A new year. A new beginning. But for who? You? Maybe you don’t want to change, maybe you like you right where you are. That’s OK.
But how many of us are truly satisfied with every part of our lives: health, wealth, relationships?
Ever heard of complacency, it’s the killer of all dreams. Nothing sucks the life out of your life more than doing the same thing day after day and expecting different results. That’s the definition of insanity. Ever hear the saying change is inevitable, but growth is optional? Life will change and could pass you by unless you make changes as well.
So if you want to change, how? If you want to make your life, this human experience the best it can be, what’s the best way?
Maybe reading a story or two might help inspire you. Because when you get right down to it, everyone has a story.
I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.
The Sunday Series (91): Life Re-scripted
A little more than a decade ago Zephan Blaxberg had enough. He was tired of being depressed, over-medicated and feeling like he was going nowhere. So he was going to go somewhere, he was going to die…by his own hand. Now, thirteen years later this same man might just be the one to help you to truly live. “I’ve learned you have to get you OK before you can get everything else OK. Because it won’t work if you’re not healthy, if your relationships are not healthy, it won’t work until you are good on the inside. You have to take control of all the different aspects of your life to get you OK.”
This is now the philosophy of a man, who at the tender age of thirteen, sat at his kitchen table staring at a knife and contemplating giving up – thinking of doing the unthinkable, but today, far removed from that moment, he’s a man on a mission with a vision on how you can do what he has done – re-script your life – and turn it into one of the great stories of all time.
So grab some popcorn, sit back and relax while Zephan helps you raise the curtain to a better you and create your movie, the blockbuster of your existence.
It all starts with a little introspection: “There’s a question I ask a lot of people who are looking to make a change”, says Zephan. “Do you remember the thing you said you were going to do before you got too busy and forgot? You should really go do that. I tell people there is still something deep in your core and you should figure it out and get back to those roots, that’s what you were naturally designed to do.”
If you need help starting today, (which is when you should start… today!), there’s a brand new book Zephan has written, it’s called Life Re-Scripted, (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Re-Scripted-Purpose-Design-Curtains/dp/0996959904/). The back of the book tells you why you need this: You are afraid of making a drastic change in your life that you know would re-write your story and create the freedom lifestyle you have dreamed of because it seems out of reach, perhaps even unattainable. Life Re-Scripted walks you through the process of crushing your fears and stepping into your greatness. It’s a guide of rewriting your story step-by-step, so that you can design life on your own terms.
Zephan says, “the book idea came to me last spring because I had people asking me how I was doing what I was doing. They saw my business, (ZMB Media), blow up and blow up in a good way. People kept asking me how, they want to learn and they think there is a one-size-fits-all kind of method, but there isn’t.”
He continues, “going to the movies and the experience is universal, it’s a way to look at life and how to change your story, but in a way that everyone can understand.” The book is laid out in the chronological order of the movie experience: Concessions Are Available in the Lobby, Please Take Your Seat, This Preview Has Been Approved for All Audiences, etc. “For me Life Re-Scripted is more for the people who are stuck and can’t even start. They know the goals but they can’t start to figure out how to get there, cause they are stuck inside their heads. So how about creating a film script of where you are now and where you want to be? I think that the trouble is people don’t really know where they are, there’s the story we tell ourselves and the story of what is actually happening.”
And there is the perspective on accomplishment. Zephan says he watched all these people doing what they did to reach a goal and then did the opposite, because so many people set a big goal, don’t get there and then give up. “I think part of the problem is we set goals and we get discouraged”, says Zephan. “Or it doesn’t happen the way we want so we say forget it. If you say you want to lose 10 pounds and you only lose six pounds you can’t look at it as a failure, you have to look at it with a different perspective. What did you do to make that change happen and then go do more of it. Life doesn’t come out to a perfect measurement… ever.”
Zephan also traveled extensively in the past year, taking 25 flights to places all across the country which helped to open his mind and expand his comfort zone which he says is critically important. “One of the biggest lessons I got from travel”, says Zephan, “it made me realize that home is not necessarily a physical place, it’s actually a very mental place. For me it took being outside my comfort zone for that to click into place, that I can create this open space in my mind to exist and be present. It goes back to the philosophy of how you need to be OK inside. For me it is getting outside my comfort zone, finding the most uncomfortable places to be and be present in the moment and present for the experience.”
And isn’t that the way most people make change happen anyway? We all have these intrinsic gifts, these hidden talents, the reason why we are here – but we get scared that what we do best won’t conform to the masses, so we hold back, or maybe we linger in paralysis, we have no idea how to get started. How do we begin to get uncomfortable and perhaps re-shape ourselves, help those around us and if we are committed, change the world. Zephan hopes Life Re-Scripted can be just what you need to start that positive change, because he did it himself.
“I went out and found people who had been where I want to go”, says Zephan. I interviewed 120 plus people this year (through his podcast, The Year of Purpose, (http://www.yearofpurpose.com/), and a huge online seminar), and it came down to the script I had written for myself. At the end of 2014 I sat down one day and said ‘alright I really don’t know where I am or where I want to go.’ “So I pulled out a legal pad and wrote down where I am on paper: here is what I have in retirement, here is what I’m doing to stay healthy, etc. Then I ripped it out and started a new page. Some things stayed, I decided what I wanted to keep from my old life, like traveling, rowing, and then put down new things like building a new income stream, do public speaking, start a podcast and more…Life Re-Scripted teaches people how to do that.”
Zephan says the most powerful message he wants to share about the book, “is for people to ask themselves the tough question – what is it that you really want to accomplish? What is it you put on your to-do list that is not going to get done. What can you identify and say I’m going to start right now?! It’s showtime. I want to inspire people into action, whatever their dream is, whatever lifestyle it is they want I want to push them to go out and create it. It is there for the taking, but they have to make that happen.”
For Zephan he wants you to do what he plans to do…set goals not resolutions. A resolution is nothing more than a wish, a goal is something you make a plan for and go do it. Zephan plans to continue the podcast, write a few more books, do public speaking and coach people in his group of 20-to-30 year-olds, and really work on a personal level to help them get where they want to be. He wants them to “feel emotions and fear and excitement and everything in between. And to also remember the only three things in life which are guaranteed are death, taxes and as any millennial would tell you – hard drive failures. 🙂
Now go out and re-script your life, Zephan Blaxberg is here to help.
Pick up your copy of Life Re-Scripted – launched today on Amazon: (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Re-Scripted-Purpose-Design-Curtains/dp/0996959904/)
Until next time, thanks for taking the time
Mark
(markbrodinsky@gmail.com)
Mark Brodinsky, Author, Blogger, Speaker, Speech Writer, Emmy Winner
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