Every year millions of people worldwide attempt to erase memories of shortcomings past by making resolutions at the beginning of January. Fast forward 365 days, and most are doing it all over again with very little having changed in the gap. What stops all of those well-meaning resolutions from becoming actual results that improve the quality and quantity of people’s lives?

Inaction seems to be the obvious answer.  Not doing that which you say you will makes it pretty difficult to achieve much of anything. But I suggest inaction is just another symptom — a symptom of the core problem that robs so many of the extraordinary lives they deserve. The real culprit is “The Limiting Belief,” the deeply held conviction that something is true when it just simply is not.

Soon it will be that time of year again. You’ll see it and hear it everywhere you go. Maybe you are thinking this message is early as we haven’t even made it through the holidays yet.  You say you still don’t know what I am talking about. Well, think about it. After all the shopping and worrying– about what to get who, will it fit, do they have one already, can we afford it, and all the visiting–your friends, your family, your in-laws, your kids, all the partying–cookies and milk, nuts and beer, chips and pretzels, dips, vegetables, wine, cheese and crackers (all, of course, before you sit down to a big meal). And after all the last minute rushing around, lost sleep, and “I’ve got a million things to do”…  What on earth could possibly (and only naturally) follow all this? That’s right–the fever, chills, ache-all-over feeling, coughing, sneezing and complaining of the flu season!

We’ve been lied to.  We’ve been taught to believe that the absence of symptoms means health and the presence of symptoms means sickness.   While it is true symptoms can sometimes tell us how sick we are, the lack of them can never give us information about how healthy we are.

Judging your health by your symptoms is not only unreliable; it is also dangerous.  The first sign of heart disease is often a fatal heart attack, the first sign of cancer sudden weight loss or a palpable lump. The result is the vast proportion of our population living symptom-free, yet very sick and unwell.

The boss is on your case, kids are busy with school, there are bills to pay, mom is sick and you’ve got stress!

Never before have we lived in a world where we are inundated with non-stop stress from all corners of our lives.  It’s nearly impossible to escape; it’s the number one contributor to illness, days off work and could be considered the plague of the twentieth century.  We’re told we need to “manage” it, reduce it and even avoid it.  But is stress really the problem? Or is it our relationship to stress that is the real culprit?