Paul Williams - Gratitude and Trust: Six Affirmations That Will Change Your Life

W e all visualize a fairy-tale version of what our lives will ultimately look like or are right now. Maybe it starts out with the little boy who wants to be a superhero and save people from burning buildings, or its the little girl who dreams of being a ballerina in pretty pink slippers and being swept around the stage by Prince Charming. But while some childhood fantasies are sometimes realized, they often get left behind for more reachable, basic goals. Most people settle for a jobhopefully a fulfilling onethat brings in a livable wage. It doesnt always have to be heroic or Forbes 400 material, just something to pay the bills. Most healthy people long for a nurturing relationship with a partner and maybe a few children to love and raise into adulthoodpreferably children who will love them back and cause as little turbulence as possible. We all seek healthy, sustaining friendships; fit bodies; positive attitudes; clean lives; and unpolluted souls. We set goals and cross our fingers that we can achieve them. Or at least we want to set goals and achieve them. But mostly we want to live lives unburdened by anger, resentment, and bad habits.

But the truth is, life seldom turns out the way we imagined it would through the eyes of childhood innocence. More often than not, hard knocks and cold realities change the Disney version of a life into one we barely recognize. Family members are damaged and narcissistic, jobs dont always turn out the way we want, and our own demons prevent us from capturing the flag and running with it. We give up on diets, friendships, love affairs, and our higher goals. We make poor choices that are steeped in our fears and not our abilities. We see the truth in negative feedback and dont rely on our own talents or the help of a higher power. We then find ourselves staring in the mirror and not liking who we see. But we are either too frightened or shackled by a lifetime of poor choices that have become habits to know how to change it. We live lives that are limited by our own actions. We may not be lying in a gutter with a needle hanging out of our arm, but the path we are on is not the one we dreamt about, chose, or even want to stay on.

But how do we change paths midlife? How do we turn it all around midstream? In fact, how do we even identify what the it is that needs to change? Far too often we have that niggling feeling something is amiss, but what we are not sure about is what.

Life is never going to be perfect; it has too many moving parts. And the adolescent dreams of a child may have no real place in the chaos of adulthood. Yet, a happy, centered, purposeful, healthy, constructive, spiritual (if we so desire), fear-free life is attainable. A life where we set our goals and continuously strive to reach them. An existence where we take responsibility for our mistakes and turn them into lessons and not harbors of shame. A place where we understand that the world is not going to change just because we whine and scream and try to pound it into submission, but rather that the only part we have control over changing is ourselves, be it our actions or our attitude.

Were not promising to turn you into a superhero, but if you follow the path we set out for you in this book, we can promise that you will become productive, responsible, content, trusting, and grateful. With just six simple affirmations, six easy little tools, you will be on the road to faith and higher purpose that opens doors and windows you thought were forever locked. Youll learn to seek out healthy over destructive, nurture happy over sad, choose trust over fear. Youll replace debilitating relationships with life-enhancing ones. Or if they cant be replaced, youll learn how to deal with them so they no longer suck the life out of you and cause you pain. And as you continue on this path, youll finally be living the life you imagined for yourself.

By now you are likely saying, Yeah, right. Ive heard that one before. Or perhaps you might be muttering, How can you do all that with just six easy tools?

Six it is. As for easy, nothing worth attaining is as easy as abracadabra. But good things can happen just because you want them to, and it starts with these tools. If you use the affirmations as weve laid them out, go back to them daily, keep them at the forefront of your consciousness, work hard to stay on the path, and persevere even when you want to give up and give in to your old habits and behaviors, we assure you that you will see results.