When we say yes to something that uplifts us and others, we must understand that by committing, we are preparing to say no to many other shiny objects that may pull for our attention.  Whether we are committing to a relationship, a project, a role, or a way of being in the world, our commitment serves to help us focus our energy and deepen our positive impact on those we touch. When we do this, we deepen our impact on others and open ourselves up to be impacted by the important people in our lives. This reciprocal impact on one another is one of the most essential parts of being alive, if not the most. 

While you may need to say no to many things to fulfill your commitment to what is most important, if you truly are giving your energy to what is essential, you can guarantee that you will feel the freedom that comes from genuinely expressing yourself, receiving love, and contributing to the world. There is no greater freedom than not needing to give your energy to what is trivial and meaningless.

What is it time to commit to, so you can have your freedom?

My greed, selfishness, over-indulgence, laziness, meanness, resentment, sense of obligation, frustration, exhaustion, self-neglect, fear of looking bad, and self-importance don’t serve you. That is how I know they don’t serve me. 

The way it works is if it doesn’t serve someone else, it doesn’t serve us. If we want to serve ourselves, our job is to serve others.

What if your path to a happier life was the path to helping others have a happier life?

You are loved and valued by what created you, and what you are inextricably connected to- whatever you want to call that “thing”.

Your job is to remind every other person and thing that they are loved and valued by that same thing. When you aren’t hustling for love, you can give it freely. When you give love freely because you know love is what you are made from, made of, and connected to, you receive it and no longer need to waste your precious energy searching for it. 

What if the love you seek exists right here, right now, in the eyes reading this? 

You know what is available to you. You know what you need to let go of to receive it. Your holding on has been holding you in place. 

You know what is available to you. You know what you need to embrace to create it. Your unwillingness has been keeping you stuck.

The fear of letting go of what has felt safe and embracing something new may feel real in your body, yet maybe the sensations of fear are actually sensations of courage. You don’t need to do everything you feel scared of, yet when you know in your heart it is time for something to come to pass, you can trust that freedom is right on the other side of making your new choices. 

Are you willing to have the courage to trust what you know? 

Learning to trust the process is the point of making decisions, and it’s wonderful to trust in the process because the process is all there is.

Decisions open up us up to the creative mystery of the universe; they don’t give us control over outcomes. Nothing gives us control over outcomes.

Your happiness lies in your ability to let the process be what it is and simply play your part in it, which is to make your best decisions from a place of love and wisdom based on what is essential.

What would it feel like to fall in love with the magic of the never-ending process?

An invitation from the universe to fulfill your intention will happen with tension.

If you feel stressed, challenged, confronted, or overwhelmed, it may not be a problem. It may be your invitation to change.

What if you didn’t need to fix the problem? What if you were being supported in transforming for the better?

What is the intention behind what you are doing?

If you intend to suffer and inflict harm, you can do whatever you want. Our mind sees this as the safer route.

Suppose you intend to experience expanding happiness and uplift the world around you to the best of your ability. In that case, your job is to be relentlessly curious about what your choices create long-term. You might be surprised to see that what your mind sees as risky, challenging, and scary are the things that fulfill your intention.

What if your happiness and our happiness depended on your willingness to do the thing that required more friction? Would you do it?

Letting go of our attachment to outcomes is what makes life more fun. And having fun is potentially the point of being alive.

Letting go doesn’t mean we don’t care. It means we stop distrusting our future Selves to be able to thrive regardless of circumstances. It means we instead choose to trust our current and future Selves to have the wisdom, resilience, courage, creativity, humility, and humor to adapt, grow, and shine in response to the both blessings and the disappointments life brings. We can trust our Selves because this is how we are designed.

Letting go of attachments doesn’t mean we don’t take care of what is essential. It means we can make the best choice by honoring all the important things instead of reacting to them out of fear.

What if you just needed to let go of your attachment to the outcome to have more fun? And what if that fun was the point of the whole thing?

Is evolve.

If you live life the way you are meant to, you will change your mind, see new possibilities, experience new truths, and disagree with your past self. All inside of a container of compassion for yourself and others.

You aren’t meant to be right or certain about everything. You are meant to allow yourself and others to grow.

This is at least what I believe right now… unless I change my mind.

