Direct your focus - direct your life Part one

I had some sort of mind shift in January of 2017. I decided to put a more conscious effort into my life, by creating a vision board and by incorporating gratitude into my daily life. Three pictures on my vision board centered around a new home (see The Art of Manifesting Part II), a vision that I had thought would take years to accomplish, but the universe had a much shorter time frame in mind. The daily practice of gratitude has not only made me more keenly aware of how amazing life is but has also changed how I react to obstacles and challenges.

"And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey” – lemony snicket

The actual physical process of finding our new home began on June 1st, 2017 stemming from a rather unfortunate occurrence. I was heading out to teach my two evening classes when the girl next door yelled down to me “You know you have a flat tire”….uhmmm yeah… I had no idea I had a flat tire, and it was not just low but flat. I ended up having to cancel my two evening classes and my clients and classes for the following day (my truck did not come w/ the spare tire repair kit and needed to be towed). So I had a day and a half off. I was determined to write down some great things in that gratitude jar, I took this as a challenge from the universe….can you be grateful when you’re losing a large amount of income and will also have to spend money on a new tire. Challenge accepted universe.

“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it”– Charles R. Swindoll

I tried to enjoy the ride in the tow truck as much as possible though Norm (my tow truck driver) was less than conversational….I made a point to work out at the gym next to the my tire place while I was waiting (making me so grateful for the gym I work at, the equipment we have, the classes we offer and the atmosphere we create). I also kept my spirits high, reading some Wayne Dyer, listening to Mel Robbins and the 5 Second rule. I don’t know if it was the determination to make this loss of money and time into something great or what I was reading and listening to that caused me to take action but I did. I had seen a house for sale down the street that was priced aggressively low meaning it was actually in our budget and I thought why not call. This was not the house on my vision board, this was not the house that we would buy but this would lead me to our realtor, this would light the fire and make us start the process of selling and buying real estate.

“The distance between your dreams and reality is called action” – unknown

In the coming weeks Justin and I poured our energies into our condo. The laundry room that had been sitting around for 7 years with just some drywall up, finished, the one cinder block step at the entrance to the basement - brand new brick and cement stairs, foundation in disrepair, mortar and brick added and that slightly sad and forgotten back yard, new retaining walls. Not to mention our scheduled July vacation in Maine cancelled for time spent painting, repairing and hands and knees floor scrubbing. This is the big thing about creating the life you want. It’s great to have the visions, even better to put them on a board to start the manifesting process, but dreams require action. If you want something bad enough, know what you need to do to get there, and put your effort in. Now, we did not know if our place would sell, but we knew we had to do the best we could regardless of the results. Put forth your best, in anything that you do, you can not know the outcome so don’t get attached to it. This became the primary focus, website back burner, new clients were put on hold.

“Success at anything will always come down to this: Focus and Effort and we control BOTH”. – The Rock

We put our place on the market, what I had thought would be the hardest part of the process, (finding a buyer for our home) was the easiest. Within 36hrs we had a signed offer that was above asking price. Then came the realization, we have to find a new place to live. Once again we had to cancel plans, reassess what was really important and when we found what would be our new home we had to accept and change other aspects of our lives.

What followed in the coming months put my stress management tactics to test, tears over a pipe, hysterical laughter both from happiness and despair, appreciation for those around me, increased love of my husband and my family….and growth so much growth. Growth that I will share with all of you.