so thrilled and happy and pleased with the journey ever since. Did the skies open up and riches rain down on me. Nope, all things take some time. Gradually, bit by bit things got better. That’s why I recently wrote about taking steps and persistence. Get it? Sometimes when we think we have it all together or we arrive at a certain place we get lazy.

We stop perpetuating the positive and abandon our practices. It’s like a slow leak or drip. Eventually lot’s get wet. Buildings fall into disrepair when not maintained. Human bodies do too. So, do human minds and hearts. To stay on track, you must stay on track. Develop habits and routines that are easy to do and enjoyable so that you want to continue to do them. This is key. Discover what makes you want to continue. Get this? Because then you will. Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes