"If you're twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel - as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them - wherever you go" - Anthony Bourdain

I may not be 22 anymore but the day is finally here.

“Listen. Say yes. Live in the moment. Make sure you play with people who have your back. Make big choices early and often. Don’t start a scene where two people are talking about jumping out of a plane. Start the scene having already jumped.” - —Amy Poehler

“Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.”

Self Sabotage

Lately I've been thinking and reading a lot about self sabotage while trying to overcome it.

"That's just too hard"

"I'll never be able to afford a house in xxxx"

"Someone like that would never find me attractive.  It would never work.  We'd just break up anyway once he got to know the real me"

"What's the point of applying for that job, I'd never get it"

"I can't believe I'm here!  It's only a matter of thought before they realise I'm a total fraud!"

"I'll never pass this exam, the subject is too hard"

Is it fear of rejection?  Someone trying to destoy our self confidence?  A plain old lack of self esteem caused by self doubt?

Possibly!  But a severe and long amount of self doubt often leads to self sabotage.  And a sudden, huge amount of negativity leads to the feelings of inadequacy and stops us from striving to achieve more, dreaming big and reaching our goals.  It stops us developing, learning, challenging ourselves and being great people.  Self doubt and negativity can unwind momentum and make us feel like the whole world is crashing down, when really, things are pretty good.  We have what we want.  But we feel like we don't deserve it.

"The tell-tale sign that you are sabotaging your self is when you grind to a halt when you're trying to achieve your goals, for no rational reason. The skill, ability and desire are there: It's just that something stops you moving forward."

Life can be tough and our moods can be affected by the people around us, as well as our surroundings and the weather!  The invisible, inner life can be a real demon.  What you think of yourself, rather than the way that you present yourself or appear to others.  Gossiping about others, fishing for compliments and looking for approval from others...

“Nothing is either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” — William Shakespeare

For too long I've sat and thought that I didn't know who I was.  I didn't know what I wanted.  But now I don't think that life is about finding things out, it's about creating them.  Not thinking I'm unworthy.

I think a life without dreams and goals is not worth living.  Plodding along and existing day to day.  What is the point?  How will you ever feel fulfilled if you are not doing anything fulfilling?  And if you are not doing anything fulfilling it's because you're not trying to do it.

I had the world pulled from underneath me 2 years ago.  I made the decision. I pulled out.  You plod along and do the things that you think you should do.. the natural "next step".  Even if I did make the decision, it was still hard.  I lost what I had built over the last 5 years and all the people that came along with it.  Actually, pretty quickly I realised that those people were never really there anyway, which was the hardest part.  They judged and disappeared instantly. I guess they never really got to know me in the very beginning. A lot was assumed and a lot of it untrue.  I just wanted to be happy.

Dealing with my issues was conforting, but I didn't run away from the issues, I dealt with them a day at a time for many, many months.

“Because that is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads through it, the only one that can ever get you home.”

Goal setting is again a priority.  For a while there goals were not a priority as my goals didn't eventuate for a long time and I became really good at justifying the reasons I wasn't done much... I became very good at self sabotage.  Not anymore.

“When you accept yourself, the whole World accepts you” ~Lao Tzu”