** {in an official television announcer voice} We preempt the regularly scheduled “From A-to-Z” Motivation Monday post for today’s Mot Mon “special edition.” We will return to our regularly scheduled post programming next week with the letter “E.” {wink}

For those of us living in the US, today {on the last Monday each May} we commemorate Memorial Day, a holiday that is a solemn day to honor and remember everyone who has died serving in the American armed forces.

In addition to the full respect and honor due to those who have served in the United States military as we commemorate Memorial Day, I decided to also take a little creative license and bring a twist to using the “In Memoriam” acknowledgement for another reason, and it’s actually focused on you, my dears.

The phrase “in memoriam” is defined as follows:

in memory (of); to the memory (of); as a memorial (to): used on gravestones, in obituaries, etc.

Essentially, when we commemorate something in memoriam it means doing something special in order to remember and honor that which is dead; that is no longer in existence. Sounds morbid? Good, because that’s exactly what I’m going for since today’s Motivation Monday post is an obituary, of sorts.

From time to time, each and every one of us are faced with negativity {whether it comes from other or from within} when it comes to doing things that require us to be courageous or go against the grain of the status quo.  These feelings are particularly likely to creep up when pursing our dreams, calling, life vision, and purpose.

“Are you sure you really have what it takes to own your own business?”

“That’s a crazy idea–I don’t see how it could possibly work.”

“I’ve never known anyone to be successful at that. What makes you think you can?”

“I tried that before and it didn’t work. Don’t bother with it because you’re just going to fail too.”

Are any of these types of thought rearing their ugly heads in your life? Well, time for ‘em to go, ’cause we’re about to strike the death knell.

Today we assassinate our anxiety. We bring death to doubts. We’ll mortally injure our insecurities. Slaughter all skepticism. We terminate trepidation.

And we do this by pulling out any and all weapons in our arsenal in order to combat whatever seeks to keep us from moving forward. Weapons like acknowledging what we have already accomplished instead of focusing on what we haven’t. Remembering that we don’t need to master every single element of our business before we start {it’s smart strategy to ask for help or delegate}. Relying on our tribe for support.

We must use the big guns like the one suggested by one of my favorite champions of living the life you deserve, Cara Alwill Leyba {author of “The Champagne Diet“}: “Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe the one reason why it will.”

BOOM.

Anytime we are faced with dragons of opposition of any kind when it comes to achieving our dreams we must remember that we have the power to SLAY them! So today let’s write an “In Memoriam” obituary in UN-loving memory for those negative thoughts and feelings that try to hinder our success. No, not symbolically, I’m seriously talking about really making a physical effort! Get a piece of paper; write down the negative thoughts and feelings, or the specific challenges you are facing; and KILL those things with weapons of positivity and reasons why you should, can, and MUST move towards your goals.

Write that obituary; hold a funeral; bury that negativity; and leave it in the graveyard where it belongs–and don’t dare dig it back up!

And sure, there may be a time or two when the ghosts of that negativity tries to come back to scare you. It’s then that you refer back to that obituary! View that negativity in the “in memoriam” perspective that it should have; honor the fact that it has made you stronger; and then the fact that we killed it already–it’s dead.

What things are holding you back that you can write an obituary for today? Be fearless and kill the negativity before it destroys your dreams!