Take 100% responsibility for your life

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.

~ Robert Anthony

Believing that I write my own story empowers me to change it. 

A guided meditation I often do reminds me that through the power of the mind, we can create prisons or palaces, wealth or poverty, joy or suffering. Thoughts matter.

As Mark Twain observed reflecting on his own life, most of the troubles that have plagued me never happened. My mind has, at times, drained me of a lot of energy unnecessarily.

Be a victor, not a victim

Unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.

~ Marianne Williamson

Our children recall me sharing the first of Jack Canfield's success principles: 

Take 100% responsibility for your life. No blaming. No excuses. No gossip. No victim stories. 

Of course, I do not claim to have mastered this principle. It's a work in progress.

When we live in a place of blame, we are victims. We carry a heavy burden. The emotional pain and mental distress we experience impair our ability to function. 

I get pushback occasionally when I share this principle, especially when children are the victims. 

Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) are a leading cause of suffering in adulthood, but we can change pain into purpose and prosper. 

In You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay wrote that we choose the parents and circumstances we are born into to facilitate soul growth and transformation.

Although it took me at least a decade to wrap my head around her teachings, when I finally did, it was very empowering. We can let go of a victim mentality and become a victor.

I now believe we attract different relationships at different stages throughout our lives to learn spiritual lessons.

It can be challenging to break up with our past - to let it go peacefully and be grateful for lessons learned.

To progress, sometimes we must change the story to which we have become attached. We have to become the change we want to see in others and the world.

Thoughts become matter.