To Grow... You Must Know Yourself

 

                                           "A wise man travels to discover himself."

You must know thyself.

You must know how you want to live, and then you must figure out a way to create the life you desire. 

To be proud of your decisions, you must stop worrying about what others think.

In today's world we are so busy wanting to know everything about everybody else. We want to know what other people are up to all the time. We are staying in constant contact with people we know and also people we don't know, through all kinds of social media, the Internet and TV.

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
 - Aristotle


But in the battle of always wanting to know and learning about what other people are doing, we are forgetting one thing... learning about ourselves.
Learning and studying ourselves is so important, but instead we are studying everyone around us and a lot of times we want to be more like them. We want to fit in.


But the sooner you stop worrying about what other people think and what they do and start focusing on learning about "yourself" the better off you are going to be.

The sooner you can start to believe in of yourself and to make decisions based on what you want and what you think... the better off you will be. And if you need to change something... then just change it.
It is never too late to change and to get better.


"The true destination of any travel is self-knowledge."
- Brandon A. Trem

You can change. You can live the life you always wanted. You can live a life of your own design.
It starts with creating the rules for your own life. What you will accept from other people, but also what you will accept from yourself.

So stop following other people and their lives and dreams and put some energy into creating your own dream and vision for your own life.

Start Today!

"To find yourself, think for yourself."

- Socrates

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Stop Letting Fear Rule Your Life

 

                                   "Fight your fears and you'll be in a battle forever.
                                          Face your fears and you'll be free forever."
                                                               - Lucas Jonkman

Why do most people quit? Maybe it is because they allow their fear(s) to overwhelm them?

Do you ever wonder why some people that have already been through so much, all of a sudden quit?

Have you ever reached one of your goals... or you were well on your way to accomplish a big goal and when you were almost there... you quit... why?

Did you get overwhelmed by your fear(s)? 

When the sun went down... did you allow your mind to fill up with things that could go wrong in the future?

Maybe you focused on all the pain that you had to endure to reach your goal and how difficult that it might be to reach it?

The fear built... and built... and built!

And maybe you thought that you would never be able to make it? 

Maybe you focused on everything that could go wrong and then you convinced yourself that it would probably go wrong... and then you stopped and pulled back into your comfort zone, yet again.

You know what you have... but you don't know what you will get.

"Fear is an idea-crippling,

experience-crushing, success-stalling inhibitor
inflicted only by yourself."
-Stephanie Melish

TIP
Don't allow the fear to rest in your mind. Guard your mind constantly.
Another way of saying it... don't allow the "weeds" (fearful thoughts) to take root in your garden. You don't have to plant weeds... they show up automatically.

Learn to recognize the feeling of fear...welcome it and the say...
"Hello Fear... I don't have time for you right now... or I don't need you any longer"... and then shift you focus on your goal and what you need to do to continue towards your goal and vision.

Witness your negative thoughts.
Train yourself to move from negative thoughts. Stop feeding them as quickly as possible.
Counteract with a positive statement... something positive from your current goal or vision.

Don't allow your mind to get saturated in fear.
Notice it immediately and counteract with a positive more empowering thought.

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Stop Making Excuses

                          "Ask yourself when you are tempted to react in the same old way... 

                                                   Do I want to be a prisoner of my past

                                                               or a pioneer of the future?"                              

                                                                      - Deepak Chopra

A habit is an acquired, learned behavior that we do without even thinking about it. It's almost involuntary because we have done it so much and it becomes practically second nature. Some habits are good, but some of our habits are really bad and they will prevent us from reaching our goals and destiny in life.

Many of our habits that we've developed stem from the environment that we were raised in. If your parents were neat and organized, chances are that you too have developed a positive habit of being organized. Same thing with health and fitness. If you brought up living a healthy lifestyle including eating a balanced diet and exercising, chances are that you have established healthy eating habits for yourself and your family and you always include some kind of exercise on a daily basis.

Your habits, whether good or bad, will greatly determine your future. To become a better you, take inventory of your daily habits. Do you have a tendency to worry a lot? Are you mostly eating junk food? Are you spending your whole evening in front of the TV or on the Internet or FB? Do you regularly succumb to addictions?

The good news is... you can change. You can develop better habits. Most studies of habitual behavior indicate that a habit can be broken in 4-6 weeks. Just sit with that for a minute.
If you discipline yourself for a month or so, and are willing to suffer through the pain of change, you can rid yourself of a negative behavior, form a new healthy habit and create a new level of freedom in your life.

