Heal Your Addictions

I love stories and here is one that always touches my heart.

Some time ago, a 17-year-old teenager found himself at a crossroad. The questions that plagued him were "what am I to do and what will I become?" Not able to find the answers within himself, he left his house early one morning to walk along the ocean. During his walk, he noticed a bottle had been washed ashore. Because he was curious, he decided to pick it up and open it. Inside he found a note that said, "If you have a vision, inspiration and a sense of service to humanity, you will change the world." The teenager wondered what changing the world had to do with success.

Because of the many teeth rattling challenges I have overcome, I am frequently asked what inside of me chose success instead of failure, financial independence instead of poverty, and love instead of hate?

What principles do I live by? What are my core beliefs?

When I review my experiences, I asked myself, what has become clear to me? These are some of the truths I discovered.

Heal your addiction to gossip; Watch your mouth; guard your words.

When we think of addictions, we often think of addictions to substances, such as drugs, alcohol and perhaps gambling. But I'm talking about more common addictions; things that are so natural to us that we sanction them by saying "that's just normal human behavior."

We have the same amount of time as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Oprah. 168 hours a week, or 525,600 minutes in a year; however, we often waste these precious minutes on things and people who will not lead us closer to success.

The 23rd number of Psalms gives us an important safety tip. While in the valley of death, we are cautioned to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It does not say stop, collect $200, take pictures, gossip, and judge others.

While in the valley experiences of our life, we seem to enjoy pointing out the mistakes of others. For some reason we choose to spend our precious minutes actively studying what someone else should be doing or saying, or backstabbing and repeating information we do not know is true.

Engaging in gossip, participating in conversations that affirm the poor state of the economy, talking about too much month at the end of our money, and offering unwanted advice and opinions about what other folks are doing are ways to keep you from experiencing a cup that overflows.

With all the power we possess, we are still unable to change others. Our power begins and ends with the person we see in the mirror.

If you kept a diary, you would find that we spend approximately 20 hours a week, not working toward our goals, but being actively involved in social conversations talking about other people.

The addition to gossip is a key behavior that helps us avoid coming face to face with our own feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. It is always easier to see the faults in others, but we are cautioned in Matthew 7:5 to first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Because every interaction is an exchange of energy, eliminating gossip from your life will 1) improve your own self-esteem by improving your integrity; talking about others without their knowledge is a signal of weaknesses; 2) free up time for you to make bold moves in your own life toward your goals; 3) become more compassionate by realizing that no one is perfect, we all make mistakes. We often find that miracles are revealed in making mistakes. If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning.

Make sure you spend your 525,600 minutes talking about love, joy. All of your conversations should be healing, inspiring and uplifting.

Remember, life is too short to drink cheap champagne.

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