Tag Archives: improvement

22

What You STAND For

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What do you stand for? That is a simple question I read last week that has been on my mind, along with another issue that I will address later. As for what I stand for, I want specific, stable things that I am striving to represent every day of my life. So I made a shortlist explaining the sort of person I want to be identified as today. This list is with the apparent exception that I may have failed to live up to these things in the past, but in that process, I have realized the extreme value each possesses and why it is so important to know what you want to stand for. It defines who you are and the experience you have in life. More importantly, how my choices and behavior will positively affect others.

Choose to be Kind

Kindness- In all things, I would like service to be the first thing I practice. All people live their own lives and have their own experiences, and their actions and behavior are theirs. I can only control myself, and I would like kindness to be the first word someone thinks of when they think of me. In my experience, a lack of compassion arises when you put your needs ahead of everyone else, leading to fear and worry. Letting this go is easier than you might think. Through a practice of kindness, you will meet all of your needs, and you will make the world a little better place. Do you stand for kindness? I hope I do.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Honesty- A friend once told me that it is human to be dishonest. That may be so because we all seem to lie an awful lot. Small lies, big lies, manipulative lies are all a part of the package. I know that I have lived in my past, mostly out of fear that I might look wrong or, more often, to avoid hurting someone else’s feelings. But it has been a while since I have consciously told a lie because I don’t care what others think of me and what I do, and I care enough about everyone I know to say the cold hard truth. I want all people I deal with to know that what I tell them will be the truth to the best of my knowledge. I don’t think I can do better than that. All things seem to flow perfectly when the truth is told. Do you stand for honesty?

What You Do When Nobody is Watching

Integrity- Along with honesty is integrity. I will do what right all the time is. Not just when it is convenient or when others are around. I will do what is right because I am there, and even if nobody else knew of my transgression, I would know, and the energy from that failure would permeate the rest of my life and cause problems. I would instead behave with integrity and do what right and decent all of the time is. I want my conscious energy to be focused on being and doing the right thing. I will know it is the right thing because it will be in my heart. I am continually seeking guidance for proper guidance. Do you stand for integrity?

Smart is Best

Intelligence– I want to be represented by the idea that all things I do will at least have a general knowledge behind them. I can’t promise to be the most intelligent person in the world, but I can be as bright as I am capable of being. This idea means I am never satisfied that I know it all. There are new things to learn and new ways to grow until the ultimate end waiting for us all occurs. I endeavor to continually learn new things, expand my horizons, and become better today than I was yesterday, just a little bit. Do you stand for intelligence?

Be Positive or Go Home

Positive Attitude-In all things, you have a choice, to be positive or negative. To complain and give away all of your power or address all situations by feeling great about them. We all feel bad sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we need to accept that part of our attitude. It is a simple choice that determines the difference in your path. You look at the flaws of the things you perceive to be missing, or you are grateful for what you do have. We always have the choice to embrace the joy in a moment. I wish all days were perfect and full of easy things to be happy about, but they will not. Life will bring challenges for you to grow. It is up to you to accept the challenge and become better or shrink from it and become its negative, scared, fearful victim. I am hoping I always seek the lesson, am grateful for it, and approach things from the mindset of joy and opportunity. Do you stand for a positive attitude?

Let’s Work Together

Cooperation– People look at the world in two primary ways: cooperation or competition. When I was a young man, I loved playing sports, and I always thought the match was the thing to prove you were better than someone else. That missed the value entirely. The real lesson was that you could rise and become better as a collective through cooperation with your teammates than you were as an individual. Great things can be done cooperatively and far surpass the selfish things that competition brings. Looking back, I value all the people that I ever was a part of a team with at whatever level. There are many situations that, in some small way, work together to allow the group’s strengths to overcome the weakness we all have as individuals, and that plan is fantastic. I want to take that into every relationship I have, personally and in business ventures, always. Do you stand for cooperation?

Better Today than Yesterday

Improvement– In my life, I have noticed that either you are getting better or you are getting worse. It is sporadic to stay the same, even for a day. So it is my goal to improve 0.01% each day somehow, but on the best days, physically, mentally, and spiritually. If I can manage to do that, then I will be a better person today than yesterday and hopefully have a more positive effect on the world than before. You are going to change in some way. I am probably choosing to be better rather than getting worse. This is often a choice to seek the other things I stand for; this should happen naturally, but it is vital to set an example for others that is positive in a world full of bad examples. Do you stand for improvement?

