The Breathing Prosperity blog

Estimates are that only 10% of the population has goals, and of those people only 3% have them written down, thus standing a FAR greater chance of achieving them. These statistics are really unfortunate, because it means that most people won’t accomplish much and…well, look around…isn’t that true? 

Our aim here at Breathing Prosperity is to help increase these numbers by spreading the word and educating people as to how to truly go about creating the lives they want. So many things are possible when we put our minds to it, and more and more people are seeing this. The information age - the internet - has been a huge help in this regard.

For those of you who do set and work towards goals, you may have been surprised to experience a type of ‘backlash’ in your lives from those who are accustomed to seeing you and treating you in certain ways. We have dealt with this to some extent before, but it bears repeating.

When you begin changing your focus, there will be people around you who get uncomfortable, for a variety of their own reasons. This, in turn, may make you feel uncomfortable, and the danger here is that you will give up on your new behaviours in order to ‘not rock the boat’ or to make the discord go away.

A similar pattern occurs when we have allowed others to treat us in certain ways for some time, or perhaps we have allowed certain circumstances to continue to exist. Now that we are changing and want our lives to be different, these actions or circumstances now stand out as being less tolerable, and we want to get away from them. Let’s look at a couple of examples just to explore this point, because it’s really important and can mean the achievement or the death of your goals and dreams…

• Let’s say that someone has been in a mediocre relationship, and has been half-heartedly considering leaving. They are not really happy, and have done a lot of personal growth work to take a look at their own part in creating this. The very fact that one is growing and the other has made no efforts to do so will be a point of friction. The real question for the person with goals and vision is, do you want to be in an environment that isn’t supportive of those goals and dreams?…Is your relationship doing you a disservice?…This may seem cold and uncaring, but the fact is that we are all equal and make our own choices. If someone very close to you is completely happy with where they are and does not wish to experience change or growth, then that is toxic to you and your goals. Ideally, because you love this person, you can make it work so that BOTH of you can grow together, but how can we choose for another?…We can only choose what is best for ourselves, and follow our own path.
• Let’s say someone has been mistreated in the past and has put up with it. In this case, we all know the saying by the incomparable Eleanor Roosevelt that says that no one can hurt us without our permission…but that is easier said than put into practice. BUT practice and change is what we are after here…no more ’same old-same old’…so if suddenly you no longer find disrespect or other mistreatment tolerable from someone, it may be time to let them know. Yes, this is difficult, but how difficult will it be to carry on with things the way they are? If someone is taking advantage of or disrespecting your ‘old self’, then no one is going to stop it but YOU.

You may now value such things as peace, harmony, happiness, consistency and growth, whereas certain circumstances or people around you do not support this lifestyle choice.

There will be many times as you progress along your chosen path that you come across circumstances that still reflect the ‘old’ you, and in which people will still treat you in a certain way. The challenge here is to ‘just say NO’, and carry on with what you are doing. You can do it, and you are worth it. Decide what you want, and then let nothing and no one stop you. Period.