Three Obstacles to a Remarkable Life
By Steve Gahagen
There are many obstacles that can prevent us from living a life that is remarkable. I want to address three.
1. Our tendency to focus on what’s lacking
We live in a remedial society and often focus on our weakness or what we are missing. The fuel that accelerates a remarkable life is leveraging our strengths and what we have been given. You possess something that no one else has - the ability to be remarkably you. When we focus on what we have been given, we find a sense of wealth and confidence.
2. Wounds from the past
We can be haunted from voices that spoke into our past. Falling down never stopped a child from trying to walk or develop, but being yelled at can be paralyzing. It is important to understand the voices that have formed us and to make sure the negative voices do not become our own.
3. Fear
Fear is perhaps the greatest obstacle to living a life that is remarkably you. It may be the fear of failure or the fear of seeming weird. Fear, not confronted, creates the boundaries of our lives.
“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” –Suzy Kassem, writer, poet, philosopher
For many years, I took my three large dogs (225 pounds combined) for a walk in the evening, going by a house where a young german shepherd lived. The shepherd sat outside and watched intently with no restraints - no leash, no visible fence. I am thankful he did. If he didn’t, I would have had a dog fight on my hands. Still, it always made me a little nervous.
But of course we know there was a fence, an invisible one. That German shepherd knows that if he challenged that fence, he would experience pain. That invisible fence is the boundary of his freedom. Our fear is like an invisible fence.
I once had a husky who ran away hundreds of times when our kids were little. Her passion for freedom would have disregarded the pain of any invisible fence. In order to be “remarkably you,” you, will likely have to cross some invisible fences.
Questions to Consider:
What makes you remarkable? What talents and strengths do you possess?
What negative voices in your past still haunt you today? What message do you need to tell yourself to counter those voices?
What fears might be keeping you from living your greatest story?