So there is a shortlist that I could expand upon for many pages. Maybe this is the next book idea in some way. But for today, I wanted to state what I want to stand for to guide myself in life. To help me when I have questions about what I should do. I want to say yes or no based on the things that I stand for. What is it that you stand for, not just in words, but in thoughts and actions as well?

“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.:- John Madden

“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”- Peter Marshall

“You must stand for something! It does not have to be grand, but it must be a positive that brings light to someone else’s darkness.”- Anthony Carmona

 

21

Improve

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Improve-make or become better.

improveIn all aspects of life, you are getting better, or you are getting worse.  People never stay the same for long. It is your conscious choice to evaluate where you are and decide what steps to take to improve your situation. Look honestly at where you are physically, spiritually, and mentally and determine what steps you can take to become better as a person contributing to your life.

To improve is very important not only for you but for those around you. When you educate yourself, you will improve the world as well. It may be in a minimal way, but change the world you will.  It all begins with conscious awareness and honest evaluation of where you are and how you can improve.  This change manifests in your thoughts, words, and actions.

Always Seek to Improve

I believe that people spend too much time in comparison to the accomplishments and activities of other people. This measuring leads to envy, disappointment, and low self-esteem. An analogy is a highway to frustration. There will always be someone who is perceived to be improvebetter. This form of competition is never going to be productive.  You will spend so much time worrying about how you measure up to someone else that you will lose focus on the most vigorous competition. That is with yourself. If you think you will not be happy until you achieve this feeling of being the best, how can you ever be happy today if you perceive you are not in this position?

The only person you should try to improve from is the person you were yesterday.  What are the steps you have taken to improve? If you are better than you were yesterday, you are moving in the right direction.  Look at people around you who are vital and thriving. I will bet there has been a focus on seeking improvement in their skills and abilities. We are all given some talents. It is up to us if we try to develop them or not.  When you improve yourself, you improve the world in a small positive way. These improvements most often will not come in giant leaps, but through consistent, small steps each day, moving you continually upward toward being the best human being you can be.

Attitude is Everything

Establishing the right mindset will allow improvement to come to you more easily. Understand that you have areas that you need to improve in to become your best. No improvematter how good you are at something, you can be better. This growth is an attitude that will allow you to find new limits.  The other choice you have is to be satisfied with where you are, which will lead to stagnation and a loss of skill or talent.  The amount of this loss is all determined by your attitude toward life.

It can be difficult to accept criticism in life. It would be nice if we were born perfect, but that would rob us of the journey. Each choice we make to become better in some way makes us better in other ways as well.  It takes dedication to improve your health. It takes consistency to improve your mind. It takes practice to grow spiritually.  All of these characteristics that you develop when you progress in one area will also carry over to improvements in other areas.

Evaluate to be Great

The challenge for you today is to become more conscious of where you are in life and where the roads to improvement lie.  It will not be the same for everyone except that we all have opportunities to improve right now. It can improveexist in any aspect of your life, financial, physical, relationships, career, family, spiritually, or any other part of your life. You can think of that holds within it a desire from you to be better at it.  Evaluate where you are and set a goal for where you want to be.  Then take action to try to move in that direction.

You will find your ideal direction being reached. There is a satisfaction that comes as you improve. It is a confidence that allows you to do things you never thought you would be able to do.  It begins by becoming more conscious in your thoughts, words, and actions as to how you can improve.  Be just a little bit better today than you were yesterday, and the world will open up for you.

Take a moment and observe your thoughts and feelings. If you are unhappy, what idea is making you that way?  Learn to improve the way you think about things and the thoughts you pay attention to every moment.  It is in these practices people find a key to continual improvement in the enjoyment of life.  It is not what happens to you that counts, but how you think about what happens to you that will provide happiness or sadness to your existence. You are the only one who can choose which dominates your life.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” ~Winston Churchill

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.” —T.D. Jakes

“You’ve got to have rules to live by, and one of mine always says yes. Put yourself in danger of something amazing happening to you.” —Tom Bilyeu.

“The health of your brain is much more about your actions than your age.” —Dr. Daniel Amen

 

 

 

 

21

Improve Daily

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My goal is to establish a positive focus every morning by focusing on a positive word or phrase. There are enough negative influences in the world, and I believe that we can improve our emotions, words, and actions and make the world a better place through a conscious direction of thought. Each of us has the opportunity to be more positive.

