Joe Vitale once said "Limiting beliefs are like thieves in the night."  He went on to say "If you aren't doing as well as you like, the only person standing in the way is the one you look at in the mirror every day."  These are very powerful statements worth taking a hard look at.

I think the first question we should ask ourselves is what is a limiting belief?  A limiting belief is anything you believe, have been conditioned to believe, etc. that keeps you from being, doing or having what you desire.  A couple very obvious examples of limiting beliefs are:

·          The world is flat.  If you sail to the edge, you will fall off.  How silly was that one?

·          Nothing heavier than air can fly.  Boy, if we all bought into that one the Wright brothers never would have introduced us to the airplane.  Look at us now! 

Something that is very interesting about the two examples I have given is that people really believed them.  In the time, people really believed the world was flat.  People really believed the Wright brothers were crazy to even think they could build something that man could fly in.  We look back now and see how ludicrous these limiting beliefs were.

When I work with individuals and corporations, I show them how their mind works and where these limiting beliefs live.  I also show them how most of them got there and how to send them packing.  You see, there is no limit to what we can be, do and have.  Our wonderful Universe, God, whatever you want to call it, wants to give us everything we want.  The Universe knows NO limitations.

The trouble is we get in our own way by wanting something but not believing we can have it.  I'm here to tell you right now, the ONLY limitations we ever have are those we impose on ourselves.  You may think that's a harsh statement, but it's true.  We may not be aware of what we are doing to ourselves, but it is true we get in our own way.

Think about it.  How many times have you looked at someone doing something and thought to yourself "I would really like to do that.....but I can't"?  How many times have you purchased a lottery ticket believing you would not win?  I could go on all day here giving example after example of how we as human beings throw up roadblocks to achieving our greatest desires.

It's time to STOP holding ourselves back!  What are we here for if not to LIVE, and I mean really LIVE our lives.  There is no glory in getting to the finish line and saying, "Whew, I survived without too many scratches."  No!  I say, let's get to the finish line and say "WOW what a marvelous ride!"

I encourage each of you to look in the mirror right now and say "YES I CAN......I WILL NO LONGER ALLOW ANYTHING TO GET IN THE WAY OF ME ACHIEVING MY DREAMS".

Last week I had the privilege of attending two events where His Holiness the Dalai Lama was speaking.   In my opinion, this was truly a once in a lifetime event.  I feel like I probably had the "cat that ate the canary" grin on my face the entire time.  I was like a sponge absorbing everything I could.

 One of the key points the Dalai Lama shared with us was that our enemy is our greatest teacher.  Some people may be thinking, "Well, I don't have any enemies so this message is not for me." 

Understanding that the message His Holiness was sharing was much more than a message for countries at war with each other, I researched the definition of "enemy".  One definition I found was from Merriam-Webster - Enemy - One that is antagonistic to another; especially one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent.  Another definition I found was - Enemy - A person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.

After thinking about these two definitions, I would like to suggest here that enemy doesn't just mean a country which may be fighting a war.  Enemy could also mean someone you don't get along with.  Maybe you disagree strongly with this person and/or disagree with their behavior.

With that said, how in the world can an enemy, someone we don't like, we strongly disagree with and don't even want to be around, be our greatest teacher?  To understand this, there are a couple more points we should discuss.

We are all alike in the sense we are human beings living in physical bodies.  We are spiritual and we have an intellect.  We all seek happiness, compassion and love.  These things are easy with our friends.  There is no stretch to find compassion, happiness and love when interacting with our friends, right?  We like to talk with them.  We like to be around them.  We laugh and cry with them.  It is easy to love them.

Now let's take a look at someone we dislike;  someone who could fall under the category of "enemy".  Is it easy to sit with them and have a discussion?  Do we like being around them?  They may make us want to cry but is it easy to laugh with them?  Is it easy to love them?  The answer to all of these questions is, more than likely, a big fat NO.

Here is where the lesson begins.  We must remember our enemy is just like us.  They are made of flesh and blood.  They are spiritual beings with an intellect.  They are also seeking happiness, compassion and love, just like us.  We must engage in dialogue in order to create greater understanding.  In order to do this we must have tolerance for people who are different from ourselves.  Tolerance for people with an opinion different from our own.  Tolerance for people who believe differently from us.  Through this tolerance we learn compassion and love for those we do not fully understand. 

It is in our nature to ridicule what we don't understand.  Instead of ridicule, we should seek to understand.  This means to take a step back and look at a situation or circumstance from the other person's perspective. 

With these steps of tolerance, compassion and love toward our enemy, we grow in our own awareness of this marvelous Universe we all share.  Without this "enemy" we would not fully learn true tolerance, true compassion and true love.

I wonder what would happen if each person made it a point to look upon their enemy as their teacher and sought to learn the lessons.