Do You Get in Your Own Way?

Have you ever thought about what you REALLY want?

FYI – If you don’t know what it is, it is going to be hard to get it.

AND – You may not recognize it when it shows up.

Often, when we say we want something we also have feelings about not wanting it as well. Unfortunately, we often don’t take the time ask those questions.

The other day we were working with a group of people on the subject of abundance. We were discussing a goal someone shared about having an abundance of money. Together we looked at all kinds of reasons we wanted to have an abundance of money in our life.

Some of the reasons included:

• Traveling anywhere I want
• Quitting my job
• Hanging out with a different set of people
• Paying off all my bills
• Buying what I want
• And the list went on

It was fun to list all the things we thought money would give us.

Then we flipped the discussion. We asked everyone why we wouldn’t want an abundance of money.

On the surface, everyone thought this was a silly question. Who doesn’t want more money?

As we talked, it became apparent there are good reasons not to want lots of money.

Many of us would be okay if someone gave us $10,000, $100,000 or maybe even $1,000,000, but we were talking about an abundance of money – we were talking about millions of dollars more than we have right now.

When we talked about living with that much more money, it was interesting to see what started to show up…

• My friends won’t like me anymore
• I’d feel uncomfortable making more than my father
• What would I do with my time?
• I’d have more expenses
• I don’t want to turn into a jerk

Maybe the answer to the question ‘What do you want?’ isn’t so easy to answer.

It may be fun to think about what it would be like to have an excessive amount of money, but it’s also important to think of the downside of the same situation.

Looking at the question ‘what do you want?’ from both the positive and negative is a great way to illustrate how we get in our own way.

If we ask for something, but we have lots of resistance to actually having it, it’s not going to fully show up in our life because our beliefs contradict the ask.

Next time you think of something you want to have in your life, imagine yourself living your life with it. Then think about the downside of that new life and notice what thoughts show up.

Those thoughts represent beliefs that indicate what you’re asking for may not be what you really want.

It’s an excellent exercise to do when you really want something. It can even help you to see you might already have it!!