Why Not?

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

Maya Angelou

“You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.”

Brian Tracy

It is important to remember that the Enemy never, ever, ever, ever lets up.  I repeat the infinitives to make my point.  There is not one day, not one, when I sit down to write that I do not have to fight outside distractions, desires, and, most of all, self-sabotage.  This is important to remember because above all else I want to spend my life with my Muse.  I want to write not only for a living, but as a life.  Yet, every day, every single day, the Enemy is there.  It is with me every moment, every time I want to do anything connected with my Purpose.  I can never forget this.  The fact that it surprises, embarrasses, scares, or angers me shows that I still have much to learn and much work to do.

So I sit here and write, keeping my peripheral vision on my Enemy, as if it were a chained animal sitting nearby, waiting to attack if it could.  I keep focused on my work and don’t stop.  If I do stop, if I get interrupted, or if I choose to do other things, I get back to my work as quickly as possible.  My life needs to be centered around God’s plan for me.  Everything else just gets in the way eventually.  So here I sit now, joyfully, writing, completely in the plan God has for me.  My actions are right and because of it, my mind is calm.   Keeping my mind calm is another part of God’s plan for me.  Meta-cognition is the term for it – thinking about thinking.  

When I think about my thoughts, I am aware of how much negativity tries to creep in.  This negativity, as much as distractions and self-sabotage, can keep me from my work.  The only cure for it is to do my work.  However, I also want to reconsider the way I’ve been thinking.  What if I were to think completely differently? 

Here are some other questions to consider:

Since all thoughts about the future are, by definition, imaginary, what if I only imagined good things?

What if I worked towards my goals rather than away from things I feared or hated?

What if I had excellent work habits and self-discipline?

What if I acted only on my positive impulses and the outcomes were always good?

What if I spent the rest of my life with my Muse in our house on the beach?

What if my children were to grow up happy, healthy, successful, and in good relationships with God and others?

What if were always kind, loving, honorable, and patient?

What if all my spoken words were positive, truthful, encouraging, and loving?

What if I spent my life doing only what I loved?

What if I had all the money I needed to meet my goals?

What if I lived to a healthy, ripe old age?

These questions lead to other questions:

Why not?

What prevents me from making these things happen?

What among these am I already doing and can continue to do?

Obviously, these questions and their answers make me responsible for everything that happens in my life, even the things that seem out of my control.  At the very least, and this is the greatest, I can choose my attitude.

I can Get Started and Keep Going.  I don’t have to wait for “perfect” circumstances.  I can go about the disciplined work of creating them.  I can’t change the world, but I can change myself, and in that way, I can help change the world.  I will never completely defeat the Enemy, but I can keep it at bay.  I can do my work.  Why not?