Look up from where you’re sitting. How high is that ceiling? Not the one that sits physically above your head, the one that you created. Invisible, yet able to hold you down or free you.
Let’s chat for a few about limits. Limits are created by excuses, which are nothing more than self-placed barriers. Only you put it there and only you can remove it. Just like you, I live under the ceiling, the limits, that I place on myself.
I have believed my entire life that very few people make a living from writing and so why should I waste my time? I chose a career that allows me to write and be creative because I believed it would satisfy my creative needs and pay the bills. Only half of that reasoning is actually true.
In over 30 years I never seriously considered writing beyond my work in the corporate world, until now. I realized that the only person placing that limitation on me, is me. My beliefs were my excuse. I believed that writing about topics that I’m passionate about was far beyond my reach. No one would be interested and I wouldn’t make any money. In the year since I’ve started this blog, I’ve learned that there definitely are people interested in what I’m writing about. There are people who relate to the way I say things. There’s room for lots of writers with lots of different voices because there are infinite personalities.
There is a purpose in being you. That’s it. That’s all you have to do is just be you! When you create excuses or listen to the naysayers, AKA the haters, you are self destructing. I don’t care whether the excuse is about weight loss, why you’re single, why you’re married, why you’re stuck in your job, or why you’re still living at home. Whatever it is, I can guarantee there is a self-placed barrier there.
When your ceiling is too low, there’s only one thing to do: Raise it up by standing up to yourself. You have to be willing to say, “Enough with the bullshit excuses.” The only limits in your life are the ones that you have set. Look deep.
You know what’s in you. You wake up everyday and say to yourself if only… What is your “if only”?
When my stepdaughter was little, she had a saying that would crack my husband and I up. If we were at a store and she saw something she wanted, instead of directly asking for it, she’d say, “I wish I could have…” What do you wish you could have that you’re afraid to ask directly for? The universe and God will help you. It would be like if my stepdaughter had an endless supply of money in her piggy bank and could buy whatever she wished she could have. The universe will do that for you! You have to really want it and be really ready to put in the work to get it.
Here’s your homework: What limit(s) have you set for yourself? What would your life have to look like in order to live the life you are dreaming of? What would you have to do to get there? And finally, do one small thing today, tomorrow, the day after that, and so on to help you lift your ceiling and live the life of your dreams.