I have to confess something. When I first began this journey of self-improvement, saying like this drove me crazy. “You have to be something before you can have it.” “You have to feel abundant, before you can be abundant.” None of this made sense to me. How can you feel abundant, when you are not? How can you feel fit when you are not? It is really about being on the same frequency as that which you desire. Another saying that made little sense to me when I started out, so let me break it down a little further for you. When you identify as someone who is ‘healthy’ but your body says that you could be a spokesperson for a value meal, how does that compute? Simple, you have to start somewhere. When you are beginning to be something new, you are still starting from where you were.

Here are a few more terms to confuse us. Energy, frequency and vibration, what do they all mean? Nikola Tesla was a genius, and I am sure he could explain it far better than I could. We could look into how at its core, everything is energy and the way of measuring an objects frequency is cycles per second or how often an object vibrates in a repetitive motion. Anyone up for that discussion? Me neither. I would much rather refer to these three in terms of ‘identity’. When you identify as a healthy person, you have that frequency, vibration and energy. Here is the tricky part, when shifting energies, the old energy does not give up very easily. However, if you truly want to identify as a healthy person, that is powerful. There are few things as powerful to a person as their sense of identity.

If you begin telling others, and more importantly yourself, that you are now a healthy person, you will act and think in a certain way. You will begin to eat to fuel your body and not just to entertain your taste buds. You will look at fitness as something you get to do and not something you have to do. If, you find yourself in the drive thru at McDonalds, it may occur to you this is not something a healthy person would do…several times a week. That is the problem with the “6 -minute abs” way of thinking. Diets and fitness fads do little to change the identity of the person involved. Therefore, their success will be both limited in terms of success and duration.

As we close the year out, let us work on a more powerful sense of identity for ourselves. At the end of the day, it is something we determine for ourselves. This, is one of the main stepping stones for a lot of people in this social media world. We pay far too much attention to other people’s opinions. Les Brown has a saying, “Never let someone’s opinion of you become your reality.” This is especially true when starting something new. When you are beginning a new journey, people are all too happy to point out where you were or how far you have to go. “You are going to be healthy? The guy who ate an entire pizza at the holiday party?” That is who you were, not who you are going to become.

One way to help change our identity, is to change our perspective. Like the quote that began this post. As we look to increase our abundance this coming year, let us start with gratitude for all we have. Take money, which is only a portion of abundance. Do you know the average global income is $12,235? I didn’t either. Most of you reading this make more than that. Therefore, you are closer to being wealthy than poor. You have access, in some form or fashion, to the internet. That is better than 35% of people. Do you have clean water to drink and bathe in? Better than 25% of the world’s population. Do you have all 3? You are abundant my friends. Start looking up how many people have laptops, how many people have 3 meals a day. The list can go on. By the time you are done, you will discover how truly abundant you are. Then, you will be on that frequency, vibration and energy. You will identify as an abundant individual. This puts into play your subconscious mind and your reticular activating system in your brain. More science that I make simple in my book, Living the Dream. Until you read that great book, just know if we change our identity, we change our reality. Read that last line again and think how you can put it to work for you.