14 Minutes to a Brand New Life!

I know two things…

First of all, it took you two seconds to read the title of my article.

Second, I know what you may be thinking: “Hmm… 14 minutes to a brand new LIFE… Impossible!”

It doesn’t matter where you are at or what happened to you in the PAST. What matters first is your CHOICE to see your LIFE dramatically changed into something brand new! What matters second, is your forward move; your ACTION to read these lines. By choosing to read this article you have perhaps already begun the new birth of your LIFE. I will tell you how to leave behind years of pain, hurt, scars and wounds that you thought would never let you enjoy LIFE again! What I am promising you is radical! You can actually experience a brand new LIFE 14 minutes from now. Ready?

Here are the rules:

1. Get a piece of paper and a pen.
2. Get a watch or a clock to measure your time.
3. Follow my instructions regarding the timing.
4. Silence your phones, music or the TV set.

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4 MINUTES OF READING

A wise man once heard a man talking about his PAST. “I want to understand my past and do something about it,” said the man to the wise man. “I want a clean PAST. I am sick and tired of dealing with a guilty conscience from everything that I have done, suffering from a broken heart and the bitterness from the people who hurt me badly.” Some of the people he had hurt were dead; his wife had divorced him and she was married to another man; some other people had moved to another city and he had no way to contact them. He had even stopped appreciating his closest friends and his own children. “What can I do, oh, wise man, I am going crazy!” the man said. The wise man said: “The secret to dealing with your PAST is in your hands!” The answer left the man even more confused. The wise man asked the man to get a large grocery paper bag and go to the lake nearby. He would spend as much time as he needed collecting feathers from the ducks and birds scattered all over the land around the lake. “Don’t come back to see me unless your bag is full of feathers,” said the wise man. The man spent a week going every day after work to the lake to pick up feathers. The wind would pick up velocity towards the evening and he ended up literally chasing after feathers. Every feather was like a trophy for the man. At the end of the week the man came back to see the wise man. The wise man waited until late afternoon when he could teach the man what he meant. They both walked back to the lake. The wind was strong. When they got to the lake, the wise man said to the man, “I want you to take the bag full of feathers and shake the feathers out of the bag.” The man looked at the wise man and angrily said… “That’s stupid! It took me a week to fill this bag at your request. Your request now is absurd.” The wise man said, “What you don’t let go will stay with you. Would you like to learn a lesson or keep the feathers?” The man was confused! He hesitated a minute. The feathers had no value to him. Just the time it took to collect them, and the illusion that the wise man was going to do something magic with his PAST. He had fantasized for an entire week as he collected feathers about the new life the wise man was going to give him. He had experienced before hand the exhilaration of what a life with a CLEAN PAST would mean to him. The wise man knew his dilemma. He finally said: “Man, would like to spread the feathers into the air or keep them?” The man impulsively did it! He watched as the feathers flew into the air and the wind carried them to unknown locations. Minutes later the wise man said to the man: “You invested time in your PAST. Every mistake you made is like a feather from a bird. There is no life in those feathers. They served their purpose. They have no purpose now. You can keep the bag full of lifeless, dead feathers in your house and remember they were part of a living bird or you can let them go. Your PAST is like that. When you let it go totally you can spend your time building your NOW!”

You see, everything you have ever done in your LIFE is over forever! YOU CAN NOT UNDO OR DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE PAST! Everyone that has ever hurt you is done hurting you up to this very second. The people you have hurt are already hurt. All the pain and the bad experiences are in the PAST. Your tummy may be still hurting because of what happened to you but it’s all in the PAST. Are you with me? Say to yourself:

“EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME IS IN THE PAST!”

You are alone with yourself. The PAST is the past. Hurts, bad memories, people you loved that betrayed you, wounds, scars, bad moments, bad situations, a troubled marriage, controversy, tension, fights and pain. ALL of it is in your PAST. There is an indicator of how fast you will be able to put your past behind you: PAIN. The more you hurt the faster you could potentially heal. PAIN either moves you in the direction of healing or breaks you down and keeps you down. PAIN either leads you into renewal or keeps festering with the memories of your PAST. The people I have been able to help recover the fastest are always the one that have been hurting the most. Why change if there is no pain, right?

If you are at the point where you want to move on and get a NEW LIFE all you have to do NOW is to CHOOSE! Here is my question. What are you going to do with your PAST? It’s one choice. One single choice. Are you ready to give up your PAST or will you continue to hold it, analyze it and cultivate it knowing there is no soil for the FUTURE tree of your LIFE there?

