What If You Had No Limitations?
Most people spend their lives chasing what they think they want. Few stop to question whether it would truly fulfill them.
What if you had no limitations? What would your life look like? Imagine if you had unlimited money and resources, infinite time, and unrestricted knowledge. What would you change?
Many years ago when I had my life coaching practice I would often ask my clients these questions. The purpose was not necessarily to create an ideal life. It was to look at what would be different. Once we identify what we would change if we could, we open up a new opportunity to explore what we can actually change.
Something that has always brought me solace is the Serenity Prayer. I just became a believer in Jesus Christ and a loyal servant to God a couple of years ago. Even when I doubted whether there truly was a God or not, this prayer brought me peace.
The prayer asks God for serenity. However, even if you take God out of the equation and rely on your own mental faculty you can choose to accept the things you cannot change and summon the courage to change what you can. You can pray to God to grant you the wisdom to know the difference or you can decipher the difference through thoughtful analysis.
The Serenity Prayer is a cornerstone to Alcoholics Anonymous and its subgroups. You do not need to be a substance addict to benefit from the philosophy at the heart of this prayer. You do not need to approach it as a prayer. Before a couple of years ago I connected to it as a life philosophy more than a prayer to God.
After surrendering my life to Christ I have very deeply experienced that our connection to the Holy Spirit for wisdom is far superior than relying on our own understanding. I understand and accept that many people are not ready to take that step into true faith. I believe it’s important to meet people where they’re at. If you are someone who chooses to navigate life through your own mind alone, this life philosophy can still be very beneficial.
If you had no limitations in your life, what would you change right now? I encourage you to make a list. Write down everything you can think of. Make two columns: things you would not change in one, and things you would change in the other. Take some silent focus time and sit with that list. Analyze it with focused intention.
When you analyze the column of things that you would keep the same, ask your subconscious mind how you can make those things even better. If your marriage is something you would not change, how can you make it even better? Your relationship with your children? Your home? Your career? Whatever you are currently happy with, how can you more fully embrace it in your daily life?
As you analyze the column of things you would change, really sit with this side. Don’t rush. You may need to sit with this side several different times over a few days or weeks. The important thing here as you decipher what can or cannot be changed is to look at each item from multiple angles.
We all have limiting beliefs and blind spots in certain areas of our lives. If we are not careful we can misidentify certain areas. We may look at something and immediately think we cannot change that. If you are diligent and patient, you will often find that this is not necessarily true. Your subconscious conditioning may be filtering the lens you are viewing the situation through.
The greatest way to find your way to a clearer, more objective perspective is through questioning. When you ask clarifying questions it is the natural imperative for an answer to eventually come. Whether you believe this answer to come from your subconscious, your higher self, the universe, or the Holy Spirit does not matter. What matters is starting the practice and paying attention to the results.
These answers may come as an intuitive feeling in your gut, a subtle whisper or loud voice in your head, or a song lyric, message on a billboard, or something another person says in conversation. Regardless of how the answer is delivered, you will often feel some kind of a spark or consciousness shift.
Slowly moving through your list of things you would like to change, spend ample time on each item. Ask different questions and do your best to view the situation from multiple angles. Ask: how can I see this from a different perspective?
As you move through the list, and find items that you truly cannot see any realistic way to change them, cross them off your list. When you have completed the process all that should remain are things that you believe you can change in some way.
Now go through each item. Again, take this process slowly with thoughtful intention. Start asking questions again. Start asking: how can I shift this? What resources are necessary? What necessary resources do I presently have access to? How do I acquire the missing resources? Do I need help from other people? Who? What can I offer them in return? And on and on.
When it comes to transitional questioning you must see this process as an onion. Allow each question to peel away another layer of discovery. Do not allow one or two questions to be enough. When you think there are no more questions to ask, then ask: what other questions can I ask to reach empowering solutions?
Most of us are not living our ideal lives. The reality is, even if we did somehow design and manifest our perceived ideal life it would not fulfill us. For many, they need to get close to living what they think they want in order to consciously understand that it won’t fulfill them for the long term. If not, this ideal stays within their consciousness like an annoying pebble in their shoe making their walk through life even more uncomfortable. The process explained above can be a powerful tool to help you get closer to what you believe your ideal life would be.
Personally, years ago, I used this process multiple times. I have manifested much of what I thought I wanted throughout the years. None of it provided the fulfillment I thought it would because it was mostly fueled by ego desires and corrupted subconscious conditioning.
Today, I operate from a very different space. I have no goals. I have no lasting thoughts or feelings of “I wish this or that was different”. Not to say that these thoughts and feelings don’t exist within me. They do. They are just quieter than they once were, and they are infrequent and short-lived when they arise. My current life is very far from the ideal life that my ego has desired; yet I am more content than I ever have been.
From my personal experience of being someone who spent years studying, practicing, and improving proficiency in metaphysics and personal growth success tactics to create the life I wanted, and being fairly proficient in creating a pretty cool life for myself, none of it brought true fulfillment. I did not experience true inner peace and contentment until I surrendered my “I want” life philosophy to “what does God want for me”.
This shift has led me away from what the world considers successful and into a life that would be perceived by most as quite the opposite of success. Yet, I feel more successful than I ever have because I am no longer living for myself and trying to pursue happiness.
There is great peace in allowing the Lord to lead me into His purposes and coming to the places where He is guiding me to do what I truly do not want to do. Time and time again I face a past version of myself and transcend the old self to continue participating in the Divine process of becoming what God created me to be, rather than what society says that I should be.
I don’t think I could have come to this place of surrender if I did not spend ample time pursuing the desires of my ego and succeeding in accomplishing them. Oftentimes we must experience what we think that we want to truly understand that it is not what is best for our soul and higher good.
Many will not be able to access the humility necessary to surrender until their pride has been beaten to a pulp. Continuously chasing the ego’s desires is a great formula to beat the crap out of your pride over time. However, some’s pride is too well fortified and will keep them apart from true peace and contentment throughout this physical existence. Others who are presently ruled by pride will one day experience the inner freedom found in humility.
If you are still ruled by pride, I pray that your breakthrough into humility is coming soon. It is only within humility that we access true inner peace and contentment with what is.
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Thank you for joining me in this consciousness exploration, Patrick.
What If Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own?
What if most of the thoughts in your head are not your own? Where do your thoughts actually come from? If your identity is defined by what you think — who are you really?
The Most Dangerous Lie Is the One That Feels Like Self-Awareness
We all want self-awareness. Let me correct that statement — those of us wired toward truth want self-awareness. For those of us who feel compelled to unravel the illusions of this world, we perk up when we hear the term “know thyself.” But what if the greatest self-deception is that which feels like self-awareness?
Thought provoking read! This is why people who chase man-made materialistic pursuits are never truly satisfied and can be just as unhappy as someone living on the street or worse. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has no limits. It’s a process of awakening to what truly matters.