Good Thursday morning to you. I am coming to you this week from a small town in the panhandle of Texas just north of Amarillo. While up here this week for a short workshop, I did a little driving around to get a feel for the small town life here. I have spent the past 13 years of my life living in the city of Dallas. Last month I was back home to visit the place I grew up – also a small town. They all have this same small town feel. But since living in Texas, when I go through a small town I see old store fronts empty, streets of what was once maybe a town where people walked and conducted business. Now they often seem like ghost towns.
Ghost towns have always been a thing I wanted to see, a place where once there was life, but it now has moved away. To see these and watch people coming on and going out of them makes me wonder, why is there no excitement left here? Why did everyone leave? As usual, my ride gave me something to write about.
I enjoy my life and the comforts of living in the big city where I do. To be able to make a quick run to the store, to get a pizza delivered in under30 minute from one of maybe 20 different pizza places. To have the convenience of going into a coffee shop, or small café to get breakfast at almost any time of day. This is the life I love, but it may not be what others love.
So, back to my original question: in small towns like this, why has almost everyone moved away?
I was able to talk to a few local people from this small town out in far northwest Texas today. The town is called Dalhart. (How remote is it? Well, my partner once went there as a child with her father to buy pheasants – something you definitely can’t do in Dallas.)
I asked them why they lived here, if they loved where they lived, and where they would go if they could move anywhere. I was given a variety of answers. Some loved this place. Some said they moved here from towns that were even more remote than this to be closer to their jobs. One lady told me she would move to a bigger town if she could. Then I asked each of them the big question. What is keeping you from being where you want? I was given five different answers that I want to relate to the post today as we discuss five different barriers that keep us from loving our life.
1. People. There are many different reasons people can be a barrier. “My family is here and I could not leave them.” “My kids like this school and I don’t want to take them out.” “My spouse likes it here and they won’t support my dreams anywhere else.” All of these could be what’s keeping people in a small town. In the same way, maybe people are keeping you from loving your life. In 1998 I gave up a business and a life I had built for myself, moved away from everything I knew and was comfortable with. I know not everyone could do that either to or for a family member; I chose to do that with my life.
In your life, are there people that are keeping you from living your dream? If so ask them if they could help you support your dream. If it’s your spouse, then you must start working as a team and work towards each other’s dreams. Be willing to give up part of yours if they are willing to give up part of theirs. If you start working as a team towards dreams, maybe you could build a dream together.
2. Money. A big barrier keeping people from living the life they want is money. I could see this in the faces of those that I spoke with here. They simply do not have the money to chase a dream. In your life, are you facing a money problem? What can you change in your life to make money work for you so you can start living a life you love? I think back to all the books and courses that I took from the “Rich Dad” series. The key thing was to stop working for money and make money work for you. I could create an entire blog on this one, but the Rich Dad books are much better at it than I could ever be and I recommend that you read them. If you don’t know where to begin, start in a small way by saving. I have always kept a small jar in my home where I collect change. You can start a cup with your spare change every time you go to the store. Rather than keep a supply of change on you, always pay with bills, take the change, and put in a jar. This is one small way. I could list many others.
3. Fear. Last week we talked about faith or fear. Only one can exist in your body at the same time. Both of them are based on a belief in something that is unknown. It’s up to you to choose but I encourage you to choose faith. There are many types of fear so figure out what you fear and work to make it a faith, a positive.
4. Time. I hear this one a lot to. I respond this way: we all have the same 24 hours in a day. What could you take out of your life that is wasting time so you can reach your dream life? If there are ways to take the spare five minutes here and there and turn them into a completed project, where could you change? Bottom line on time: if your boss told you at work that you needed to get a certain project done before you went on vacation, you would find the time to do that, right? A few years ago one of the multi-level marketing companies I looked at used that idea to get you to think of a way to make your dream happen. Their mantra was to work every day like it was the day before vacation. When working that way, soon you will work yourself out of that job you hate and into a life you always dreamed of.
5. Learning. I saved this one for last. Many of us are afraid to learn new things; maybe the last time you went to school was 20 years ago. Maybe it’s been ten years since the last time you picked up a book to learn some self-improvement technique. Well if you have read this far in today’s post, you can read and learn something new. As Zig Ziglar used to say, turn your car into a university on wheels. Zig once said that if a person would just listen to the self-improvement workshops that are available on recordings in their car every day, they would have the equivalent of a college education in just under five years. Put that one together with the lack of time listed above and the two in one could help you learn what it is to live your dream just driving to work if you have a 30 minute commute each way.
Today was a packed full post. I hope you take this little amount the people from Dalhart, Texas helped me put together. Look for more on the subject of Loving Life coming to book form this summer. We all deserve to love life.
With that, have a good day. I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach, telling you it’s time to live the life you always wanted, love what you do and those you share life with. Let me help you become a RockStar in your world.
