Photo Credit: Romeo Conilas
Imagine this: You wake up to a beautiful Saturday morning, eager to start your day with a perfectly planned home-cooked breakfast. After a few stretches, you get on your feet and head to the kitchen. Egg, sausage, pancakes, a bowl of fruit, and a cup of freshly brewed coffee, one by one perfectly laid on the breakfast table. You grab a bottle of ketchup from the cupboard, and remembered- – Bistro! Oh no! You look over your shoulder and see your fear actually happening! Big Bistro gobbling down a big breakfast!
Joy stealers are like that. They’re cunning. While you get so self-absorbed and unaware, they come out and take something you really value. There’s an army of them, but let’s talk about two that may seem non-threatening, but prove to be strong enemies of your time.
Laziness
– you say you want to get fit, but you don’t get up early in the morning to exercise.
– you say you want more sunshine, but don’t make an effort to go to the beach or just outside your home
– you say you want to be more productive, but you linger for hours on social media
– you say you want more income but don’t find ways to get one
– you say you want stronger, healthier relationships but you end up with just intentions, no effort, no actions.
Indecision
– you want to accomplish a lot of goals but you don’t start working on a single thing
– you want to explore opportunities, but actually, don’t pick one of several choices that come along
– you want to change something in your circumstances, but you get stuck at wishing and not doing
My brother once told me that completing a marathon is more of a mental thing, not a physical one. The strength lies in the mind, not in the body. I believe this applies to almost everything. We are stronger, more able and better than we think we are.
When I see old people dancing, running, biking or doing yoga it inspires me and makes me happy. When I see them accomplish their greatest feat ever in their old age, it drives me crazy!
Philippe Dumas, a 60-year-old man who took the fashion world by storm in 2016 after growing a beard.
80-year-old Deshun Wang, who killed it on the catwalk during the 2015 China fashion week.
Greta Pontarelli who started pole dancing at the age of 59 and at 61 won first place in 2014 pole sports world championship.
And who can ever forget Paddy Jones who wowed the world and the audience of Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 with a salsa dance when at that time she was turning 80!
If older people can do it, surely the young can do better!
Laziness. Indecision. Nip the problem in the bud. Both can kill your dreams. Both can waste your time. Both can stop you from discovering an ocean of possibilities laid down your path. Both will hinder you in accomplishing something more than what you’ve hoped for in this life.
Why did we call them joy stealers? Because they stop you from becoming the best version of yourself. Embrace them and you end up being unable to give your best gift to the world. You retire with a wealth of regrets. You’d fail to finish strong. You take your dreams to your grave.
Let me leave you with this quote:
The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”- Les Brown
You don’t want your dreams to end up there, do you? So move and win this life.
Question:
Have you identified your own joy-stealers? How is your battle against them? Are you winning or are you losing? What steps are you taking from here today to move you closer to your dreams?
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