It Is Your Movie! (Read Time: 2 min.)

"I know that you see the world with different eyes, with your eyes. You create an entire picture or movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, you are the producer, you are the main actor or actress. Everyone else is a secondary actor or actress. It is your movie. The way you see that movie is according to the agreements you have made with life. Your point of view is something personal to you. It is no one's truth but yours. Then, if you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad. And you get made because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will hate me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will be jealous or sad. If you live without fear, if you love, there is no place for any of those emotions."

- Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements"

Everyone is living in a life called "my movie." Our experiences are paved by our perception and our perception is based on what we choose to see. Not taking things personally is key to extraordinary success. Why?

What other people do is up to them, not you. What good is it to take another person's actions or words personally when you can't control or decide how they respond to ANYTHING? Your best effort at making them who you'd like them to be is absolutely fruitless and, in many cases, will result in you becoming the villain in their movie.

On other hand, if you love who you are and you accept people for who they are, you won't feel the compulsion to change them or expect them to be any different than who they are showing themselves to be. In fact, you'll embrace whatever they send your way because you'll be confident that, if it's negative, you'll deflect it and if it's positive, you'll accept it. The choice, in this way of living life, is always yours.

When we begin to believe that what other people say and do to us has power OVER us, we begin to live as supporting actors in THEIR movie and not the stars of our own show. You don't have to choose that. In fact, you never have to take on a role you didn't initially accept. All you have to do is love and embrace who you are and live fearlessly from that place. Your life is still YOUR movie. Claim it!