What are you focusing on?

Every single day I see people complaining that their life isn’t going as planned.  In the various “manifesting” Facebook groups I am a member of, I often see posts where the person has “tried everything” or “done everything right” but life still sucks and everything is going wrong.

In the moment they’re writing that post, where do you think their focus is?  On what they want?  Or on what they don’t want?

My mentor put this into a great analogy, which I am going to talk about here…

So you’ve decided to drive from one part of the country, to another.

You know what your goal is (to reach your destination) and you know how you’re going to achieve it (you’re going to drive there), and you kind of know how long it’s going to take (around 10 hours).

You reach the half way point before you get stuck behind a slow-moving truck, and for now you see no way to get around this truck.

It is at this point that you have three choices:

1. Get angry and frustrated and shake your fist at the truck for being so slow, for good measure.
2. Try to come up with a solution (if possible) – maybe there’s a detour up ahead that you can take? Or maybe you remembered there is an overtaking lane ahead that you can take advantage of?
3. Just go with the flow – you’re still heading in the right direction to get to your destination, albeit a little more slowly than planned

• If you choose #1, what is your focus on?  The obstacle?
• If you choose option #2, what is your focus on?  The solution?
• If you choose option #3, what is your focus on?  The end goal?

In life, you will come across obstacles, and it’s how you deal with these obstacles that determine where you end up.

The thing is, the more you focus on the obstacles, the more obstacles that seem to pop up in front of you.  If we go back to the analogy, if you’ve decided to react in line with #1, that truck may turn off, but in front of it is a much slower truck that’s blowing a whole lot of stinky smoke! 

This is the Universe delivering to you exactly what you asked for! More obstacles!  Because that’s what you were focused on!

But if you decided to go with #2 or #3, maybe that truck eventually turns off, or the overtaking lane you remembered from the last time you came this way, comes up and you’re able to safely pass. 

This is the Universe delivering to you exactly what you asked for!  A solution!  Because you were focused on where you wanted to go or you were focused on finding a solution, and it was delivered!

Things are going to happen in life, no matter what.  And yes, some of these obstacles can be downright painful to deal with, but if you look for the lesson in these obstacles, you may look back and be pleasantly surprised! 

Maybe that “truck” appeared in front of you to slow you down in order to prevent a serious accident?  Maybe the alternate route you decided to take turns out to be a better one than your original route?  Or maybe there was a lesson to learn which will bring about more benefits than you could ever have dreamed of?

Obstacles aren’t there to hurt you – they’re there to help you learn or grow (or both), so when faced with one, consider it with curiosity and look for the lesson.  You may be surprised at what you find!