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What to Do When Your Life Feels Like a House of Cards

By Tom Anderson

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Published: 14Aug2009
Word count: 739
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Are you feeling like your life is in a bit of a shambles lately? You are not alone. A lot of people are struggling these days, including many who have had plenty of success in life. It can be hard to think about building strong relationships, creating a balance between work and family life, and personal vision and life purpose when you are reeling from financial setbacks. The truth is however, that there is never a better time to build the kind of life you really desire than when the old one has fallen apart.

Think for a moment about a card house. When you build a house of cards, each card leans on another in such a way that they support each other and keep the whole structure standing. I have tried building card houses a couple of times, never with much success. I get it about two levels high before someone bumps the table or a breeze blows through the room and the whole affair tumbles down.

Our lives can be like a house of cards as well. We prop up one aspect of our life, lean another on that one, stack a third on top, and call it good. For awhile, it is good; but before long, someone bumps the table, or a breeze blows through and, just like that, the whole thing comes down.

There are three things this house of cards analogy can teach us about getting through tough times and creating the life of our dreams:

1. We have to build our lives on solid ground. Just like that house of cards needs a table that doesn't wobble; we need solid ground on which to stand. Solid ground means that we have a vision for our world and understand the purpose of our life. There is no way we can begin to make decisions about our life until we have a good understanding about what is truly important to us. Take the time to dream, and when you do, dream big and dream for the world. What kind of world do you want to live in? What is yours to do in helping that world to come to pass? Christopher LaBrec said this: "Everyone builds a dream in their lifetime. You're either going to build your dream, or somebody else's. So build your own!" Start building that dream and in the process, you will create solid ground for the rest of your life.

2. Our life is the sum of its parts. Each and every component of our life needs to be stable and strong enough to stand on its own in order for the totality of our life to work. If we keep leaning weaker parts of our lives on the stronger aspects, like we do when building a house of cards, eventually the parts of our lives that are working will strain under the weight and the whole thing will collapse. When you think about creating the life of your dreams, think first about how each and every component of your life is working and how they each fit together. Then, take the time to make sure all of the really important things in your life are being taken care of.

3. Sometimes, no matter what we do, things fall apart. Life just works that way. We build a business or career and something changes in the economy that causes what we have created to fail. We build a marriage that, no matter how hard we try, just won't work and it ends in divorce. We build a house we think we will live in for the rest of our lives and circumstances change in a way that requires us to leave it behind. Sometimes something bumps up against the table of our lives and the whole thing wobbles. Breezes are going to blow and sometimes they can turn into hurricanes and tornadoes. The true measure of a person is not what they have built in their lives, but how they pick up the pieces after what they have built comes tumbling down. Winston Churchill said this: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

No one wants to build a life that looks like a house of cards. If your house has fallen, or even if it feels a little shaky, use this opportunity to choose again and to recreate your life on solid ground.

Tom Anderson is a vision quest guide and explorer of the soul whose mission is to awaken and inspire a sense of vision and purpose in those who would lead an evolving world. His book, Live a Mythic Life - a hero's journey to vision, purpose, and service will be coming out this fall. In the meantime, download his free e-book titled "Three Steps to Living a Mythic Life," by going here => http://www.liveamythiclife.com/signup

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