Stagnating

“Stagnation is self-abdication.”
Ryan Talbot

We all have a comfort zone where everything feels safe and familiar. We tend to not want to venture beyond it, however if we allow ourselves to stay there we will not be challenged, experience personal growth, or learn new and exciting things. In other words, we stagnate.

No one has an entirely safe life with no upheavals or shocks. Uncertainty is a fact of life, the only thing you can rely on. Life is not about wrapping oneself in cotton wool and getting by as quietly as possible. That is not living, its tip toeing around life!

I believe that as humans we are instinctively looking for ways of refining ourselves and of fine-tuning and upgrading ourselves. We have powerful drive to improve on the original prototype of who we are. It is only through stretching and testing ourselves that we have the scope to do this.

Life is precious and doesn’t go on for ever, so make everyday count. We have dreams, desires and grand ambitions; a restricted, suppressed life is not an aim.

Improving yourself often requires going beyond what you have previously done, setting new limits, and discovering new things within yourself. Stretch yourself expand your comfort zone. Each step advances you and keeps you on a path of self-improvement rather than stagnation.

“The point is to keep trying new things, meeting new people, visiting new places. Once you settle into a rut, no matter how fun that rut may seem, you stagnate. You might as well be dead.”
Lenore Appelhans,

 

Stopping The Whinning

‘If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.’
Anthony J. D’Angelo

We all like a good whinge from time to time but if you often find yourself complaining, maybe it has become a habit. Sometimes we complain without even realizing it, but rarely is it ever helpful.

It’s easier to complain instead of fixing a problem, like quitting a job or having a talk with someone. I find that when you put your mind toward a more positive outlook and force yourself to end complaining, it is possible!

A common mistake chronic complainer’s make is to self-identify with the negative thoughts running their minds. Enlist the help of a cheerful friend to stop you when you complain and help you to see the positive in the situation. Change starts when you begin to accept and embrace more and more responsibility for your life.

If something is bothering you, either fix it or accept that nothing can be done right now, so why complain? Complaining is a passive activity. Change that complaining into action to solve the problem or simple accept it and give your mind something else to focus on.

Assuming total responsibility for your life. The real solution to complaining is taking responsibility. If I don’t like my present circumstances, I must end them and make changes.

In the other hand, stop for a minute and think of the good in your life. Take responsibility for this. The good stuff didn’t  just happen to you. You created it!

“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.”
Randy Pausch,

This Is A New Day

“Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.”
Douglas Pagels

We all have our ups and downs, some smiles and some sadness, we all have bumps and bruises. We all have our twists and turns, we have some scars that still hurt. But if we choose we can let the past be the past because today is a new day.

Life is a test. It is where we taste the bitter and the sweet; where we feel pain and pleasure. We learn right from wrong; when we pass through both darkness and light. It’s a time to make choices. And through this process we form strength and character.

Today is a new beginning if we treat it that way. When we stop thinking about what might have been and starting looking at what can be. Each day is a new opportunity to live our life to the fullest. In each waking day,we find opportunities for positive change.

Do not let your today be stolen by the unchangeable past or the uncertain future. Today is a new day.

My thoughts are with the people of Oklahoma emerging from the tragic events of this week.

‘Renew, release, let go. Yesterdays gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. You can say ‘I should have done something’. But you can only DO something now. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day!’
Steve Maraboli

Comfortable In Your Own Skin

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

Being comfortable in your own skin is a journey. You must be willing to step out of your normal routine and do things out of the ordinary to get to know yourself and be comfortable with yourself.

Remembering that when you are comfortable with yourself, you can be more comfortable with those around you and therefore most successful in life. True, long-lasting self confidence comes when you are comfortable in your own skin. Being comfortable with yourself is a mind/body/and soul process.

I can never say enough about how important it is to celebrate your body. Every day, I try to remember this and dedicate time for daily exercise and remember to eat well, drinking plenty of water

Make a list of the things you need to do to take care of yourself so you feel healthy and grounded, and then schedule them into your day. It is easier to feel good about who you are when you make your needs a priorities.

Writing is contributing greatly to my journey. It keeps my mind focused with positive thoughts.

What practices make you feel passionate and positive about the way you are living your life? Doing what you love is an important step in loving who you are.

