It’s late. Just got home from a formal awards banquet. The Competitor Awards. I was sitting at a table with my friends. Right up front. The premier table. A table you don’t get to just walk up to and claim as yours… it’s reserved for you.

That is where I like to be.

As I sat there and looked around I realized how cool my life really is. I realized that I have such awesome, incredible people around me… and then it suddenly occurred to me. The reason I was sitting at that table with those people is because I am one of those people!

One of my friends on this night was inducted into the Hall of Fame. She has a World Championship title at Ironman, and 15 other titles to go with that one.

Amazing.

Another women at that table holds more world titles than any women ever will. 24 titles. 8 of those are World Championships. She was inducted in the Hall of Fame a few years ago.

The funny thing was as we sat there and watched some of the other awards going on, other people being honored, everything from double amputees finishing an ironman to Tour De France Champions who had crashed, suffered brain damage, and rehabbed himself back to competition level, back to functioning in life…. it was all normal stuff to us.

We sat at our table and laughed and fully enjoyed ourselves. We made jokes about each other and had people coming up to our table wanting to just say hi, break into our private conversations. This is all normal to us, having people want to try and be in the pack….. I have some really cool friends. My friends feel like family, they are family. We all feel that way. And it’s very interesting to me that we are all very accomplished at sport and as we move through life, into our 40’s we are now accomplished at our own businesses.

We are all champions, we are all good at sport, we are all good at business, we are all good with money, we are all good at now giving back to the world and teaching others the fundamentals of our life long practices.

Because we were all coach-able, we now can coach, through a lot of experience.

It was an interesting night. I realized what I have. Sometimes we take it for granted. It must have been the gathering of a bunch of incredible people in one spot. That, and a little wine!

I love my life.

Zelda

http://zeldamontgomery.com

A friend of mine said that to me in a text message this morning and it just stopped me.

This friend of mine owns her own business, has two of the coolest little boys and a husband that is a golf pro. Very cool people, all of them. I’ve hung out with them a lot. Everything has always been so “family” at their house. Not perfect, but it always feels happy.

This morning when I got a text message that said, “my life is falling apart around me, Dan & I are starting therapy on Tuesday and I’m sacred.

Woah. It stopped me. I remember that feeling. Scared. What an awful place to be. Yet when I started thinking about it this morning, I realized the time I’ve spent re-thinking scared. I changed scared into passion for what I wanted out of life.

It is about the way I think.

But, the world we live in promotes scared.

I wanted to launch into something about how she should focus on all the good things right now. How all of those little things that seem awful, aren’t so awful. Because when you walk away and are scared, nothing gets better.

It made me realize how happy I am about all the work I’ve done on “scared”. How much that is a place that used to occupy my mind and that now I understand very clearly that I had to take action and I had to decide to focus on what I wanted… I left no room for scared.

Zelda

http://zeldamontgomery.com

Birthdays can suck, or they can be really fun! It all starts in your own mind!

On Monday I turned 44. A few years ago I would have cringed to think I’m 44. Now, I’m stoked I’m 44. I’ve learned a lot of things that I don’t want to have to go back and learn again. My reaction to every day things is different now. My reaction to BIG events is much different. I much more centered. I love being 44.!

What I realized this year was birthdays are about friends. I had such a great time going out with my friends, getting little goofy presents from my friends, getting presents from my friends that really meant something, and generally knowing that we have a good time together. As I get older the friends I have may not be as many, but they are there for me, they know me, and most important… I can just be me with them!

I love that.

My friends are a bit crazy I must admit. We do wild stuff. We had a 70’s theme party this year and the dressing up was so awesome.

Another thing I realized about it was that we are comfortable enough with one another to let it hang out… put an outfit on, dance around… having a great time! And there in lies my comment… birthdays are for friends; get together with them. Have some fun. Celebrate your life!

And really, it’s ok to pretend it’s your birthday everyday! I do! You should try it.

How familiar is that one? We all do it. Research indicates that the average person talks to themselves about 50,000 times a day. Most of the self talk is about ones self… and according to psychological researchers, it’s about 80% negative!

Yikes!

I really started thinking about that and realized how true it really was. We live in a time, especially as women that we do spend time giving lip service to how great we are because we are supposed to… but really on the inside that nasty critic comes out all the time.

I should be a better mother (for me to my dogs!), I get bitchy, I don’t look good anymore, I don’t make enough money, every body wants me to be everything and I can’t be that. My house is dirty, my car is a mess, I look terrible in these clothes… I have a fat ass. (Right, I'm a size 5 and workout every day and I still say that)...

You know, the list goes on and on.

Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours! Can’t take credit for that statement. It was made my Richard Bach one of my many favorite authors.

Anyway, the point in this is self talk is something I have to work on every single day. But the more I work on it the easier I find it to catch myself being negative and change it. No I’m never going to be perfect. Nor do I really want to be.

I mean think about that. I’ve walked into people’s houses before where everything seemed to be absolutely perfectly put into place. And I felt like if I moved the wrong way for certain I would break something. It just plain isn’t comfortable. Or those people who never swear. Right. I’m known for the F word so that won’t be changing any time soon.

So that’s not what I’m looking for. I just think it'd be good if it becomes normal to say good things about myself to myself rather than all the negative self talk.

Who taught us to be negative anyway? And how can we change it. For me, it’s been one thought at a time.
Zelda
http://zeldamontgomery.com

I read a lot of things these days... and when I read I’m looking for the positive. I’m looking for things to fill my mind with, and to imprint on my subconscious that are what I want, that move me forward... that make me feel good.

It’s really easy to fill up with all the other negative stuff... for instance just turn on the nightly news, or listen to those people around you who spend their time bitching and complaining that things aren’t the way they want them.

I figured out that really, honestly, what I think is what I create. So what I read, the places I choose to spend my time... everything about my being needs to be focused on what I want.

I used to think I was doing that... and then I realized... most the time I was putting on the brakes. Ever feel like that? Like you are doing things as if you were driving your car around with the emergency brake on and you didn’t realize it?

There is so much out there that is taught these days that points to be cautious. We live in a world of fear. Fear of something... fear of disease, fear of war... even though we are unfortunately providing a place where people can also ignore that there is a war going on. We have huge fear of money. We have fear in relationships. We have fear as such a normal thing that it seems it’s normal to put the brakes on all the time.... out of fear.

Taking off the brakes allows you to break out and do what will make you successful. To get what you wanted out of life. It is a mindset. It is about the way you think. Hanging around people that think that way, learning from people that think that way.... having access to the right materials to fill your head with can and will change the way you think... and it allows you to take off the brakes.

I’m one of those people that takes the brakes off. It really works... but I will also tell you that it’s easy to slip back into putting the brakes back. That’s why I choose to hang out with a mentor who keeps me on track... and then I’m able to keep those people who hang out with me on track.

It’s what I do. I empower myself, I empower those around me. It’s really a great thing. It’s really a great feeling. You can do it too... come along... run with the Big Dogs...

As Val Smyth says, go big or go home. It’s ok to think big! It’s ok to take the brakes off.

You can find out more about my mentor and what I do for such a fabulous lifestyle on the web by taking a tour at
http://www.theprosperitycastnetwork.com/zeldamontgomery