Do you want to live every day with excitement?

I was walking along the beach today and suddenly I was actually paying attention… and I realized that with each new wave there was a new beach. If you had walked along that beach one minute before me you would have seen different sand, different water and different items washed up on that beach. I suddenly stood there staring for what seemed like a long time just watching each new wave come rushing in. Watching each item that was there before disappear back into the sea and yet… if the wave moved far enough up onto the beach it left some permanence…  it left items on the beach and took items from the beach.

I thought about this and realized that we are like the ocean. Only we choose what we are. Or rather many of us don’t choose.

Each and every day we get to choose what we are going to do, sweep away and write clean sand or leave cluttered debris along the top of our beach.

I know that can sound rather clichéd but most of us leave all of our junk sitting at the top of our minds, getting in the way, holding us in place, and reminding us of all of the stuff we should not be thinking about. We fill our minds up with clutter, things are that old news, bad memories and bad experiences. So many of us don’t choose every day but rather we allow every day.

Each day brings us the opportunity to start fresh, a new wave each morning where we can choose what we will sweep into our minds for the day and what we will wash away.

Think about this in any  manner you can but let it sink in… we have the power to start every day with a clean beach, new sand… putting items we really want on the beach and leaving them there for all to see, admire and collect if they choose. Yes others can collect as we do from others: quotes or saying, moods and attitudes. Philosophers have left us many things that we choose to remember and quote again and again. Friends have left us with attitudes both good and bad and we have chosen to collect them. People from our past have left us with sayings, emotions,  feelings, memories that we have chosen to bring along and collect.

And yet most of us have done this almost unwittingly. The beach is much the same… go to one part of the beach and it’s clean sand all the way in but go to another part of the beach and you will find clean sand at the shoreline and big rock formations further up and then in the storm surge there are huge rocks and debris scattered way up at the top, caught up in the roots and vines that are part of the beach but no one likes to go there. It’s been there and probably will be forever… a huge pile of debris, most of it worthless, piled high and nothing of value all piled high for all to see but almost no one goes there because they can tell it offers nothing of value.

Think about your friends. You have some friends who offer you that.. we call them friends but what they really are is acquaintances that we invite along sometimes just because we feel guilty about not inviting them but they bring nothing of value, nothing worthwhile and most of us don’t really even like them. They live in that clutter at the top of the beach, negative, space filling, stuff and all they do is talk in negatives and bring people down. They never get over things, never get past things and almost always want to talk about who offended them, hurt them and constantly talk about things in their past that they never let go.

And we all know a couple of those people.

But most of us live on the beach where we find some good things and some debris. We live on the edge of the high tide that sometimes brings us good things to see, talk about and share and sometimes it just brings us debris, clutter and the stuff that we can’t brag about, can’t show off, don’t appreciate. Sometimes it leaves us high and dry and that my friends is where most of America lives. We make a conscious choice not to live at the top of that beach where all the really negative stuff is and we settle for the edge of the high tide.

Because… ask anyone who knows the beach and they will tell you, to live on the edge of the surf, where people love to walk and play, where people sometimes get in over their heads and sometimes rush to the safety of the high tide mark… this is a place of balance, where you must learn when to fight the tide and when to accept it for what it is. The surf line requires you to be aware, knowledgeable and alert. It is a place where you can relax at the right time but must be on your guard all of the time. And most of us are afraid of living on that edge.

Yes, ask the winners of the world and they will tell you that their greatest rewards came from living on that edge… the edge where they were not always in control and often had to fight for their survival and yet it is the most exciting place in the world to live.

It is the place where people want to be. It is the place where people gather, where things are happening, where laughter fills the air. It is the place where we find joy and happiness.

You now know the differences…  the surge line where all the really heavy overloaded unwanted things go, the high tide line where all of the old people drag their beach chairs and where so many families keep their kids, where talking and reading and naps happen. And the surf line where all of the excitement, laughter, joy and happiness are expressed and felt. Where we feel alive and know that we are living!

I invite you to learn how to spend your life in the surf line where we splash and play and laugh and dance in and out of the water. I invite you to come with me and remember what life is all about. I invite you to share a life of energy, fun and great moods.

And all you have to do… is re-learn how. And I can teach you.

Mentalprosperityblog.com  steve@stevesapato.com