Do you ever think that when things are going great in life, they are bound to take a turn for the worse? 

That you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop?  Or that things have been going way too smoothly, so surely it has to get difficult soon?  I used to kind of worry about that.  Whenever life seemed perfect without any challenges sprinkled in, I anticipated a storm was to follow.  Not only did I believe that I shouldn’t expect things to continue getting even better, but I assumed that good times were absolutely destined to be followed by bad times.  It was the balance of the universe.  If something was too good to be true for too long, it would eventually have to be countered with something equally bad to bring us back to the middle.

But as time went on I started noticing that often the storm never came.

In my latest post, I wrote about how I was able to change my luck, going from a “loser” to a “winner.”  I shared a story about how I won $500 in a Super Bowl pool the exact moment I was involved in a car accident.  When this happened, I immediately thought, “of course!”  Since I never won anything, I couldn’t possibly win without any strings attached.  I wasn’t a lucky person, and this experience proved that.  But wow, somehow in that moment, I was lucky enough to recognize the stupidity in that thought process.  Although that attitude was in the form of an ironic joke designed to amuse myself, it still held a truth within it.  That attitude had to affect this generally upbeat and happy person in some way.  Imagine how a tiny sliver of negativity had the power to shape my world.

Even a stupid, sarcastic joke like this was bound to affect my outlook on life, which in turn affected my outcomes in life.

Since then I adopted a new belief that gives me a tremendous amount of hope and pleasure as I move forward in life.  I’ve chosen to believe that there is no limit to how good things can get.  I don’t have to lose when I win.  I no longer have to fear the bad that will follow the good.  Instead I anticipate that good things will follow good things.  Or even great things can follow great things.  As wonderful as things are, it can still always get better.

An undying desire to escape what was causing me so much pain in my life led me here.  It forced me to look inside because after countless excuses and enough time had passed, I could no longer blame everything around me for keeping me stuck.  What was it about me that was holding me back?  What was blocking me from having exactly what I wanted?  Me and my beliefs!  Day after day, 2 questions kept me going:

Do I need to suffer my way through life for it to have meaning?

When I was in dentistry, I was suffering most of the time.  Despite the suffering, I made excuses that what I did was important; what I did helped people, so I couldn’t possibly put my own happiness first when I had such an important job to do.  But none of my service to others mattered when it was creating such misery for me.  In fact, wouldn’t I be of more service to the world if I were creating positive ripples for others and myself?  I needed to cling to this because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had enough motivation to make the change for which I was so desperate.  If I continued thinking that it was not only okay but also my duty to suffer and struggle my way through life, I would have had no incentive to change.  And this led me to the next question, the next level:

Can I have it all?

Upon leaving dentistry, everyone I knew including myself thought I’d have to give something up.  You know… the healthy paycheck, or the prestige, or the flexibility, etc.  While those things are great, take it from me, they don’t mean much if you’re not happy.  Somewhere along the way we are taught that there has to be a sacrifice to get what we want, and often times there is.  Sacrifice or not, I couldn’t stop asking myself, “who said I have to give any of those things up?”  I started allowing myself to believe that I could be happy, love what I do, be successful, take good care of myself, take good care of others, and have fun… all while making money.  It might take sacrifice and effort to achieve that, but I know that I can have it all.  The only thing stopping me is myself.

Why settle?  This is the only chance we get!  I challenge you to let more happiness and abundance into your thoughts.  I bet you’ll start to notice more and more good things happening to you.