Today, I woke up to phone calls from friends and family wishing me happy birthday. And for some reason the first thing that entered my mind was the topic for this article. So much has happened since my last article, Great Things Cannot Happen Without Change. Many of you even wrote to me to share your stories on the much-needed changes that may or may not be happening in your lives. Most of you expressed your fear of change, the unknown, and not knowing what to do. I must tell you that youre not alone. Everyone goes through this process in life, time and time again; its really about striving to grow and be better than you use to be. This notion never ends as long as youre breathing. You are, after all, perfection in progress.

The more you practice embracing the process of change, though it doesnt get easier, you will, however, get better at it and be able to consistently improve the quality of your life to a new and higher level of self-respect and fulfillment. At this moment, even I, myself, am going through this process, again. Whether I like it or not, I have to be honest with myself about what isnt working and why. If I choose to ignore the truth of the matter because it seems easier to do so, I may be turning down a truly valuable lesson that could have been the stepping stone to take me to a better place. Understand that the right thing to do is almost never the easiest thing to do. Sometimes life has a better plan for you than your own so to serve a much greater purpose. Even when you try to take the easy way out, life never fails to pinch your nerves with its own sense of humor to try and get you back on track.

Let me share some examples of incidents that happened for me this month as a way to describe some of lifes (not-so-funny) sense of humor: My much needed cell phone broke in half; my Palm Pilots writing pad started to wear out; my living and working space both need to be relocated; my very important email address decided to stop working for reasons my web guy is still trying to figure out; and the list really does go on and on believe me. Almost everything seems to not work smoothly or fit nicely as they would normally. Although fear was the first thing to enter my mind, I made sure it was also the first thing to leave. Fear freezes the mind, erases possibilities and clouds opportunities; and it makes most matters were fearful about seem disproportionately greater than our ability to deal with them. Remember fear exists in your life only when you choose to just exist, however, fear cannot exist when you choose to live your life!

Theres a big difference between living and just existing. Existing is instinctual; it is involuntary, reactive self-preservation, with the primary goal of just getting from one day to the next, without regard to quality. Living, on the other hand, is the exercise of certain learned attitudes, skills, and abilities that you have acquired to add substance to the quality of every moment of your life. Lets face it, no matter how much you know or how smart you are as silly as this may sound if you havent learned how to speak Chinese, you cant expect to know just how to speak it. Just as it is in life in order to succeed at the game of life, nobody ever taught you the rules, let alone how to play the game. Since we do not get formal training from society, weve been relying on the role models in our lives. Even so, it goes back to trial and error that they got it right, but its a safe bet that training and preparation had nothing to do with it. Simply put, this means not only that you may lack certain crucial information, but the information you do have may be wrong. So when making changes in your life, you must be careful about where and from whom you accept input. Not so that you can substitute their thinking for your own, but so you can add to your personal knowledge.

Whatever your case may be, ultimately, youre the one who makes the final call on how your life should be. You can look at your life like pieces of a puzzle that doesnt come with a photo of the picture you have to construct. You and I know that nobody can provide us with a true picture of how our own life is suppose to look like. Therefore, we must learn to assemble the puzzle together as we earn our pieces. This is simply divine because you can strategize to obtain the puzzle pieces you choose to include in your life, and watch the mystery picture of your life unfold as you put the pieces together. It doesnt just stop here; the puzzle pieces you earn keep adding to form and create a bigger and more complete picture as your life journey continues. So enjoy every moment of your journey and remember whatever you do, do it with all your heart.

Copyright 2005 Penny Phang Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.