Chase Your Dreams

  "Never give up on a dream just because the time it will take to accomplish it.
                                                     The time will pass anyway."
                                                            - Earn Nightingale

When we are trying to create something new or trying to reach a particular goal, we often feel frustrated by the amount of time it will take.

Most often we want the reward without having to do any or very little of the work involved.

That is never going to work. It will take hard work to be able to accomplish anything and to be able to reach our dreams.

A lot of times we get frustrated, and we quit halfway through the process or the journey.

Don´t quit. Anything worthwhile will take some time to create.

Instead, here are a few tips when you feel frustrated with your slow progress towards your goals and your dreams.

Give yourself a little more time to accomplish your dream.
A lot of people will overestimate what they can do in one year. And then they will underestimate what they can do in a few years.
It will take time.

Be more loving to yourself.
Be kind to yourself. You are doing the best that you can. Stop beating yourself up and stop being a perfectionist.
It will happen for you.

You have a lot to give
Sometimes we will lose faith in ourselves. We have doubts that what we want to do isn´t going to be important and we have doubts, and we often fear that we will not be able to pull it off.
You can make a difference.

Take time to develop.
Learn new things. Study. Read books. Take classes. Go to workshops and seminars.
Personal development. Learn about yourself - who you are.

Enjoy some of it on the way.
It is not the destination - it is the journey.

"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."

                                                                     - Unknown


Love yourself
Give yourself more time
Enjoy the journey

You are never too old to chase your dream. 

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Shift Your Focus

 

                                               "Where Focus Goes Energy flows."
                                                                   - Tony Robbins

There are things within our control and there are things that are outside of our control.

We need to identify and learn to discipline ourselves to focus on what we can control. 

When you shift your focus, 

you change your life." 

- Steve Rizzo

So many times, we continue to focus on things that we don't want in our lives. Instead, we need to learn to make a shift and figure out what it is that we do want instead and learn to focus on it.

We only have so much mental energy in one day... make sure you use it wisely. Don't waste your energy on things that you don't want in your life or cannot control.

"We don't see things the way they are,

we see things as we are."

- Anais Nin

Figure out what you really... really... really want and then shift your focus onto it.

Where in your life do you need to make a shift?

What do you need to stop focusing on and what do you need to start focusing on instead?

Shift your focus from where you are to where you want to go.

Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.

Remember... what you focus on you magnify.

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Keep Moving Forward

                                                        "I may not be there yet,
                                            but I am closer than I was yesterday."

Most of the times when we look at highly successful people, we see the end result.

We don't see the path they took to get to where they are today.

"The elevator od success is out of order.

You have to take the stairs... one step at a time."

- Joe Girard

We don't see all the steps they took, all the hard work and all the mistakes they made.

Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step... and then another... and another.

"The secret to getting ahead

is getting started."

- Mark Twain

When we see the results that other people have achieved, we want the outcome, but often we don't want to take the journey to get there.

But all those successful people that we admire, they did take all those steps.

They didn't just appear on top of the mountain one day... they actually had to climb it.
One step at a time.

"Great things are done by a series of small

things brought together."

- Vincent Van Gogh 

And if it happens to be that the next step is a mistake than learn from the lesson and take it again. 

Your success in life will be determined based on the steps you take along the way.

I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, 

I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.

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Emotions Are Energy In Motion

                               "The walls we build around us to keep sadness out 

                                                              also keeps out the joy."

                                                                     - Jim Rohn

                                                                                  

Our emotions are important and they communicate to us every day how we are feeling. It happens all day and every day. Sadness, anger, worry, guilt, jealousy and fear and are all examples of emotions and every day we have a wide range of them. Some of them have a high intensity and some might be of lower intensity.

The important thing is to learn how to release those emotions in a healthy way and don´t allow them to get stuck in your body.

"Emotions are energy in motion.

They need to move."

- Andrea Corso

Lets take sadness as an example...
All of a sudden you get a feeling of sadness in your body. The important thing to do when that happens is to allow yourself to feel the feeling. It takes about 90 seconds for a feeling to move thought the body. What we must learn is to be able to let that feeling flow through our bodies without giving it  meaning. Just stay with the feeling, feel the sadness and then let it go. Let it flow out of your body.

"When you accept your feelings without judgement,

you give them permission to melt away."

The problem is that we often attach meaning to the feeling and then we act on the feeling with some kind of addictive behavior.
You feel sad and instead of feeling the feeling, you give it meaning and then you find yourself digging through the refrigerator for something to eat even though you are not hungry. The problem is that we don´t allow ourselves to feel the feeling. It feels uncomfortable and we rather numb it with some kind of addictive behavior.
If we just allowed ourselves to feel the feeling, give it 90 seconds to pass through our body we would be doing just fine and we would save a trip to the refrigerator.

Of course if you haven't allowed yourself to feel your feelings for a while it might take some time to get the hang of it. But with practice and staying preset you will eventually be able to release the emotion without giving it meaning and acting on it with some kind of action that will not be empowering.

"Feel the feeling, but don't become the emotion.

Witness it. Allow it. release it."

Allow your emotions to flow.

Allow yourself to feel your feelings

You have the power within you to stay present and allow that feeling to pass though your body.

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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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Find The Courage To Be Authentic

 "Never change for anyone, after you do, all they´ll want you to do is change again. And as hard as it was to change the first time, to give up everything you knew, and be half empty afterwards isn´t worth it. Don´t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you."

- Unknown

A lot of times we might feel that it is more important to be liked than to be real and authentic.

But how can we love and enjoy our lives if we are not honest and authentic?

How can we create something extraordinary if we are not speaking and living our truth?

We can´t.

If you continue to live a life without being honest and authentic, resentment will build and your mind and your heart and your whole life will be out of balance.

Stop trying to please other people. A lot of times it is an attempt to seek validation to increase your own self-worth.
Don´t be afraid to speak the truth even if you think it might cause some people not to agree with you or even disapprove of you.

Unfortunately we live in a society that are constantly telling us that we are not enough.
TV, the internet, magazines or social media are constantly letting us know that we would feel a lot better if we bought a certain product or did a certain thing... only then we will be validated and feel good about ourselves.
This will keep us in a constant battle and endless confusion and the result is a never ever feeling of not ever being good enough. 

Don't you dare to shrink yourself for someone else's comfort. 

Do not become small for people who refuse to grow.

Here Are A Couple of Tips!

The less you look for other peoples validation or approval - the more they will give it to you.
Learn to validate and approve of yourself. Then you won´t need any help from the world out here, it will come from within yourself.
And if it comes from within it can never be taken away from you.

Also remember that most people will respect "The Real You".
You don´t have to be perfect in order for people to like you.
Be human... it is OK. If you are going through a hard time, let people know.
It´s liberating to not have to pretend that everything is just fantastic in your life... all the time.

Be authentic. 

Express your feelings, thoughts, beliefs and your fears.
Share your experiences with people.
If in doubt... always be yourself and keep it real.

Authenticity  requires vulnerability, transparency and integrity.

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