Improving It

We are all born into this world with some abilities. Some excel at academics, others find their niche in physical things, and others excel at artistic dreams. As we get older and move through our lives in all things, we are getting better or getting worse. There is no middle ground; we only stay the same for a brief moment. The great thing is that to seek to make ourselves better at anything is entirely in our control. The effort that we decide to dedicate to something will allow us to grow and improve at whatever skill, talent, or aspect of our lives we choose to develop. It begins with creating a positive thought in your head about improvement and then taking actions based on those thoughts.

Don’t Rely On Talent.

We are all born with some talents, and it can become human nature to rely on that talent as we develop through life. If you do this, you will most likely experience initial success because of your natural ability, but it will not last if you don’t develop what you have. Others with less initial talent take it upon themselves to do the work to become better, and if you don’t follow suit, soon you will be looking up, wondering what happened. Don’t rely on your talent. If you love whatever you are doing, look for ways to improve yourself at it.

I am finding a never-ending well of improvement available in all areas that I am interested in pursuing. Relationships, exercise, writing, speaking, and helping others, there are many miles of development out there for me to follow. It is easy to relax and think that you know all you need to know, and then you realize one day you did not, and it is at that moment we push ourselves to grow and become better. Be proactive with your efforts, and continually look for ways to improve all things that matter to you.

Developing a Growth Mindset

The barrier we often face has a mindset that tells us that we should know it all. It comes from the programming of life and a fear of failure. We have all failed at something in our lives, and it doesn’t feel right. But if you look at it honestly, most of the great successes in the history of the world have been created out of initial failure. Don’t look at a loss as a personal indictment of your talent or worthiness. When you succeed, it is more than likely going to be the lessons you learned in your initial failure that will help to guide you.

When you look at your life as a continual opportunity to grow, you take the defeats a little lighter and see the option for better things in the future. There will be many opportunities to grow as a person in all areas of your life. As you develop the skill of improvement, your confidence will grow, and you will be on your way to becoming your best self. Development is just another word for cultivating, and if you are not growing, you are dying.

Where Are YOU?

The challenge for all of us is to evaluate just where we are in any situation. What are the things we are doing well? Where can improvement come from? What actions can you take today to get you there? It can exist in any aspect of your life, financial, physical, relationships, career, family, spiritually, or any other part of your life. You can think of that holds within it a desire for you to improve and become better than you are right now.

Then it is up to you to take action. It can be intimidating and challenging to take action because we add too many exterior thoughts to our situations. We are worried about how something looks or what others will think. In the end, the only person you have to impress or get yourself into is you and you alone. So do what you have to do to improve in all aspects of your life that matter to you. We are all ever-evolving beings, and the choices we make in improvement determine what the result will be.

Look at your life and state where you are, and then create a plan of action to improve in that area. Create and write down goals of achievement for yourself in those areas. Then take action and evaluate what happens. If you succeed and become better, great!! If you don’t assess where you are and what will give you the chance to achieve the next time. In this process, you will not be able to help find improvement, which is what life is all about.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” ~Winston Churchill

We are seeking ways to improve every day to allow you to become the best version of yourself.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.”

“You’re either green and growing, or you’re ripe and rotting.” —John Addison.

 

21

Favorite Things

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I have learned a few things throughout my life to assist me in navigating the sometimes stormy waters I have encountered. They aren’t tricky in concept and have proven useful when the challenges of existence come my way.  As we all know, there are always two-sided to life. It will bring you decisive, secure, happy moments, but along with each of those will come challenges that will bring you growth. These things we feel we could do without, but these things have a purpose. They allow us to grow beyond where we are right now in this moment.  “What is this trying to teach me?” 

I am sure we can all do without the suffering moments, loss, and sadness in life. The bitter provides value to the sweet.  You can try to prepare yourself to handle the tough times and persevere in life and not have the unexpected challenges of life bury you alive when they hit. You lose a job, a relationship ends, someone passes away, or even a natural disaster hits.  You will either grow from these things or be beaten by them. Don’t be beaten. Use these little weapons to help you win.

Foul Weather Gear

Foul weather gear is a term I picked up from some friends of mine many years ago. They raced a boat on the ocean for fun and took me out for a sail quite often. The experience was excellent, and I enjoyed the gentle waves on the sea on a bright, warm summer day.  It was relaxing and utterly enjoyable. Life is often like this. But……Sometimes though, the weather will turn, and it isn’t so lovely, and it rains hard, and the winds are no longer favorable but merciless, which can be quite dangerous. When the storm hits is when you break out your foul weather gear, and it will help you make it through the storm and enjoy the ride as much as possible. It is a measure we should all take in life. Life often seems like a sunny day with beautiful weather, but a storm can arise out of nowhere. It is always good to have foul weather gear at hand, just in case.

