It's All About Perception. Or Is It Awareness?

You set a goal, work towards it and then you achieve it.  Eureka! Success! Yippee!  

Until recently, here were my thoughts on what I believed would happen once I reached my goals:  

Well, I’ll be happy and finally able to relax and sit back and enjoy the feeling of success. I will be positive and optimistic because I KNOW that everything is possible. I will have made it!!!!

Thing is, that never quite materialized. Okay, maybe for brief periods of time. Did I stress ‘brief’?

My book Up In The Air is being released in a few days (July 6^th). I’m in the process of achieving one of my lifelong goals. Yet I still feel insecure. I still worry about stuff. I still question myself. I still wonder what other people are thinking about me, and if I’ve messed up, or will mess up.

After everything that has happened since July 2012 when I signed with Jolly Fish Press, here is my take. 

No matter how successful I am, challenges will always crop up. That’s a given. Nothing can change this, not even bombarding my mind with affirmations or pretending that everything is dandy. So, by accepting that stuff simply happens, I can accept that my reaction to this ‘stuff’ will invariably go through a range of emotions. That too is inevitable.

The thing is: that’s OK! I think beating myself up about the way I feel is a major part of the problem. By accepting what life throws my way, I’ll be better able to deal with it. I can either let the situation consume me and go along on a rollercoaster ride of emotional twists and turns OR take a few steps back [mentally and physically] and observe instead of remaining trapped in the ‘why’s of life’.

Of course, it’s easy to realize all this. Acting on this realization will be the hard part. But isn’t awareness half the battle, after all?