Good morning there and happy Sunday!

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share these weekly newsletters with you. I started writing these back in September with two concerns – will I be able to come up with a new topic every week? And if I can come up with something will anyone want to read it?

Well, so far so good and the best part has been YOU – all of you who take the time to read these every week or every once in awhile. I know you’re busy. I know you have tons of emails and stuff to wade through so

I’m very grateful for your time and support.

I’m even more grateful when you take a moment to share your reactions with me or on Facebook with the rest of our Artistic Family so please do so right HERE.

What are YOU grateful for on this beautiful morning? I say take a moment and really honor it.

THE WORLD’S GREATEST LIE

People don’t change.

That’s the world’s greatest lie. Just think of ONE person you know who’s made a drastic change in their lives and that proves that people CAN change.

But the truth is, most people don’t.

And that used to be me.

Oh, I tried to change so many things about me that weren’t working or that I didn’t like or that weren’t serving me or that limited me. And for a while I would change. I’d vow to do something new/different, do it for a bit (or sometimes barely at all) and then go back to my “path of least resistance”, my groove of mediocrity.

Back to Hell.

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Hell is right.

Why do we do this? Why do we cling to the very thing we want to rid ourselves of?

Why don’t people create lasting change?

After years of “trying,” of really good intentions but always slipping back to being the same (no lasting change), I needed to really figure this thing out because to go where I wanted to go, to create the kind of life I wanted, I needed to change several things about me.

After a tremendous amount of reading, research, therapy (and anything that could help me learn more), one thing became quite clear – most people lack the mental toughness, the emotional discipline to be consistent enough to create lasting change in their lives.

But I soon learned that being mentally tough and disciplined isn’t enough because it’s not the real problem.

THE REAL PROBLEM AND THE KEY TO LASTING CHANGE

You must believe you deserve to be better.

You must believe you deserve a better life.

You must believe you deserve to be happy.

You must believe you deserve to shine.

In other words, you must, AT YOUR CORE, believe you deserve all of this. One of my favorite quotes about all this comes from Marianne Williamson:

 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right.

Maturity includes the recognition that no one is going to see anything in us that we don’t see in ourselves. Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.”

Produce yourself. I love that.

What do you believe you deserve?

How good can you stand it?

Heal this, grow all this and you will DEMAND change.

I promise.

I hope you have a wonderful week stepping into your brilliance.

My love and very best,
Jim