For decades, I lived on autopilot, just going through the motions. Thanks to chronic anxiety, I felt totally disconnected from myself, never in the room I was in and my mind always a million miles away. I was alive but not living. I wanted to change my life. I wanted to feel connected to myself. I wanted to experience life differently, I just didn’t know how.
And then, I “woke up.” For me, the process began by hitting rock bottom. I just couldn’t live like that anymore - drinking myself into a stupor every night, numbing pain and waking up with anxiety and fear that was so crushing I would escape by hitting the snooze button four or five times every morning. I always tell you that you are one decision away from a different life. That’s how my life changed. One decision. I decided to get out of bed when the alarm rang, instead of lying there marinating like a pot roast in fear. That one decision was a microscopic victory.
I made it on a Tuesday in February in 2008. I was $800,000 in debt. Unemployed. Fighting with Chris. Addicted to alcohol and fear. I wanted to be someone else - so I decided to try to act like her. Getting out of bed that morning was a wake up call. I could be someone else. I could act like the person I wanted to become BEFORE I felt like her. That was the secret: DECIDE who you are going to be every single day.
Act like the person you want to become. That’s what I did. I got out of bed. And then I made another decision, I made my bed. And then another, I high-fived myself in the mirror. And then another, I was kind to Chris. And then another, I started journaling and dreaming again. And then another, I started walking every day. And then another, I looked for a job. I was acting LIKE the person I wanted to become. For me it was obvious what to do - just do the opposite of everything I was currently doing.
I had accidentally stumbled into a powerful method of changing your life - BAT (Behavioral Activation Therapy). It’s simple and proven by decades of research.
Act like the person you want to become. Decide WHO you want to be and then ACT like that person.
I had been making a major mistake. I had been waiting to FEEL like a different person. That’s not how life works. You don’t just wake up one day as a different person. You must DO different, and then you’ll become different.
That’s why I’m going to tell you over and over and over - every single morning when you wake up DECIDE WHO YOU ARE GOING TO BE.
Every single day, you get to wake up and decide who you’re going to be. How powerful is that? 🚀
