” Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself – Henry Ward Beecher”

I don’t know if I ever saw myself as someone who came up with excuses. The way I saw it, Life treated me unkindly, and If I was living an unhappy life it wasn’t because of me. It wasn’t because I was making up excuses, but because that’s how my life was. I was just being “realistic.”

The opening lines of chapter 4 in Luminita Saviuc’s aka The Purpose Fairies beautiful book 15 Things you should give up to be Happy – An Inspiring Guide to Discovering Effortless Joy Book Link.. I chose chapter four because it is about giving up and I am in the throes of giving up on my much loved workshop project. I am enquiring into what has got me to this point at the moment so what does society say about giving up on our dreams; down the trail we go:

1. If that dream is well entrenched in your psyche, whatever life throws at you won’t stop you, there will be no excuse that will get in the way.

2. Stop listening to them, they are total BS: No Bullshit.

3. MLK, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa had the same amount of time in their lives as we do each day, they did not give up on their dreams, why do so many people?

4. How many people who were important in your life a few years ago have disappeared overtime. Those who stayed made the effort: Love the Way you Lie.

5. At One Roof, a women’s coworking space in my home city of Melbourne, there is a quote which goes like this: An entrepreneur jumps off the cliff and builds the plane on the way down. Get the drift?

6. Usually it takes a disaster like the one occurring  in Houston  at the moment to make these words irrelevant for most people, don’t be one of them: Never to Busy.

7. Anti graffiti them off your mental walls.

8. Supreme guitar player and street philosopher, Carlos Santana gets in our faces: Evil Ways.

9. Take these up as daily practices and you will find  it harder and harder to give up.

10. Listen, that’s your heart speaking to you. It’s not into the excuses your mind comes up with from your past: High for This.

11. Nobody knows what you want except you, Fuck Yeah!!!

12. When I used to train for the 4 marathons I ran in a life a long time ago after the first four kilometres I ran I had this incredible urge to stop running. I did several times but overcame it which allowed me to get to the fitness level I needed to complete the 42 kilometres that a marathon is: Stronger.

13. Florence Nightingale is responsible for the founding of modern nursing, to overcome the male superiority belief that was prevalent in the 1800 and 1900’s Florence would have to definitely walked the talk of the above quote.

14. No time to get lost: Find a Way.

15. Defeat does not mean it’s all over, you can always get back up and continue towards your dream.

” All excuses are misalignment. Words like “difficult,” “risky,” “can’t,” “too weak,” ” too dumb” and “too complicated” do not apply to the divine mind. I urge you to reharmonize with energy that can do anything and everything, for that is your original nature.

• Wayne Dyer

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.