Now is not the time to be afraid, nor is it the place to allow yourself to back down or to turn your head away from the goals in front of you. There is no room left for hysteria and there is no more time to waste. We are here to move forward and not waste our energies on old belief systems that kept us stuck or stationary.
If we are here and have come this far in our own program, or if we are working with someone and helping them sort through their action plan to create a transformational change, then we have to be fearless and unwavering and strong.
There is no room left for excuses and no time left to justify our laziness.
Not now. Not anymore.
No. If we have come this far then we have to continue because, of course, we didn’t come this far, just to come this far.
We have to realize that there is justice in our response. There are victories in our efforts.
We have to notice that nothing happens without work or, as it was told to me by some of the more religious mentors in my life, “Faith without works is dead.”
We cannot get by on faith alone. We need to act. We need to move.
We cannot live our life on just hope alone nor can we expect our dreams to come true, or to reach our aspirations by hope and hope alone.
No.
Nothing happens if nothing happens, which is not all entirely true.
However, the world still moves.
People around us can advance or adapt. People around us can reach their goals or move on to the next level in their lives.
And then what?
What happens when we remain stagnant, or still?
What happens to our heart when we come to the realization that we know we let ourselves down?
What happens to us when we realize that we never dared to live up to our best potential?
What happens to the dreams we have?
What happens to hope?
What happens to our motivation if all that is important to us is left deferred or unnurtured? In the end, all we did was remain still because of an excuse, and now what?
Lets get back to the purpose of our W.R.A.P.
Our action plan is a list of questions, ideas, goals, and achievements, but rest assured, there are parts of this action plan where it is necessary to take note of our personal downfalls, or the internal thefts and the darkness which has either blinded us or obscured the lights around us to a dim or muted fashion.
Some questions in our action plan might be:
If any, what are the ideas that have held you back?
What happens to your thinking when you see others around you surpass you, or when you remain stagnant, what happens to your thinking when you notice someone else achieve a goal you never dared to reach?
What happens when you see a person get a promotion that you wanted, but you never dared to go for it?
What are the emotional difficulties when you allowed yourself to remain stuck or live in fear?
Next:
What is your version of success?
What does your success mean to you?
Does success improve your value, and how?
Do you believe in fear of success?
(By the way, there is no fear of success. But more, there is a fear that success is only temporary and that it takes work, as in a continuous and daily grind to become fit, to reach your best, and to transform, or change. Thus, if you reach your goal, there is a worry of losing the “win” so-to-speak.
But don’t worry, and again, rest assured, no one can take your accomplishments away from you—except for you, of course.)
There is the details of depression or depressive thinking, There is the challenge of impending doom or the ongoing anticipation that something (can and will or is) about to go terribly wrong.
There is a common thread of suicidal ideation or tragic and catastrophic thinking.
This is why we are making the switch from emotional to intellectual and strategic thinking.
Here are some suggested questions that can address this type of thinking:
Have you self-sabotaged yourself before?
What is your understanding of self-deprecating talk?
How often do you find that you unnecessarily defend or explain yourself?
If at all, how often would you put yourself down, either jokingly or kidding “on the square,” which means there is truth to the humor. If this is you, how often would you say that you give in to the internal narrative or insecure thinking?
What is your mindset when you overthink too much, and keep yourself still or talk yourself out of moving forward?
What happens to your spirit when you realize that you’ve quit or gave in?
- Remember, this is not the time to be weak at heart. If you come this far and created your own wellness action plan, or you have made a clear decision, with no backsliding and with no uncertainty that you want to improve, change, or elevate yourself, or if you want to transform and improve to the next personal, social, physical, and emotional level, then now is not the time to look back or to look down because now that you’ve begun to climb from where you’ve been, the only place to look is up.
We can look back to notice that we are not at the beginning anymore. We can notice our improvements. We can look back and be proud that we decided to begin each day with an accomplishment, which is the fact that we chose to change to transform.
We are committed.
This means there is no going back and there is no reverse.
There is no looking at life in the rearview mirror.
Not anymore.
There is only the view upon the horizon.
Now is the time to move in a forward motion, not backwards. To be clear; now is the time to be unafraid and more daring than ever before. And we have to do this each day because there is no turning back.
I am a fan of the saying that we are not training to be our best.
Instead, we are training to be at our best, even on our worst day.
We have to understand that progress means we will never be so far removed or so far behind, or in the background that life will do nothing else but pass us by.
Who is your inspiration?
How can we transfer our energies and replace fears or intimidation with strong and accountable actions?
If darkness is a problem, or if self-harm or self-hatred is the task we need to overcome, then how are we going to counteract this?
If we could push a button and turn ourselves into anything, what and who would this be?
Do you see where this is going?
Imagine this scripted in an interactive workbook, which is typically how I write my W.R.A.P.S.
What are your deepest fears?
(Here are some answers from the heart)
To die without pulling off my trick.
To die alone without knowing true and everlasting love.
To die alone and never be the person I have always wanted to become.
To stay silent and to watch the world pass me by.
To lose myself to insecurity or to give in to the old whispers that have been with me since early childhood—you know the ones. Right?
These are the whispers (that speak louder than any scream) that say, you can’t do it.
No one likes you.
No one loves you.
No one wants you around and behind every smile is a lie and behind every friendly gesture is a knife, hidden for when you turn around.
My biggest fears –
To be exposed as worthless or inefficient, insufficient, or to live, believe, feel, and think that I am nothing more than personally bankrupt, and that once people see this, people will ether point and sneer, or laugh, and in the end; no one will ever want me.
Oh, and I was always afraid to “not get it” or not understand the joke.
But worse, my biggest fear was to find out that I was actually the joke, or that I am the punchline and everyone else was in on it — except for me.
I offer this as honest and as humbly as I can for transparency; but more, I offer this because if I were in the middle of my recovery or action plan, my next question is now that we realize this, what are we going to do to overcome this? Above all, how are we going to put thinking like this in the past so that we can enjoy a better future?
There is no good coaching model without a good wellness and recovery plan.
So, now is not the time to be afraid. No.
Now is the time for action.
The Written Addiction 