{"id":122,"date":"2014-02-06T01:54:13","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/becausethisisyourlife\/?p=122"},"modified":"2014-02-06T01:54:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:54:13","slug":"youve-only-just-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/becausethisisyourlife\/2014\/02\/youve-only-just-begun.html","title":{"rendered":"You&#8217;ve Only Just Begun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Where were you when it happened?<\/p>\n<p>What were you doing?<\/p>\n<p>Who was around you?<\/p>\n<p>Did you even believe it yourself?<\/p>\n<p>And&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>What were you thinking in that moment?<\/p>\n<p>Along with this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>What were other people saying? Were they listening to you? Were they laughing&#8230;crying&#8230;surprised&#8230;or did they just remain silent?<\/p>\n<p>And as far as these other people are concerned, the same thing happened with them in their lives as well.<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps they&#8230;just like you&#8230;were possibly even scared off to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>What I&#8217;m talking about here is what typically happens when you share your dreams&#8212;what you&#8217;d love to do in your life, your purpose&#8212;with other people.<\/p>\n<p>As for possibly even being scared off to begin with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what happens when you just know that others will laugh at you when you tell them what you&#8217;d love to be, do, and have in your life.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ll tell you to &#8220;get real&#8221;&#8230;tell you &#8220;you&#8217;re crazy&#8221;&#8230;&#8221;you&#8217;re out of your mind&#8221;&#8230;and as a result you stay quiet because you don&#8217;t want to hear it.<\/p>\n<p>Now&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Whichever of these applies to you just know that this is where &#8220;you&#8217;ve only just begun&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>To begin doing what you love most.<br \/>\nTo begin fulfilling your purpose here on Earth.<br \/>\nTo begin using your uniqueness to shine in the world.<\/p>\n<p>And&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>To begin living your dreams.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re not really dreams. When whatever it is you&#8217;d love to do is true to you, is it really a dream any more&#8230;of course not.<\/p>\n<p>To those who are living their lives according to &#8220;shoulds&#8221;, &#8220;have tos&#8221;, got tos&#8221;, and &#8220;supposed tos&#8221;&#8230;it is a far fetched dream&#8230;it&#8217;s unrealistic.<\/p>\n<p>And this is when you&#8217;ll hear other people say to you, &#8220;when I see it I&#8217;ll believe it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sound familiar&#8230;right?<\/p>\n<p>Those who come from that mindset will never see it because they don&#8217;t believe it to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>However&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When you come from a mindset of &#8220;when I believe it is when I&#8217;ll see it&#8221; then you are in control of your life&#8230;and what you achieve.<\/p>\n<p>This is also where &#8220;you&#8217;ve only just begun&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Because it all begins by first believing it.<\/p>\n<p>Now of course when you mention this to people, most of them will say, &#8220;well there&#8217;s no guarantees in life&#8230;nothing is 100%.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My answer to that&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>There are two guarantees in life.<\/p>\n<p>One&#8230;you can quit and give up. This will guarantee you&#8217;ll be living according to someone else&#8217;s dreams instead of your own.<\/p>\n<p>And two&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>You can believe it before you see it and guarantee that you&#8217;ll live according to your true purpose&#8230;live according to what you&#8217;re here to be, do, and have in your life.<\/p>\n<p>Now of course believing it&#8212;the &#8220;thinking about it&#8221; part&#8212;also requires taking action.<\/p>\n<p>Because after all you just don&#8217;t sit on your butt &#8220;believing&#8221; and &#8220;thinking&#8221; and expecting what you want to show up&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Yet&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Those who will laugh at you and say &#8220;when I see it I&#8217;ll believe it&#8221;&#8230;they&#8217;re the ones who don&#8217;t understand that a combination of strategic thinking and taking the action is also part of &#8220;believing it&#8221; as well.<\/p>\n<p>Because &#8220;believing it&#8221; and the thinking behind it is what drives you to take the right kind of action&#8230;or as I like to say &#8220;inspired action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And again&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>This where you&#8217;ve only just begun.<\/p>\n<p>It all begins here.<\/p>\n<p>It starts from within you.<\/p>\n<p>It starts long before anyone &#8220;sees&#8221; it on the outside.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s what&#8217;s true to you.<\/p>\n<p>Because without this, no action of any kind will take you from where you are now to where you want to be.<\/p>\n<p>Now&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s come back to what typically happens when you share your dreams&#8212;what you&#8217;d love to do in your life, your purpose&#8212;with other people.<\/p>\n<p>Let them laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Let them criticize you.<\/p>\n<p>Let them challenge you.<\/p>\n<p>And let them not believe in you.<\/p>\n<p>Because you know what?<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll also have people come into your life that will take you seriously&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That will praise you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Support you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>And believe in you.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier I mentioned about the people who will say, &#8220;you&#8217;re out of your mind&#8221; when you share your &#8220;dreams&#8221; with them.<\/p>\n<p>To that you respond&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I&#8217;m out of mind I&#8217;m in my heart which is the most powerful place to be. It&#8217;s the place where I can best help and serve humanity through the tremendous amount of value I bring to the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s in your heart where &#8220;you&#8217;ve only just begun&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>To live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where were you when it happened? What were you doing? Who was around you? Did you even believe it yourself? And&#8230; What were you thinking in that moment? Along with this&#8230; What were other people saying? Were they listening to you? Were they laughing&#8230;crying&#8230;surprised&#8230;or did they just remain silent? And as far as these other&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You&#039;ve Only Just Begun - Because This Is Your Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You&#039;ve Only Just Begun - Because This Is Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where were you when it happened? What were you doing? Who was around you? Did you even believe it yourself? 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