Family & Relationships Health & Well-being Spirituality

Monday Matters: Best Place to Start by Iyanla Vanzant

written by Iyanla September 9, 2013

Well, it is January again. It is the traditional time to make promises about making changes that more often than not we will never complete. Even those who refuse to make resolutions will be tempted to make some assessments and attempt some sort of change. In January, it is almost expected that you must make some sort of declaration about how you expect to experience the next twelve months. For those who know what needs to change and what they expect, a simple declaration will suffice. For others, who have mess upon mess; challenge upon challenge, in many or most areas of their lives, what to change and how to change becomes a bit trickier. If you what change in your health, finances and relationships or, all of the aforementioned plus your job and home environment needs a drastic overhaul, you are undoubtedly face with the question; “Where do I start?”

When you are determined to implement real change or make improvements in your life, the best place to start is right where you are. When you are totally committed to following your dream, fulfilling your purpose, eliminating what is unproductive or dysfunctional in order to create lasting change in any, all or most areas of your life, the only place you can start is right where you are.

Regardless of how difficult it may seem, how much needs to be done, how little you have to work with or, how overwhelming you may feel, right where you are is exactly what needs to be done first. It will not be productive for you to attempt to undo the past. There is absolutely no way you can predict the possibilities that exist in the future. It is only in the present, the right now moment, that you have the power of choice, the presence of the Divine and the opportunity to make new decisions that will alter the course of your life. This is how you must begin right where you are.

Right where you are you have access to the power of your imagination. Imagination is powerful and creative. Right where you are you can choose what to do and, what not to do. You can choose how to be and how not to be. Every choice you make overrides every other choice you have ever made. Every choice you make opens a new pathway of possibility in the universal mind. Right where you are, just as you are, you can speak into existence things that do not exist. There is nothing more powerful that a focused imagination and a made up mind that is affirmed by a spoken word. Right where you are you can forgive. Right where you are you can expect the best. Right where you are, you can elevate the vision of yourself, within yourself for yourself. This is the formula for creating a new reality. See what you desire within your own mind, with you in the picture, experiencing exactly what you desire. Whether you desire to be 20 pounds thinner, married, independently wealthy or sipping Mai Tai’s on the beach in Hawaii, you will never have the experience until you can see it and believe it is possible. That vision and its possibility can only exist right where you are.

The only reason right where you are will not support you is if you insist on thinking and speaking about what was, what is no longer, what may not happen and what you do not have right where you are. If you chose to complain about what they did or did not do; what you do or do not have; where you wish you were and where you do not want to be, right where you are there will be pain and suffering. If you choose to wait until things get better or, until people change or, until you have more of this and less of that, right where you are you will feel stuck and miserable.

If lasting change, productive and powerful improvement is what you truly desire, begin right where you are by writing it down and training yourself to believe it is possible. Writing it will move it beyond the filters and perceptions of your mind and make it solid. Writing is a demonstration of a commitment to experience it. If you are really serious about using the power of right where you are, write your desires and share them with someone else. Someone you know loves and supports you unconditionally. That may be your dog or a fish or a friend or a relative. It matters not who. What matters is that you make a declaration right where you are to have a new and different experience. Chances are you will not disappoint them which means you will be, do or have exactly what you declare.

Right where you are you can do something with what you have and as who you are. Right where you are you can pray about and affirm your desires. Right where you are you can begin a vision board or a vision book or a visioning process. Right where you are there is all you will ever have and ever need – – you! If you do not believe that you are enough for you; that you are enough to birth a new vision; that you are enough to sustain all that you desire, how will you ever be enough anywhere else? Start right where you are, today.

This Week’s Reading:
A Course In Miracles: Lesson #7
Available at: http://www.circleofa.org/lessons/7.php

This Week’s Meditation:
Oneness With Source; Voiced by Iyanla Vanzant
Available as a download at: www.InnerVisionsWorldwide.com

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

About Iyanla Vanzant:

Iyanla Vanzant, accomplished author, inspirational speaker, talk show host and living testament to the value in life’s valleys and the power of acting on faith, goes behind closed doors and deep inside people’s lives for emotional, riveting conversations in the new hit series- Iyanla: Fix My Life

Iyanla has had a unique life filled with many personal struggles, which she has overcome and used to become stronger. Now, she’s back, helping people fix their lives, using her past to help others’ futures. Secrets will be revealed, truths will be uncovered and emotions will come out as Iyanla teaches us how to pull back the curtain on what is broken in our lives.

Iyanla: Fix My Life is produced by Harpo Studios. Join the conversation on Twitter using #FixMyLife