Obviously, there are key periods in your development when you learn rapidly.
Like a big piece of blotting paper – you soak up everything around you.

But the process does slow down.
So, how can you speed it up again?

Whether you are aware of it or not you are a learning machine.
You cannot not learn!
You can’t stop your brain creating and making new neural pathways.

In fact, you are held captive.
You are being controlled by your awesome brain!
You have little choice, it will continue this way all throughout your life.

So, as you develop you begin the process of making decisions based on your perceptions and surroundings.
Mistakes are made and you learn from them.

Your life is shaped by what you see works for you, so you repeat the successful actions.
You discover how to communicate effectively and off you go moving forward at the pace that suits you.

Of course, there are critical moments when the decisions made form a pathway that can establish your career, relationships and so on.

These causes create significant effects.
Among all of this, you become an optimist or a pessimist, a happy soul or a bit grumpy.

Your senses determine your favourite smells, colours, tastes, and sounds and memories get formed.

Sometimes one little incident can block you from enjoying something for the rest of your life.

One–time phobias are an example of this.
You say “I never eat fish!” based on one unfortunate experience.

Even though we are subjected to an infinite maze, a jungle of influence, persuasion, advice and suggestions, from a range of sources, your attitudes and beliefs, which affect your decision making, are formed exclusively by you and you alone.

It is true that you may not be in a privileged position to experience a few of life’s pleasurable experiences due to lack of opportunity, but by and large you are the creator of your own destiny.
You roll the dice.

The big question seems to me to be:
Are you actually taking advantage of your own potential?
Or have you resigned yourself to a form of mediocrity that could just so easily be avoided? You could roll the dice again.

So, you were powerful enough to create this phenomenal, unique to you development process, so you have the resources and gifts to change anything you choose.
But how?

Is this the time to give yourself permission to make something happen, something outside what your currently do, and find something extraordinary inside you that once started stops you in your tracks, makes you grin, and causes you to embrace your true talents, attributes and abilities?

All the excuses in the world will be set aside because you have decided to throw away any fear of failure, any criticism springing from internal and external critics, and have decided to give something a red hot go!

One of the reasons you can settle for the comfort zone is created when you were quite young and much easier to influence.

Attitudes and beliefs are formed and they can remain with you for the rest of your life.
They strengthen and get reinforced time and time again.

So, in essence you anchor yourself to a set of core beliefs.

But you can wriggle free.

To make things happen, you may have to free yourself from some of these beliefs and attitudes to confidently take up an opportunity that could revolutionise how you think, feel and act to produce one or more brilliant results.

What has been learned can be unlearned.
This can be achieved no matter how thoroughly you have been programmed.
All you really need to do open your eyes and see all the opportunities staring you in the face.

I bet you even know an opportunity, something only you know is there for you right now to make happen.
You have probably thought about it many times.

What should you do?
Eliminate the fear that prevents you from taking the risk.
Make a serious commitment and ignore the barriers, the naysayers.

One of the most powerful, insightful presuppositions of NLP is “the map is not the territory”.

If the thing you would like to do is not the thing itself, why spend any more time believing you can’t do it?

Instead why not open yourself up to any of the options you have dreamed about and wanted to act upon and just do it?

Once you start you will actually begin to know the territory.
You will understand the map is not that daunting.
It’s just not charted…yet.
You will learn how to adapt.

You will learn how to overcome any obstacles.
After all you are a learning machine.

Perhaps it’s time for renewal, for recognizing you can redraw your own mental map, and decide for yourself where you want to go.