Page 147 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

experiment, by testing it rather than trusting all the books, I found my work. You

have to have fire to start a fire. Only a match, only a flame, can start a
motivational fire.

103. Catch life by the handle

When I created an audio series called MINDSHIFT I wanted to say that
sometimes the shift of one’s mind can be so simple that it can ride in for you
while you’re closing your eyes and taking a breath. All of a sudden you’re not

stuck to all these things you’re believing about the world and the negative
imaginary future that people dwell on all day. All day long, people are obsessed
with their negative imaginary futures.

And one of the many ways to shift back into the creative mode is to take a
walk by the ocean. And the ocean can be anything. It can be a beautiful house
plant in my apartment. It can be a wonderful picture on the wall. Take that in
fully, completely, and let it ride in on some deep breaths and close your eyes and
all those thoughts that held you captive can go away. Whether you’re picturing it
or you’re at the actual ocean taking a walk and just taking in the view
completely, really being present with it and having it be the only thing and
breathing it in and listening to the sounds, listening to the waves and being there
because that breaks the pattern, it breaks the hold that these negative beliefs have

on you and it releases that creepy feeling that negative beliefs are the truth about
life, which, of course, they’re not. They’re just negative beliefs. So, when I slow
down, I get out of my negative imaginary future. I stop racing ahead into the
future in my mind and I bring myself back to a relaxed, present-moment big
picture.

There’s this old story of the shoe salesman who goes to a distant country,
arrives there and sees that no one there wears shoes and he says, “Oh, no. I’m
not going to make any sales on this trip. No one here wears shoes.” Another
salesman goes to the same country and he sees that no one wears shoes and he
says, “Oh, boy. I’m going to have a field day here, nobody has shoes yet!”

You can catch life by the handle or by the blade. When you are in your
future you will always be catching it by the blade. Someone throws you a knife.
You catch it. The second shoe salesperson is the person who caught the knife by
the handle. And the first guy caught the knife by the blade.