Every night before we go to sleep, my wife Julie, and I tell each other what are wins were for the day, and every morning when we wake up we tell each other at least one thing that we're grateful for.
This might seem like a small pointless thing, but here's what really happens. At the end of the day, instead of laying in bed thinking about what went wrong that day, or what we wish we would have done differently, or even about what we need to get done tomorrow; we end our day thinking about what was awesome about the day. Then in the morning instead of waking up and letting our minds go straight to the chaos and business of the day or becoming overwhelmed, we start the day with a mindset of gratitude. We're thinking about what we're grateful for, and in turn we're starting the day off with a positive good feeling. The really cool thing about this is that since we've been focusing more on what is awesome in our lives and what we're thankful for, the more awesome things happen, and the more there is to be thankful for, and in turn, the less negativity, stress, agony, and sadness there is. The saying really is true. "What you focus on grows." Have you ever had this happen? You get into a fight or argument with someone over something, and afterwards you let it fester. You sit with the feelings of anger, and it seems to get worse. You keep the story growing in your head, you talk about it with other people, you keep it going. Then at some point, you actually forget why it all started in the first place and all you're left with are these negative, sad, angry feelings, and you've just been letting yourself suffer, even though there might not be a resolution to fix it all. The thing is, in most cases you have control over your thoughts, and what you will let them do to you, and the direction they'll take you in. In life, sometimes things happen that we can't control or that we don't understand. Sometimes we need to go through a grieving process, sometimes we need to seek medical or therapeutic help to get through things. But many times in life we have the ability to just focus on what we can control, and the ability to not let negative events cause us long term suffering. We have the ability to think about what we can do next to take a step in the right direction. If you don't already, start thinking, talking, and writing about great things that are happening in your life, the great things that you want to happen in your life, and what you're thankful for. Start focusing only on what you can control, and try to find a positive angle on bad things that have happened that you couldn't control. The more positive and gratitude you focus on, the more it will grow! Have an awesome week!!
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Sometimes the question to ask yourself isn't, "How will I reach this goal?" It's, "Who do I need to become in order to be capable of reaching this goal?" The greatest things in life require patience, dedication, and hard work. If it was easy everyone would do it. Be true to you. Work to become the person you want to be. The greatness is already inside you, waiting to come out. You got this!
Fear: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Dictionary.com
Fear is a vital and important emotion, to alert us of danger and threat to our lives. Unfortunately, some fears are also learned and some are imagined. Past experiences, negative associations, and anticipated threats can all cause fear. That fear can stop us in our tracks. It can cause us not to move forward, or even to revert. The key is deciphering what is a true threat and what is only a potential threat or a non-threat. In many cases we have the choice to take action, and to step up and do something that might seem scary. The awesome thing about this is, the more you look your fears and the face and take action on them, the less power they have over your future emotions and actions. Sometimes fear causes us to believe we can't do something. All too often we look at the big picture of something we would like to accomplish or achieve, and we fear that it will be do difficult, too much work, or even impossible. When all we really need to do is break it down into several tiny steps, and just take one step to get started. Getting started can sometimes be the hardest part. One step leads to two, and snowballs us into successful action. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best. "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Have you ever tracked your time over the course of a few days or a week? This is a great exercise to complete once a month or once a quarter.
If you've never done this before, you will be surprised how much time you spend on things that really aren't important, productive, or meaningful. The hard truth is that, the things we spend our time on are our priorities. The other hard truth is that when we say we are too busy for something, what we're really saying is that, it's just not a priority. I encourage you to make a list of the top 5-10 things that are important to you in life, and the top 5-10 things that you want to accomplish or see. These are your priorities. If you can make a conscious effort throughout your days and weeks to spend most of your time on these things, life will start to feel more meaningful and fulfilling. It's when we align our time with what's important to us that we truly feel rich. Wealthy in happiness... the best kind of rich there is! Believing in yourself is half the battle.
Taking consistent action towards your goal is the other half. Put those together and you can do ANYTHING. |
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November 2017
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