Beware the Ides of March

Today is March 15, the Ides of March.  When Shakespeare wrote, "Beware the Ides of March," he was giving a warning to Caesar.  When I think "Beware the Ides of March," I think about a warning of a different sort; this warning is about the perils of spending too much time thinking about the past.

You see, sometimes we have a tendency to re-live our failures and we criticize ourselves; we go over scenarios as what we should have done or said differently and how things would have turned out differently.  When we allow ourselves to dwell on past mistakes, we are not moving forward.  Fear and regret kill our dreams and stop us from trying something new.

And not all of our time thinking about the past is negative.  Sometimes we want to remember our peak experiences and our various successes.  Maybe we felt "on top of the world" or we felt we were invincible.  We love those feeling and enjoy replaying those scenarios over and over again.

The problem with both of these examples is that we don't live in the past and the more we focus on past victories or failures, the more effort it takes for us to achieve lift-off in the present.  We talk ourselves into playing safe, not taking any risks, and being comfortable.  We can become so comfortable with a certain state of mind that we try and create a future based on what we already know. 

Yet, there is something within us that wants to grow, expand, and become more than we were yesterday.  

We must dare to visualize and picture ourselves succeeding.  We must dare to dream it, to capture it, and then to soar. We cannot soar if we’re sitting in a chair; we cannot soar in front of the television watching soap operas, sports, or reality TV; we cannot soar while telling everyone about all the wonderful things we’re going to do in the future; we cannot soar by looking at a book about diets and then eating the same things we’ve always eaten; and we cannot soar by saying negative things about ourselves and what we believe we can’t do.

So, if there is a dream, a desire, or something you get excited about when you are talking to a friend, do it. Make a commitment to move forward step-by-step, even if you don't see all of the steps.  Do that thing which is deep within your heart and mind to do. It will not only be a blessing to you, but could be a blessing to the entire world.

Start now.  Get started in the next 72 hours.  Don’t wait.  The moment you’ve been waiting for is now.  The person you’ve been waiting for is you.  Take that step and be willing to soar into your infinite possibilities.