Words To Live By From Lindsay Teague Moreno....

I woke up this morning, with my intention already set the night before, starting my day listening to stirring words that would awaken my soul. Words have always been a strong incentive for me and right now I'm fighting to have the life I deserve and I know I am meant to have. I truly believe that God did not create me to be average and live an average life, but I have to do the work and meet him half way for my life to change. After listening to 2 podcast episodes, I went on reading a few pages from the book “Wake Up!: The Powerful Guide to Changing Your Mind About What It Means to Really Live by author Lindsay Teague Moreno. Let me take you to the passage that this morning has awakened my soul.

I was crying when I walked into the emergency room of the hospital near my house. These weren’t your average hospital tears born of pain, panic, fear, or grief. Instead, I found myself wiping the shame off my thirty-eight-year-old face one salty tear at a time. In my experience, tears of shame are the most painful because I know in my heart, I’m the one who caused them in the first place. On that winter day, I knew the problem I was about to face was one of my own makings, and I absolutely hated myself for it. Over and over, I asked myself why I allowed this, and I really let myself have it as I lay on that cold, paper-covered hospital bed. What is wrong with me?

Why am I still broken?

It turns out, if you spend your life focusing on work, finances, and raising a family, a few other should-be priorities will become so desperate for your attention you’ll no longer have the choice to ignore them. And those neglected things won’t be something little that you put off worrying about and will instead demand your time, money, and attention when you’re least prepared to give them. Mine came in the form of high blood pressure.

I knew this wasn’t a dream. This was a wake-up call. I left the hospital that day, went home, lay in my bed, and let the shame consume me. I let it take me down to the dark place—you know the one. The one most of us avoid at all costs. The one that hurts like hell. The one that makes you feel on the outside like you do on the inside. That low that shifts so easily from helplessness to anger and often lands on the shoulders of the people we love most in the form of lashing out, deflecting, or projection. These kinds of lows drive us to reinforce that wall of solitude around our hearts and then numb ourselves until we no longer have to feel. I let my mind take me down the timeline of my life. Ten years, twenty years, thirty years down the road. I thought of my life as a vehicle. If I continue to travel in this direction, what will my life look like?

Where will I be?

What will I feel like?

What will I do with my time?

How will I live my life?

Will I be happy?

Will I be successful?

And most importantly, will I be fulfilled?

Have I done good with the time I’ve been given?

Did I fulfill my purpose here on earth?

I sat in that feeling for a while longer before asking myself the question that changed my whole life: If I’ve only got a few years left to serve my purpose and find the reason that I’ve been put on this earth (and I believe we all—every single one of us—have one), what will I regret in my closing few hours of life?

What will I miss?

What will I hate that I never did?

How will I have affected the lives of others?

How have I left my mark on this world?

Have I loved enough?

Did I experience enough?

Have I really lived?

And there it was. Regret. My tears of shame were attached to regret. How many people do you know who have resigned themselves to a death filled with regret rather than a life lived on purpose?

We get caught up in what’s easy, what’s convenient, what’s planned for us, and what’s conditioned into us. We make choices without even thinking. We live each day to pass the time. We mistake thrills with happiness and live to wonder why it never lasts. We fail to realize that the hard thing really is the best thing for us. We mistake the gift of the lesson for dead-end signs. It’s so easy to do because it’s—wait for it—normal!

Listen to me: what is normal is not necessarily what is correct for you.

On that day, in that bed, I decided to give normal the bird and I made a plan for more. Regret is something I don’t have to resign myself to. This was a lesson, not a final destination. The lesson I learned that day changed the course of my life incrementally, and the work I’ve done in response to this event has changed the final destination by miles. What I see at the end of my life today is not what I saw on that day. And that I did on purpose.

I hope her words will inspire you and give you the required motivation to alter your lifepath and embark on a brand-new journey full of discovery and new opportunities.

Yours Truly,

The Queen Of Africa