“The moment will arrive when you are comfortable with who you are, and what you are– bald or old or fat or poor, successful or struggling- when you don’t feel the need to apologize for anything or to deny anything. To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.”
Charles B. Handy

Taking A Few Steps Back

‘Take a step back. Clear your mind. Refresh your perspective.’

Do you allow your troubles to cloud your thinking?

Everything seems simpler from a distance. Sometimes you simply need to distance yourself to see things more clearly.You are more than whatever is troubling you. Step back and take time away to gather your thoughts.

Think of the most difficult challenge you face right now. Imagine that it’s not you, but a close friend who is facing this challenge. What advice would you give them? If you could step back and, instead of being the subject, look at your situation as an objective observer, would you look at it any differently? Think of the advice you would give your friend if your friend were in your shoes. Are you following your own best advice right now?

Take a few steps back and give yourself the benefit of this distance, and then give yourself some great advice.

‘Some days I just need to take a step back and take some time for me, Be me, Love me, Pamper me, Nurture me, and Recharge my Soul.’

Karen Kostyla

With Humility

‘Humility is the most difficult of all virtues to achieve; nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of self.’
T.S. Eliot

The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of one’s own worth.

These are the few ways we can practice humility:

To speak as little as possible of one’s self.

To mind one’s own business.

Not to want to manage other people’s affairs.

To avoid curiosity.

To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

To choose always the hardest.

Mother Teresa

‘Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.’
Thomas Merton

Expectation

‘Expecting too much in life will only make the heart and soul thirst, expecting less can surprisingly give you enough of what you need and want.. . .’
Ritu Ghatourey

What is an expectation? ‘An expectation is a logical or not so logical way in which we want the events of our lives to unfold.’

Your expectations is how you think things are supposed to be. There is this fantasy in your head about how you think things are supposed to be. This fantasy blinds you from reality and prevents you from appreciating the genuine goodness that exists in your life.

The solution? Simple: Drop the needless expectations. Appreciate what is. Work to your best and find satisfaction in that.

You have to accept reality instead of fighting it. Don’t let what you expected to happen blind you from all the good things that are happening.

When you stop expecting people and things to be perfectly the way you had imagined, you can enjoy them for who and what they truly are.

Take stock of the things you are grateful for. If we attend to our blessings perhaps we won’t focus as much on our unfulfilled desires.

‘Expectation is the mother of all frustration.’
Antonio Banderas

Remaking Yourself

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me. ”
Anna Quindlen

At one time or another, all of us become dissatisfied with our lives and decide change has got to come. However, once we get set in our ways, it seems too difficult to manipulate who we have become, to “teach an old dog new tricks.” But with the right mindset and determination, you can find a new ‘you.’

It is the your mindset that is most important in achieving change, the aim is to progress to making the changes you want. You may need to remodel yourself.

You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change your thinking. Remember your thoughts can become words, which you can turn into become actions. With repetition, actions become habits, which in-turn become your new character.

What you are today came from your thoughts of yesterday, and what you think today builds your life of tomorrow: Your life is the creation of your mind. You have two primary choices in life: to accept things as they are, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

‘To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.’
Henri L. Bergso

Power Of Your Words

  

‘You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.’
Joel Osteen

There is something about the words we speak. Words are powerful. They can create or they can destroy. Some times the kindest word of all is the unkind word, unsaid.

With wisdom we learn to speak when we have something to say, rather than because we have to say something.

The simple words you choose, especially when you speak to yourself or about yourself, can offer encouragement and positive thoughts going forward, or they can send you further into despair. So choose your words wisely. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their effects can be far reaching.

Words are containers. What do your words contain?

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”
Jodi Picoult,

Limiting Yourself

  

“Our way of thinking creates good or bad outcomes.”
Stephen Richards

We do not suffer from our beliefs, we suffer from our disbeliefs  If we have no hope inside of us, it is not because there is no hope, it is because we don’t believe there is.

Since the mind runs the body, it is the way we think that eventually makes the dreams we dream possible or impossible. Our reality is simply a reflection of the thoughts and the way we routinely believe what we know to be true.

All too often we literally do not know any better than good enough. Sometimes we have to try to do what we think we can’t do, so we realize that we actually can. You will surprise yourself.

Some limiting beliefs we often make; excuses, negative thinking, justifications for why , perfectionism thinking, refocusing on past failures.

It all starts on the inside. You control your thoughts. The only person who can hold you down is you.

“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.”
C. JoyBell C.