A CHOICE is vitally critical in dealing with your PAST. It is the most difficult and challenging CHOICE you will ever have to make. Until you accept the fact that no one is responsible for your LIFE but yourself, things will never change. NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR MISERY. Hear what I just said! You have a CHOICE when it comes to dealing with your INNER LIFE and how you respond to circumstances. Whoever hurt you in the past; whoever your parents were; whatever genetic predisposition you possess; whoever told you the way LIFE is; whatever you came to believe about yourself and the world… EVERYTHING is up to you now. IT IS YOUR CHOICE! Under the most excruciating circumstances you have a CHOICE. Repeat this to yourself time after time:

“I HAVE A CHOICE ON HOW I WILL RESPOND TO EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE!”

If you can come with one situation that excuses you from letting go of your past I want to hear from you immediately. I will give up my promise if you can come up with the exception.

Here is the question I want you to answer in the next 15 seconds… Write the answer on your paper… One or two words… That’s it! Are you ready?

WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE TO DO WITH YOUR PAST RIGHT NOW?

15 second implementation. Begin timing yourself NOW.

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4 MINUTES OF READING

You see, a CHOICE is critical but it is not enough. I have always said that life is like biking. Do you stand up with your bike or peddle first? Really! I am not joking! What do you do first? Good! You’ve got it! That is called SYNERGY! Synergy happens when you do two things at the same time. The first STEP you took is half of your LIFE synergy but it is not necessarily a stage. It happens simultaneously with the second step. If you want a new LIFE you must accept this principle. You can choose until you are blue in the face and nothing will ever happen. I know people who make choices all the time and nothing changes. Why? Because the second step is a MUST! The second STEP is ACTION. Not just action, but MASSIVE ACTION! By massive I mean, the ACTION must be assertive, quick, sharp, pointed and focused like a laser beam. Now, the reason why it’s important to understand that both steps work together is because, CHOICE with no action is just mental exercise; it serves no purpose at all. ACTION without a CHOICE is impulsive and 99% of the time serves no good purpose either. ACTION with a volitional, intentional CHOICE hurts people most of the time including you. ACTION without a CHOICE is the prerogative of the animal kingdom. ACTION without a CHOICE is called REACTION, primal instinct and automatic conditioning. So, ACTION and CHOICE are like biking. They go together! Choice and action… action and choice… choice and action… action and choice… Now you have a chance to write something down in response to my question.

I want to ask you to DO ONE THING ABOUT YOUR PAST THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER! You already wrote a CHOICE about your PAST. Now I want you to implement an ACTION step. Just one thing! Right now! If you have to think more than 1 minute, you are thinking too hard. If you need 24 hours to implement this step, you are thinking too much! Just one thing you can implement RIGHT NOW in regards to your PAST! Something that affirms your CHOICE. Something that symbolizes your NEW LIFE. It could be a telephone call to tell a friend you are giving yourself a new LIFE page and you would like to be held accountable… Or writing a note to yourself. Just write the one thing and do it ASAP! DO ONE THING ABOUT YOUR PAST! If you chose to leave it in the PAST… yes, LEAVE IT BEHIND… then do something to remind you of your CHOICE. If you CHOSE to deal with your past, then DO one thing to deal with your past. If you CHOSE to run away from it, then you need to write to me because that CHOICE will hurt you. When you don’t let go of your PAST, your PAST will follow you. When you let go of the PAST you can be free NOW and start building your FUTURE!

Mandy, a young woman took her ACTION step a few months ago by going to the beach for two weeks after work, in the evening, and collecting shells. She carried two bags. One for shells that reminded her of painful events in her past. Another for the positive, good, invigorating memories. Two weeks later she released the shells that reminded her of negative experiences into the ocean. She kept the shells that reminded her of positive memories and created a picture with them and later framed the picture. She told me that the experience was totally liberating for her. What she gained the most from it was acknowledging that there were good memories, good episodes, energizing moments that had blessed her in the past. “In fact,” she said to me, “it was the positive memories that enabled me to give up the darkness of my past. I never realized so much good had happened to me. I would have never divorced; I would have never done what I did if I would have realized earlier how lucky I had been.” She made a CHOICE (Leave the PAST in the PAST) and she put an ACTION step in place to remind her of her CHOICE. Mandy, had actually created a brand new LIFE by taking these two steps. A CHOICE and an ACTION to affirm the choice. The symbol of her new LIFE was meaningful to her. Let go of the darkness and highlight the positive. This simple two step strategy is what I call the embracing of your PAST. You see, once you embrace your PAST you can move on. You can then, learn from your past; you can remember your past; you can re-visit your past without shame; you can be reminded of your past by your enemies and you can humbly accept that this was your past but there is nothing you can do. Finality is a wonderful stage in that it provides peace and freedom. You are free to enjoy your brand NEW NOW!’ Today is all you have! Implementing an ACTION step about letting go may be to ask forgiveness to someone you have hurt. Or let go of your pride for having acted in a certain way. You may be surprised how much good will come from the darkness of your past if you go back after letting it go! No, I am not contradicting myself. You must let go first before you can embrace your PAST in a healthy way. As you look at your PAST life you may have begin to realize that your illusions did not work out in real life. Or in your attempts to run away from your past you left a lot of wounded people behind. There is nothing you can do to change your past, but you can take ACTION steps to live your new LIFE in the NOW with power, energy and dynamic spirituality.

