Have you read, or heard New Age philosophers speak of focusing on the positive? Have you heard them discuss not entertaining any negative thoughts? Have you tried that, only to get even more frustrated, even more angry and worst of all more negative? You may have even read my own articles and found it there as well. It is not an easy thing to just do what sounds easy and simple: focus on what you want, and focus only on the positive. That is supposed to be the way to success. However, those negative messages from society, from those others around us, and even from within us, have their way of surfacing over and over again, seemingly preventing us from being positive so that we can, according to the philosophy, get what we want.
So how do we get to Nirvana, the place where we have the beautiful body, lots of money and all the time in the world to spend it? Does that sound like heaven (or The Summerland if you are, like me, Pagan) to you? Can you even identify with it? Perhaps you have transcended that beautiful slim body that we see defined by Hollywood Celebrities and know that your body is already beautiful. Or perhaps you realize having a healthy body and a solid financial situation doing what you love is the best goal. If so, that is wonderful, but so many of us still haven't achieved that.
Wherever you fall on these kinds of questions, it is a rare person that does not want a healthy body and lasting prosperity. There are many who already have this, but why don't we all have it? In fact, most people in the USA are overweight and most are struggling with finances currently. Are we to pretend that doesn't exist? Do we just put on our blinders, pretend everything is beautiful, maintain a happy feeling and then all we be well?
No, I am not one of those people who believe that you ignore everything except for positive and nice thoughts. Sh$% happens . . . to us all. And it even happens to the new agers who seem to pretend that only good things happen to them.
We cannot ignore what is going on around us, right in front of our eyes, as well as what is happening within ourselves. We must deal with all that dust that forms from us being alive. We must get out a vacuum cleaner sometimes, because wishing it away won't happen. In other words, we must do the work of life, the chop wood, get water, part. But we do have time, if we really look for it, to do the work we really want and to develop our passions.
We must first discover what our passion is. That is something best done by examining those times in the past when we did something that made us feel truly alive. Often we find out early in life, but just as often we later forget it in the midst of all the chaos that goes on in life. You can figure out or recall what your passions are on your own or seek the assistance of a coach/counselor that can help you. Sometimes you may need to process and heal negatives before you are equipped to go on and discover and then work on your passion. But once all of that is done, there are no-holds-barred. You are then ready to do the very things you were born to do. Perhaps you are going to be the next equivalent of a J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, perhaps you are going to be an astronaut, who knows, what is it you really love?
Do I sound grandiose to you? Do you think I'm nuts? Do you think only certain people, like celebrities and high profile politicians have "it"? Do you think people like yourself are condemned to a life of mediocrity? If your answer to any of these is yes (except the one about me being nuts; perhaps that is true!), it is very likely you believe only a select few have talent. It is likely you don't believe in yourself. It is very likely you think that talent is given only to the few and the rest of us truly are condemned to mediocrit
Consider studies reported in Science just a few years ago that show how the so-called talented and gifted actually worked very hard to achieve their success. In fact, the studies strongly suggest that genius is no accident, not something a person is born with. In fact, they show the opposite, how those who achieve what our society calls the most success, and are considered to be talented or have a gift, spent a long time and worked hard to get there. New information takes a long time to filter into mainstream culture and even within the greater scientific community itself. Many people will refuse to believe it even in the face of very strong evidence to the contrary. Old thinking and old ideas permeate. And thus to go against the old ideas (even when already shown scientifically, as I mention here) one will seem grandiose and crazy to many.
Thus to develop your passion, you need to discover what you love and then work very hard to develop it. Eventually, you will succeed. And by the way, putting on blinders does help. As you work hard at something, you will always make mistakes. And there will be no shortage of people pointing out those mistakes. Why not put on blinders for those kinds of people's remarks. Keep the blinders a little lose though. You want to be able to flip them open when others begin to notice your unique genius, which we eventually become recognized. You can lose weight and gain prosperity. You just have to do the dedicated work.