The beautiful thing about fear is it points you toward faith and freedom.

If you feel fear and you don’t take action because of the fear, you stay stuck in the fear. If you notice the fear, and make a choice from clarity and commitment anyway, you free yourself from it.

Fear is nothing to fear. It is a gift that can help us be free.

Where is it time for you to use your fear for your freedom?

You are designed to feel healthy pride when you prioritize taking the action or non-action that you sense serves yourself and others at the highest level right now.

If you want to live a life where you feel connected to deep respect for yourself and others, this is the simple question

to continue asking yourself. Your body and your soul know how to find a perfect balance right now between taking care of you and taking care of others. If you listen, you will be lead.

What if you let a sense of deep pride and respect lead you?

Knowing you are meant to do, have, or be something and then just simply hoping that it happens is stressful becuase you give your personal power away.

Knowing you are meant to do, have, or be something and taking small actions toward it each moment is stressful becuase you experience the intensity of your personal power.

Both choices are stressful, yet the former is the unfulfilling stress of stagnation and the latter is the life-giving stress of metamorphosis.

Both have an upside and a downside. Which upside and downside do you choose?

The rest can come later. Just take one small act of courage now. It will flow into the next when the timing is right.

What if you could take out the fear of future courage, and just do the one thing in front of you right now?

You can only transform through going into and through the fire. If you’ve been waiting to transform before you take the leap, that’s not the way it works. You leap first; then the transformational process begins.

If you want to stay the same, there’s no need to step into the heat. If you want your next level of aliveness, fulfillment, and vitality, it’s one trial by fire away.

What if you trusted the heat of friction instead of resisting it?

The only way to seize an opportunity is to see it’s there. This is why we set goals and intentions.

The power of having an intention is that you get to know what the thing you are hoping for looks and feels like so you can receive it when it is presented to you. If you don’t know, it will continue to escape your grasp.

Get clear on what you want to experience, have, discover, and give. Spend time each day envisioning and feeling these things in as much detail as possible. Then, keep your eyes open and live with curiosity.

What if the things you want are right here waiting for you and you just need to develop the clarity to see them?

And this is excellent news because you no longer have to try to please everyone.

Knowing you will always be disappointing someone, you can choose whom. You can only focus on one thing at a time, even if multiple things are vying for it. So, when you need to, you can choose who you would like to give your energy to and who you would like to let be disappointed.

And at the end of the day, giving your energy to someone certainly doesn’t mean they won’t be disappointed compared to what they expect. It is the way human beings work. So, the most important person not to disappoint is yourself.

As you decide where to focus your energy and attention right now, ask yourself what would make you the most proud.

This is another framework for taking personal responsibility for your own life, as you cannot take personal responsibility for someone else’s.

Instead of expecting other people to show up the way you want them to, devote your life to showing up how you want others to. This is where your fulfillment actually lives.

What if demonstrating could make way more of a difference for you and others than mandating or dominating?

Everyone is supporting you in growing.

We need to feel loved and supported enough to grow.

We need to feel challenged and uncertain enough to grow.

Everyone who comes across your path is supporting you in a particular way. What if you could let it all in?

You don’t owe anyone anything except your best self and contribution, which only you can discover.

If you find yourself feeling obligated, burdened or weighed down, you are likely taking on someone else’s issues, opinions, or incompletions. As you learn and express your way through creating your most loving, vibrant self and your highest ways to serve, people will dislike it, disagree, and even try to divert you. All you need to do is respond as your best self and allow them to learn in their timing, just like you are doing.

What if you didn’t owe anything anything? What would you create?

The better you can get at allowing things to be undone, incomplete, and unresolved, the more complete and and resolved your life can feel.

As you choose what you focus on in the moment, you must actively allow what you are not focusing on to be exactly as it it and isn’t. As you shift your attention from work, to family, to fun, to time with yourself or your source, you can first acknowledge that things are meant to be incomplete becuase there is always more possible, and that’s not a problem, it’s powerful. When we have the power to choose to be complete whether our to-do list is all checked off or not, we expand our ability be present with what we are focusing on, which opens up our joy and freedom.

What if you could be more complete by finding ease in the tension of the unfulfilled infinite possibilities?