The 100 Day Challenge Program: Days XX - XI - Have courage for the end of our campaign draws close

The 100 Day Challenge Program
Days 20 - 11

Have Courage for the end of our campaign draws close:

Do not be afraid of what lies ahead

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"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live"
Marcus Aurelius

Only by facing our greatest fears can we be victorious. Did David cower at the thought of Goliath? Did Alexander doubt his ability to conquer the known world? Have you not stared down your many enemies during these battles and defeated them?

So then, what are your fears now? Surely you can have no fear left because you have faced death many times and you have been victorious.

Why then do you shake your heads?

Fear of the unknown? You have faced the unknown many times and did you falter? Did you stand weak kneed before fleeing from the enemy?

YOU DID NOT

And do you know why?

It is because at my command you will obey. Because you are strong of mind, strong of will and strong of body and I am proud to command you.

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Do you suffer from fear and doubt? If you do, you are not alone. But what are you afraid of?

It is interesting to note that most people will admit to having a phobia – “I’m afraid of heights”; “I really dislike snakes”; “I don’t like speaking in public”, but will not admit that they delay doing things because they are afraid of either doing the task, or what will happen when they do. But fear keeps up doing the same things over and over again. We repeat patterns of behaviour, because we are afraid of what will happen if we don’t. Repeated patterns of behaviour means we react in exactly the same way to the same kind of stimuli.

Are you afraid of failure?

Those people who are afraid of failure are those people who rarely try anything new. If they don’t start a project they can’t fail can they?

Are you afraid of success?

Those people who are afraid of success are likely to sabotage their own efforts, or allow their efforts to be sabotaged. Or they give up half way through. How many people have been on a diet? How many times have people said to you “oh go on, it’s only a small piece!” and you have been persuaded to take something that you didn’t want. 

Are you afraid of change?

The reason why a lot of people fear success is because it usually means considerable change, and not just for you. And the ones that fear the changes the most are those people who profess to love and care for us:

“What are you doing that for?”
“I like you just the way you are”.

You see, fear based comments do not have to be an outright attack, sometimes subtle comments repeated often enough are all it takes for someone to stop you right in your tracks. The point is they don’t want you to change, they are happy with the status quo. They fear that they will lose their “hold” over you and their place in their version of the perceived hierarchy.

Yes – they fear you, and the power that positive change will have over you. So they will do everything in their power to sabotage your efforts. Of course they may not do this deliberately; a lot of what we say and do is habitual.

But this is also important for you too. Trying to make too many changes all at once can be overwhelming and it becomes easy to slip back into the old way of doing things. Then those people who have been telling you all along that you are no good – will now be able to say – I told you so. You are hopeless, you can never finish anything.” They will move from being fearful to dominant – and you may find it extremely difficult to start all over again. Because you may feel that you have “failed”.

If you encounter this kind of behaviour on a daily basis – and loved ones are prime candidates. You may have even unknowingly done this yourself. You should avoid telling them your grand plans. Remember the importance of the daily plans and changes. Making small but subtle changes means they will not shocked by the “new you”.

Imagine that every day you are given a blank canvas on which to work. Most people haul out the same one, and re-paint the same lines. It's easier you see. They may change one or two colours - but day after day, they paint the same picture.

Can you imagine getting to the end of your life and having to walk down a corridor with your daily paintings hanging on the walls? How scary would it be to see the same thing? Row upon row of the same picture, an endless stream of monotony, interspersed occasionally with the odd picture that stands out, a day that was “special” in some way.
  
You pause for a moment, to reflect, but then as you return to the walk down the corridor the paintings return to the same themes over and over again. You try to go back to the special picture you saw earlier, but it’s no longer there, just like a day that has been wasted. Once the time has been spent you cannot get it back again. So you are forced to keep walking, past pictures that all look the same.

Now imagine what it would be like to walk down a corridor where the walls are lined with vibrancy. You would walk quickly towards the next one, to see what new and exciting things you had done. You would smile, you would frown, and you would remember the happy times, the sad times, and the days of pure bliss. Each day the painting is filled with something different.

The question is what would your paintings look like? Would they be filled with the same kinds of images day after day, or would your pictures be filled with lots of different things and memories?

Isn’t it time you painted a different picture every day?

Are you afraid of truly living?

The final fear that most people have to suffer is that of truly living. We are afraid to take chances, usually because of what we feel other people might say and think about us, so we run around in ever decreasing circles, trying to make everyone around us happy, whilst at the same time, never making any time to find out what we ourselves truly want, or want to achieve.

Of course there will be people that we all know who always put themselves before anyone and everyone else. That is not the kind of person I am advocating that we become. In order for us to really start to live the lives we were meant to live, we have to embrace change, we have to want to live each and every moment that has been allotted to us and in order to do this, we need to choose success over the failure of not trying. We need to choose success over the traditional thinking that says, I’ll do it tomorrow. We need to choose success over the habits that have held us back. We need to choose to truly live and not mere existence.

What would you do if you knew you could never fail?
And would it really matter if you did?

As we move into the last 20 days of this challenge, I would like you to ask yourself what would happen if you said YES to every opportunity instead of NO - what difference do you think that would make to your life?

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Reminder: What have we covered so far?

100 - 91: Preparing for battle - What challenges were you hoping to complete during the 100 days. Are you still on track? What changes have you made? Why?

90 - 81: Assessing your initial forays - Review your plan and your daily activities and make adjustments where necessary. Did you tweak your plan, is it working better now? What else do you need to do?

80 - 71: Assembling the troops - Get help when and if needed. Remember you cannot do everything by yourself, so don't attempt to. And don't be afraid of asking for help either. OK, some services we may have to pay for, coaches / trainers / teachers and so on, and as we all know, if we pay for something we are more likely to value the service we receive more than if we got it for free.

70 - 61: Dig deep into thy reserves - Now is the time to persevere. Are you willing to keep pushing on, to keep trying? Only the strong are likely to survive the battles that lie ahead.

60 - 51: Conquering thine enemies - Defeating your habits. Only by defeating your bad habits can you create the space for the good habits we need to cultivate. Are you creating the space and the habit of creating good habits?

50 - 41: Re-drawing your battle lines - Watch your rear. It is important to constantly check six, make sure you are not falling over your goals by default. It can be easy to do, but now is the time to ensure you are going in the right direction.

40 - 31: Celebrate thy victories - Review, reflect - It is vital to celebrate the wins and essential that we blow our own trumpets just a little when we know we have done an amazing job. Stop, reflect on what worked well, why did it work so well and how can you capitalize on that knowledge in the future?

30 -21 - What you would not have done to yourselves, never do unto others - Be fair and honest in all your dealings especially when it comes to being honest with yourself.

Elle's 100 day challenges:

How have the last 80 days been for you? I have heard of some amazing success stories of people who have done some amazing things - one lady has set up her business, another reader has written the first draft of a book. How have you done? And please remember it doesn't have to be BIG things, just personal challenges you have set for yourself.

Discarding 100 things in 100 days http://www.motivateme.info/discarding-100-things/
As always I am a couple of days behind with posting the journal entries, but I will catch these up over the weekend -  http://www.motivateme.info/100-days-challenge/.

Kind Regards
Elle

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