Happy December 1st readers!

As this is the first day of the month, I thought I’d do a reality check exercise with you! Doesn’t that sound like fun?

What? Did I hear someone grumble? Oh, come on now! It can’t be all that bad!

Ok, let’s stop right there. How many of you reading this have identified with one person in that last sentence? Did it remind you of someone specific? A family member? A spouse or child? A friend? Someone you work with? Maybe you?

If you didn’t recall a person with that sentence, I want you to think about someone you know who’s constantly complaining. Someone who always has it worse than you do. I know you have to at least one person who you can name – if not more!

The truth is, we all know someone like that. Their reality sucks and sucks big time! And no matter what you are going through in your life, it’s never as bad as they have it. And if you happen to be in a great mood and life is flowing your way, they have to put the brakes on it. Because you know, “that good luck won’t last forever!” Or, “success is fleeting.” I’m sure you get my point.

And you’ve learned that you can try to talk positive to them until you’re literally blue in the face, and it won’t do any good. They have a belief about how their world is and nothing you can say or do will change that.

Now, let’s look at them as a reflection of our own life and here lies our reality check!

Everyone, whether you believe in it or not, is a reflection for you. A mirror for your life and beliefs.

Huh? What? You can’t be serious Debbie! And, yes I am!

Sometimes, the person in your life who’s life always sucks is showing you just how far you’ve spiritually evolved. Their reflection shows you where you’ve been and where you are now.

Other times, the person is reflecting some belief you need to change because you’re beginning to sound a lot like them!

Your reality is created from your beliefs of it.  You will create experiences that will back-up your beliefs so that you can have proof that you’re beliefs are correct.

For example, how many times have you heard someone say, “Why does this always happen to me?”

Well, it happens because you BELIEVE it’s going to happen. When you stop being the victim to yourself and your beliefs, it will stop happening!

Now trust me, that’s far easier said than done! Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

But the minute you say something has happened “to” you, you’ve surrendered your personal power to someone else. You’ve removed your personal responsibility for the creation of the event and handed it off to another.

The reason I’m dealing with this issue today is because I’ve gone through this much of my life until recently. I’ve always laid blame outside myself. I never accepted responsibility for my part in the co-creation of my life or reality. It is always so much easier to put the blame elsewhere.

I mean, after all, why would I co-create such a horrible situation in my life? I must be some kind of sadistic maniac to do that! But if the truth be told, there was a serious learning and growing lesson in it for me. It was something I learned and grew from incredibly! My souls journey, so to speak.

I’m not expecting you to understand the full depths of what I’m talking about here yet. But look at the person you remembered in the paragraph above and think about their beliefs about themselves and their reality. Can you see how they are bringing the experiences to them that support those beliefs?

If so, what if they chose differently?

For example, I have a friend that is not supported in their marriage but they refuse to get out of it. The reason is they are too old, would never find anyone again, and don’t like to be alone.

There’s the beliefs: too old, no one else out there for them, and they’d be alone.

This person will always create experiences that will support them in their belief. They will meet people that will reinforce those beliefs in their life by sharing experiences with them in conversation. “Yeah, I left my husband thinking it would be great out there on my own, but the guys I meet are losers.” Or, “My wife passed last year and it’s so hard to be alone.”

But what if you choose differently? What if you choose to change your beliefs just once and choose to believe differently? What would your reality be like?

I used to believe that I was stupid.  I was called stupid since my earliest recollections as a child. I was told I was a stupid female and would only get married and have babies and that college would be wasted on me.  So, what do you think I believed?

One day, in my spiritual walk, I chose differently. I chose to accept my intelligence and my reality changed. I suddenly had clients tell me I was a genius. I found myself solving complex problems in my head. I discovered I could actually do math in my head – without a calculator! I also discovered I could learn far more than I ever thought I was capable of!

I now do these little experiments with my reality that I call the ‘butterfly effect’.  I make one, small, change in my choosing or my life to do something differently and then watch the effect. Like a small butterfly flapping its wings and changing the path of a hurricane.

I challenge you today to try the ‘butterfly effect’ experiment in your own reality today. Choose to choose differently in one small thing today.

Perhaps it may be something as simple as choosing to smile to strangers today. Or maybe something as great as investigating a new career path you’ve been considering. Whether great or small, just choose differently and see what kind of effect that has on your reality.

What have you got to lose?

Tags: belief, beliefs, butterfly, butterfly effect, reality, reality check