If you are willing to be uncomfortable for a while, you can press past the initial pain of change. In the long run your life will be so much better. Make a habit of being uncomfortable for some time. The pain won't last forever and once you develop a new habit, the pain will go away and you will enjoy your life a lot more.

If you have had the same habit for 20-30 years you might not be able to overcome these habits as quickly as you would like . But if you will make up your mind and stick with it, it won't take years to break it.

Just make a decisions. Make a commitment and stick with it... no matter what.!!!!

It will get easier every day and eventually you will do the right thing automatically. You won't even have to think about it. 

Just remember that it is difficult in the beginning to create a new habit. Often you will get tempted to cave in to your old habits, but you must not give in. Stay on track and focus on what you want and the outcome of your goal.

A lot of us will have plenty of excuses why we shouldn't change. We can find plenty of reasons to give up and continue to live the way we have always lived. There will be plenty of temptations out there. Just remember you can overcome all of those and just stay on your path to creating your new habits and life.

The truth is, in reality it isn't about breaking the habits as much as it is about replacing bad habits with good ones.

The key to success is to find something with which you can replace the negative habit. If you find yourself eating every time you feel stressed out, figure out something else to do. Maybe going for a walk or a jog. Maybe mediate or listen to some relaxing music. Just try to stay out of the kitchen.

Repetition is key in creating new habits. Repeat the new habit until it becomes automatic.
Practice makes perfect.

Remember your habits today will the create your tomorrow and your future. If you have some habits that you don't like - Change them.

Decide today to become a better you, and stick with it... NO MATTER WHAT!

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To Change Your Life... Change Your Habits

                                                "We are what we repeatedly do. 
                                       Excellence then, is not and act, but a habit." 
                                                                  - Aristotle

If you would like to create a higher levels of success in your life you more than likely have to drop some of your habits and replace them with some more productive ones.

I have read that up to 90% of our behavior is habitual.

Whatever habits you currently have established are producing your current level of results. In other words... your habits determine your outcomes.

There are two steps for changing your habits.

First make a list of all the habits that negatively impact your future. The ones that are not productive.
If you can't figure it out by yourself, ask others to help you to figure out what they believe are your limiting and non-productive habits.

Here is a list of some common unsuccessful habits... Maybe you have some of these habits?

- Not retuning phone-calls
- Procrastination
- Arriving late for appointments
- Talking over others 

- Not listening 
- Answering the phone during family/friend/spouse time
- Eating unhealthy food

- Drinking too much alcohol
- Staying up late watching TV
- Spending more money than you earn
- Gossiping
- Smoking
- Not having any goals

- Not exercising 

- Spending too much time on social media 

Once you have identified your negative habits, the second step is to choose a better, more productive success habit and develop systems that will help support them.

For example, if your goals is to become healthier and start going to the gym every morning, a system that might work for you is to go to bed an hour earlier so you can get going one hour earlier in the morning.

Maybe you want to start to meditate for 20 minutes every morning before the rest of the family gets up, just set your alarm for 20 minutes earlier in the morning and get our of bed and get your meditation going.

If you want to start drinking more water every day, put a sign up that says "Drink Water"

Some Food For Thought

What could you achieve in a year if you took on a few new habits?

Start today by listing 4 new habits you would like to establish in the next year. By systematically adding one new behavior at a time, you can dramatically improve your overall lifestyle.

Tip!
To be successful... Partner up with someone and hold each other accountable. 

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Invest In Your Own Personal Development

                  "Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, 

                                    time and energy needed to develop yourself." 

                                                            - Dennis Waitley

Why is personal development so important?

The best contribution you can make to someone is your own personal development.

If you become 10 times wiser or 10 times stronger, think what that will do for your relationships, marriage, friendships or business colleagues.

So the best gift you can give to others, is your own on-going personal development.
Get stronger, better and become wiser. 

"Contentious personal and professional development is your key to the future." 

- Brain Tracy

Self-development enables you to serve others better.

You will become more valuable to those around you.

Personal development will also increase you earning potential.

Always learn new things. Stop focusing on what other people do or don´t do. 

"Make personal growth a daily priority."

- John C. Maxwell

Put the focus on you. 

Study yourself. 

Learn about yourself. 

Start developing yourself. 

"Every moment of one's existence, one is growing or retreating into less." 

- Norman Mailer

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