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU COULD DO ABOUT YOUR PAST THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER?

45 second implementation. Begin Timing Yourself NOW.

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5 MINUTES OF READING

I was in the same spot you are now some time ago. My life was a mess. I was hurting, in pain and wounded. I felt like my universe had come to a screeching halt. I felt like screaming. I felt like I wanted to literally die from the pain I felt in my guts! I was shocked and the night was dark!

I had 14 minutes to change my life forever. It was my chance. I took it! Those were the best 14 minutes of my entire life. Never in my wildest imagination had I thought that everything that happened to me in the PAST would lead me to those 14 sacred minutes. Unbelievable! It was like watching a movie of my own life! I made a CHOICE: I chose to let go of my PAST totally. I decided there was nothing I could do about my PAST except move on, embrace it as the greatest classroom experience and begin a new chapter. I knew the PAST would come back to haunt me but I would deal with it as a NOW experience. “Good-bye, PAST I said to that monster!” Then I took immediate, massive ACTION: I journeyed to the center of my spirituality. I have never been a religious man! But the darkness of the moment led me to a deep spiritual renewal. I got on my knees and I talked to God. I didn’t see Him, but I felt His presence and I knew He was hearing me. I heard His voice in my thoughts! He told me: “I have been waiting for you to give up all these years! I want to make you authentically human!” “What,” I said to Him. “You must be kidding, God! I thought my problem was the fact that I was too human!” “No,” he said. “You were trying too hard to be a god! I want to release the best of your humanity into the world! You belong with me, Harold, on a journey with me. You were made for me! I am the one that can give you more than what you have ever imagined in your wildest imagination.” “Really?,” I said to Him. “Yes,” He said. Then he told me: “If you give me your PAST and you let go of it totally I will not only take care of it, but I will use everything that you did in your PAST for my own glory. I will take your past hurts, experiences, wounds, and I will use them to help others. I WILL TURN YOUR SCARS INTO STARS for my universe.” I was done! I have had many moments like that since then, and the ACTION steps have not been the same. Sometimes I was invited to deal with the issues of my PAST in order to create a NEW NOW! But every single time I CHOSE and ACTED my brand new LIFE kept growing!

You see, a new LIFE is like a baby! It’s born in a moment; it’s a brand new LIFE. But it takes time to learn to walk and enjoy your walk. A collection of NOW’s made out of new CHOICES and ACTION steps will let you grow through the childhood, the adolescence and the fruitful years of your brand new LIFE regardless of your chronological age. It is the most dynamic, powerful and amazing LIFE you can experience. You can not embrace the PAST with all its richness and hidden treasures until you let go of it!

I want to promise you something.

If you repeat these two simple steps as many times as you face anything (I mean anything!) in your life, you will change dramatically in a matter of days. Mine did! Follow these two steps over and over again until your soul is cleansed from the pollution and toxicity of your PAST. When you CHOOSE to let go of your PAST or the hurts of your life and you ACT on it by calling on God and accepting your spirituality you will be a changed person forever. ACTION may be reading sacred writings like the Bible, inspirational material, meditation, praying, walking into nature, calling the person you hurt, reconnecting with someone that hurt you… You may need help with some of those steps. Do the easiest first and get better every day! Don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone you trust.

Here is a principle to remember as you enjoy your new LIFE. ACTION always precedes true understanding. ACT first, then, you will understand. And one more strategy: Learning to walk your new LIFE may not feel comfortable. Sometimes we change because of feelings. Many other times ACTION must precede FEELINGS. If you wait for feelings to give you the energy to change and move on you may never get them. ACTION will inevitably create feelings that will energize you to your highest potential.