motivation

“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”  ~ Sidney Howard
As a Self Help diva, I’ve been thinking about the quote above all day.  Literally, the quote has been echoing in my mind since coffee cup number 1. There’s a great deal of truth in the words – truth that I’d never really thought of before.  If we want something that we don’t currently have, the odds are pretty good that we’ll have to give something up to get it.  Self improvement and self help are all about balance, after all.

• If we want to lose weight, certain foods are going to have to get the kiss off.
• If we want fitness, we have to give up a little (or a lot) couch time and internet surfing.
• If we want more hours in the day, there are probably specific time-wasters we’ll have to send packing.
• If we want to be more organized, clutter has to go.  Yeah, I know, I felt that one, too.
• If we want better, deeper relationships, we have to abandon the concept of being out for number one.

Whatever it is we DON’T HAVE is missing for a reason.  And if we keep motoring along, as is, we’ll never have it.  After all, if we we’re drawing it to us with our present actions, wouldn’t we have it?

Around coffee cup #4, I sat myself down and had a little self help Q & A.  I brought up certain things in my life that I wish were a little different.  Let’s not get into the fact that my arms don’t remotely resemble Halle Berry’s (seriously, what does the woman do?).

I’ll get depressed if I think about my arms, so we’ll use time management as an example. It’s a pretty universal dilemma.  I, like most people, always find myself wishing I had more time.

I work at home, full time, as a web publisher. At any given time, I have between 14 and 20 websites/blogs that I write for, maintain, tweak, publicize, etc.  Now do you understand the coffee addiction?  

The number of times I draw up a daily schedule – only to have to draw up a new one is staggering. And depressing.  I recently sat down with pen and paper (along with the “regulars,” a cat nearby and a bottomless cup of coffee) and took myself to task. I realized that, like most people, I’d fallen into the trap of thinking that MORE was synonymous with BETTER.

If 5 websites are good, then 10 are better. Right?

Not so much.

I’ve realized after quite a few years (and even more crumpled up schedules scratched out on printer paper) that more isn’t always better. Sometimes LESS is actually better because then you have more of yourself to go around.  No one… and I mean no one… is at their absolute best when they’re spread out as thin as a layer of mayo on a ham sandwich.

Sometimes something has to give – no matter what area of life we’re talking about.  Truth is, sometimes its exit is what sets the stage for something better’s grand entrance.

If anything is in your way, the sooner you get rid of it – the sooner something better can come along.  Spend a little time thinking about the quote above and see what your subconscious comes up with.

It just may be the thing to open up a whole new world!