King Arthur: [after Arthur’s cut off both of the Black Knight’s arms] Look, you stupid Bastard. You’ve got no arms left.
Black Knight: Yes I have.
King Arthur: *Look*!
Black Knight: It’s just a flesh wound.

–Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Here are some important questions: Do you focus on your weaknesses? Do you focus on what’s not going well?

Or, instead, do you focus on your strengths, your successes, your achievements?

These are important questions because the truth is this: What we focus on expands.

When we focus on what’s good, we get more of what’s good; when we focus on what’s not working, we’re likely to get more of what’s broken.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big believer in identifying our limiting beliefs and cutting them to ground. They’re energy suckers that lurk in the shadows. They need to be called out and eliminated.

I’m a big believer too in strategic assessment. If something’s not working, it doesn’t make sense to keep doing it over and over again.

But I’m not talking about the beliefs that trip us up or strategies that need tweaking.

What I’m talking about is the propensity to get stuck in hand-wringing, self-defeating self-fulfilling prophecy and pessimism.

We don’t have to look far these days for bad news, for things that aren’t going particularly well.

And all of us have suffered wounds in our lives: physical wounds, wounds of abuse, wounds of loss, wounds of criticism, money wounds, and wounds of self-esteem.

But most of us can also recall times in our lives when things have gone especially well, when things have been on a roll; and as my mentor, Tony Robbins says, “success leaves clues;” clues that can catapult us to new heights.

When we acknowledge those successes, when we hold them with gratitude, when we honor them: we honor what is good in ourselves, we honor our ability to co-create, we honor the divine within us.

We live in an age that is the greatest in all of our human history; on the eve of astounding ideas, technological advances and innovation; with opportunities for prosperity and abundance beyond our wildest imaginations.

Leadership expert Brendon Burchard says, “Unhitch yourself from the past — you won’t believe how fast you can run in the present.” The past is just the past.

We can kvetch; or we can create. There’s no time for both.

We may falter along the path. There may be a few flesh wounds along the way. But a loving Universe lifts us up and conspires for our success.

Let us acknowledge our blessings, all that is good, all that is working, all of our successes. May we learn; may we grow; may we prosper.

With grateful hearts.

Because: what we focus on expands.