How is your 2018 going so far? Not what you had hoped?

Same old, same old?

If you’re like me – your friends and family members have no shortage of complaints.

Perhaps you’ve started the year with a litany of your own.

It’s a complaining world.

And one thing I have concluded is that everyone – every single one of us, is facing struggles, worries and uncertainty.

We can look at so-called “successful” people and believe they have a perfect life. But that doesn’t exist. In the privacy of their homes, they may very well be going through hell.

Many of us don’t really see reality. We just see our problems.

We may be worried about our health, a lack of money, our job and our personal relationships.

Some of us are waiting for a miracle to fall from the sky.

Others have decided to just give up – to curl up in a ball on the couch and watch TV all day and all night.

But complaining can actually turn into a positive force if it makes us act.

In my case, I would complain about the same things all of the time (as most of us do). Eventually, I grew weary of the same complaints day in and day out. The level of frustration reached a climax when I finally said “Enough!” and took action.

The first essential step is to “accept”.

I needed to say to myself “Yeah, it sucks. But it’s reality. Where do I go from here?”

What so many of us fail to see, in my experience, is that we have unbelievable potential and power. Our inner mind feeds us lies when we are troubled, telling us we are weak and incompetent. Lies, lies and more damn lies!

Let your frustration and anger boil over and force you to take action.

All of the accomplished people in this world did just that. They too faced monumental hurdles, some of which were more horrific than most of us will ever face.

Helen Keller (who died in 1968) could not hear or see, but earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Elvis Presley was told he could not sing and that he should go back to truck driving. Lady Gaga faced brutal bullying only to rise up and “show them all!”

Your demons will torture you.

But we must understand that the demons are liars. They don’t know you.

Deep down, you do.

Go ahead and do your complaining.

But only briefly.

You must stop and accept what is.

Then rise up and make the changes you need to make.

And don’t give a care what anyone else thinks.

Because here’s the truth: those same people who will criticize you, and want to pull you back down to their level of inaction, will forget all about you in a second! They have their own worries and struggles to focus on.

As 2018 marches on (much faster than we’d like), use that frustration building up in you. It carries the potential to release your power.

What changes do you need to make?

The universe is waiting.