Elimination: Clearing the Path to Your Success

Elimination is the greatest hidden secret to unleashing your energy and clearing the path to your success.

It turns out, as I’ve learned through my usual string of mistakes, that adding often does not add much at all. It’s in subtracting – in removing, in eliminating – that we get closer to our real place in this world , clearer on our purpose, and closer to our own full potential of being and doing our absolute best and brightest.

In the last year, I have subtracted a lucrative corporate career that stopped serving me years ago, my beautiful long gorgeous hair that was just getting in the way of my freedom, and a number of relationships that were just not making me happy anymore. (And yes, don’t forget, the element of happiness matters in relationships!)

I have shocked people, surprised my family, and raised a lot of eyebrows with these drastic decisions but fun as that was, that’s not why I did them.

You do things because they matter to you and because your own happiness rides on that card and the world’s reaction is, well, what it is. That’s none of your business. YOU are your business and your happiness and freedom is at stake here so it’s serious business too.

I want to tell you how this elimination process can help free you like a bird out of its golden cage. I want to convince you that it can open doors for you. I want to show you how it can give you eyes to see and hands to touch those dear things that you crave and yet find inaccessibly far.

Every single time that I subtracted, that I shed something, that I left something that was perceived to be valuable or important or “precious” on the table and walked away and said, “thank you but this won’t work for me anymore. So thanks but no thanks!” I felt stronger, I felt happier, and I felt lighter. I felt clarity, I felt momentum, I felt in charge of my time and in control of my life.

It. Felt. Right. Every single time. What bigger proof do you need? Listen to your feelings!

These intense feelings run through my body and pump my heart every single day, these delicious feelings of freedom and strength that I had not known could exist on this plane.

You can have them too. You decide by asking yourself, what is it costing you not to have these feelings of strength and freedom?

You know, for me, I was just so sick of being in the backseat, meandering and wondering and wasting time while being swayed by the heavy weight of decisions that I had made years ago, decisions that did nothing for me now.

We change, we evolve, we grow, and we find our place so why not adjust your life on every single level to that new direction of your life so that it is in full synchronicity? Every time you don’t do that, you are taking away energy from your forward momentum, and that’s why you can’t reach your goals. If every part of you — your body, your mind, your heart and your spirit — is pointed in the same direction and moving in the right path, the path of your goals and dreams, then it is just a matter of time before you get there, but when a part of you is pulling you this way and another is pulling you that way, when your energy is scattered and things get in the way, start subtracting!

If you have outgrown a friendship and still continue it just-because, you are taking energy away that could be put into driving you closer to your goals. Eliminate it.

If you are stuck in your career, and stay there, all stuck and unhappy, how can you possible move forward toward your dream career? Leave it. Find something better. You won’t regret it.

Great things happen when you move, when you change, when you act, when you do something about the situation. Wishful thinking is for dreamers and I have no fluff or daydreaming here on this blog. I have real stuff, real practical wisdom that I’ve lived and practice daily.

Do something about everything in your life and it is impossible not to see your strength become unified and your energy gather about you in amazing ways. It will become impossible NOT to reach your goals when you have eliminated the things that get in the way.

Sometimes, a drastic decision can give you a kick-start. Mine was simple: I decided I was doing things that did not make me ridiculously happy and satisfied.

So I went on my own strike and decided to reserve my time and my life for things and people that bring me so much intense joy and happiness that I have to pinch myself every minute of the day because how is it possible to be so happy with working so hard and giving up so much ….

And yet I have never, ever, been happier, not in my laziest days in the paradise of Hawaii or in my greatest travels around the world even though I am a fanatic traveler and a huge travel junkie.

What I am trying to say is this:

Happiness happens right there in your heart and it starts with the right mindset, which leads to decisions that lead to actions. Actions such as elimination of the wrong things.

You do not even need to leave your doorstep to have this intense happiness, this inner peace and this freedom that I am talking about.

Doing things just out of routine and habit will bring you to this point of standstill, this “meh”, this “blah” feeling, this totally-the-opposite-of-what-life-should-be-and-can-be mediocre feeling of just living day to day, going to places, doing things and being with people, without feeling the enthusiasm, the excitement, the rage of happiness and the delicious smell of your own freedom.

So, now that you are all pumped up to subtract away, here are 8 places to start with 8 tips that I offer you from the bottom of my heart. It’s not easy at first, I know, i do, but it gets really easy really fast after that first smell of freedom and inner peace.

Here’s the top 8 things to eliminate right away:

1. Bad thoughts – You are your thoughts and if you knew the power of those thoughts, you’d never think a negative one. I heard that somewhere. And it bears a lot of truth.
2. Bad foods – You know whether you are eating it or not and you know what you need to do. Enough said.
3. Bad health habits– Anything goes here, alcohol consumption, substance abuse, smoking, sloth, overeating, oversleeping, you name it.
4. Bad relationships – Or any relationship that doesn’t get you all excited and thrilled to be in the presence of this other person.
5. Bad job or career – The kind that zaps the life and energy out of you before lunchtime, the kind that nauseates you, the kind that you do just to get a paycheck but can barely stand. That!
6. Bad news or information – Stuff you read, watch or otherwise consume. There is awareness and being in the know and obsessing over information that takes up precious time and resources away.
7. Bad self-image – Which is tied so much to poor self-care. Those awful thoughts around your appearance to the world, most of which is made up. Our imagination can be a terrible thing.
8. Bad perspective – Your perception of the world will become reality. When you realize how powerful this is, you will choose the best perspective and let go of all the bad ones.

Over to you: What have you eliminated in your life? What have you subtracted in all the weight that you carry on your shoulders? What has it done for you? Tell me in the comments and let’s carry less and get further through smart elimination!