What's Stopping You? Road Block or Mirage?

"Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward."

~Ralph S. Marston

Challenges on our journey to success often feel like insurmountable road blocks. Often we stop right there, never moving forward and give up on our dreams-- dreams of better health, the perfect love, the inspired painting, the big trip, the grand career, the great revelation. I find myself at the year's end, no closer to going on my painting trip than I was last year...no closer to a date for New Year's Eve, and not much closer to my ideal weight...or my ideal painting!

...or am I?

"What if the things you thought would hold you back actually were to provide you with new ways to move forward? What if within your greatest annoyances (you) could find your greatest effectiveness?" -RM

Even though it's not a good time to sell my house (or go on a diet), and even though it seems impossible to get financing for an RV (or find a date), and even though my bills are stacked high against me...I feel closer mentally to my goals than ever before. I'm having to find new ways to look for solutions that are making me clarify what I really want--and take a deeper look at what I'm holding on to and why.

"Instead of fighting against the perceived obstacles, take a closer look at them. Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward."

I'm also reminded of a possibility that I'd declared for myself over the last two years: "I am unstoppable creativity". So am I really being unstoppable creativity? Am I applying it to the house, the RV, the bills, the dates, the diet...not just my paintings?

"Consider that it's not the obstacle itself that's stopping you. What's stopping you is your assumption that you can be stopped." -RM

And, I find myself wondering if the so-called obstacles are rather more like a road mirage than a road block. Notice my photo above. It looks like a huge boulder will be further down the road, preventing me from going forward...the end of the road! Yet, I know, because I've been there, that the road will continue to take me around what is really a small mountain. It looks like there is an obstacle directly in my way, but in reality, there is none.

"Yet you can change that assumption. You can choose to find a successful way through the situation, whatever it may be." -RM

How many of life's problems are just like that? And, how many of life's solutions are already inside us, waiting to be discovered? I made just such a discovery this fall. I'd been thinking that I have to strive for perfection...the perfect painting, the perfect life, etc. I began to see that I have everything I need in me already to create the perfect Zanne picture of life. In fact, I cannot not paint a Zanne painting or somehow stop being Zanne. It's going to come out just as it's supposed to...in certain colors, tones and a specific point of view...in true Zanne fashion...a perfect, Zanne work of art....a perfect Zanne life!

"The various challenges that come your way can be quite intimidating. Yet when you let go of the intimidation, you'll see that those very same challenges are filled with opportunities." -RM

We each of us have what we need to be who we are...to express perfect health, love, creativity and supply...in the way that is uniquely us. These forms of self-expression are innately a part of us...how we are already made and inherent to our being. So what of the road blocks? Aren't they just there to help us on our journey of self-discovery?

"Embrace those obstacles, embrace those challenges. For they are essential components of your eventual achievement." -RM

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Inspired by a tid-bit by Ralph S. Marston:

"What if the things you thought would hold you back actually were to provide you with new ways to move forward? What if within your greatest annoyances could find your greatest effectiveness?

Instead of fighting against the perceived obstacles, take a closer look at them. Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward.

Consider that it's not the obstacle itself that's stopping you. What's stopping you is your assumption that you can be stopped.

Yet you can change that assumption. You can choose to find a successful way through the situation, whatever it may be.

The various challenges that come your way can be quite intimidating. Yet when you let go of the intimidation, you'll see that those very same challenges are filled with opportunities.

Embrace those obstacles, embrace those challenges. For they are essential components of your eventual achievement."

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

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