So what do you want as opposed to what don’t you want?

When asked what they want to do with their lives, one of the most common initial responses is a list of things that people don’t want to do, before or even if they get round to telling you what they do in fact want to do. The truth is that many people waste energy on focusing on what they don’t want. Part of this is habit and perhaps not wanting to appear ‘too big for your boots’, but in many cases the primary reason is fear.

From the moment you actually say or write down ‘I want to do/be this’ then you are putting your neck on the line by committing to something and that can be very scary. What if it goes wrong? What if I don’t do it well? Of course, you need to be practical and realistic to some degree. For example, however much I’d like to be 6ft 2in tall, it’s not happening anytime soon and so I have accepted that and moved on to what I can change.

The point is that every moment you spend thinking about what you don’t want, the less time you are spending time taking steps to achieve what you do want to be happy. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it?