Some people are so attached to the sunny day and calm sail they will never see the joy and excitement that comes from the harsher weather heading your way — this chance to use your wits and develop your skill on the boat. You can grow as an individual and with the crew as well. There may be some danger, but life is full of uncertainty. It allows us to learn to deal with it.

Life Gives What We Need

In a perfect world, we would always find an immediate reward for good behavior and positive actions. And those who treat people poorly and make decisions that harm others would be immediately punished. But that is not how things work. If you look at the short game, life will never seem fair.  But when you look at the extended play, it appears that all things work out exactly as they should. Those who live their lives based on fear have little joy and happiness, and those who live in love are happy and enjoy life. Never expect life to give you everything you ever wanted on a silver platter, it won’t, and you will spend your time wallowing in self-pity if that is what you expect. But life will allow you the chance to grow and become the best person you can be in all areas.  Never worry about the fairness of life, worry about your ability to deal with what you face, and making positive decisions based on kindness, caring, understanding, acceptance, and love. This ability will allow you to see the long game of your life because that is all that matters.  Life gives us all an equal opportunity to become our best, so it is the ultimate level of fairness.

Practice Kindness

There are no situations where practicing kindness can hurt anything and always contributes to a better day for those you practice kindness. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our desires and feelings, and the fear of not getting what we want or feel we need can diminish our mood and make us less a lower version of ourselves. Negative thoughts make us move around in a bad mood, and we distribute negative energy to all folks we encounter that day.

Viewing the world from the scope of what we can do for others rather than what we can do for ourselves will benefit all involved, including the world in general.  Look at your expectations for the day, see what you seek for yourself, and then look for the simple things you can do to make someone else’s day a little brighter. Kindness is easy to practice because it feels good to be kind. Put other people first and treat the world with that attitude, and it will generally treat you that way too.

Build Your Body

Exercise is a choice, and participating in it regularly will bring you many benefits. It is suitable for the functioning of your body in heart, mind, and spirit daily, and that by itself is enough. Along with a sensible diet, it will help you maintain a healthier weight and feel better in overall health.  But there is also another benefit that many don’t contemplate.

When tragedy comes into your life, you will be mentally and physically able to handle things better.  Many people have their lives jump off the rails at the slightest bump of adversity.  Working out teaches you to reach deep inside yourself and know that there is a strength to do what you have to do, even if sometimes you don’t want to.  Without a consistent exercise regimen, I think that we tend to move to the soft side and become vulnerable. Whatever training and physical activity resonate with you, participate in it.  Lifting, jogging, biking, yoga, martial arts, or any other type of exercise will provide you strength inside and outside.

Find Moments of Quiet

It is in the moments of quiet that you can hear yourself. Take time to find the places in life where you can get your mind to stop making noise and listen to the natural inner guidance we all have. Experience provides us with many rules and expectations that teach us what society expects from us, but they don’t help our soul express itself in the way one needs. To follow this inner guidance, we need to quiet the mind and stop chasing the world’s expectations. Listen to the inner voice that exists in each of us.  The sound is your intuition, and it is much wiser than your thoughts will ever be.

Don’t ignore your intuition because of the thoughts you think about the fears and expectations of the world.  Find the quiet and ask simple questions and follow the answers you hear. It sounds simple, but it takes commitment because as soon as you get a response, your mind will kick back in with a million objections and doubts. What will people think? How can that work? Will we lose the respect of others?  Those we love will judge us harshly.  Nobody will understand. Soon the right answer seems like an impossible challenge.  It is much easier to maintain the status quo, but it isn’t very fulfilling. Life brings a growth experience and avoiding growth leads to atrophy and death.  Listen to your inner voice.

Meditation

Taking on meditation is a great way to calm your mind and stop the constant chatter. There are many misconceptions about the practice, it is not difficult, and it is not religious. It is a tool to work with your mind and the thoughts you have rather than be bowled over by it. It can also help you find a way to deal with your emotions more healthily.  Since we get very little guidance in our lives on how to do this, meditation has been a savior to me in making sense, accepting, and moving past the inevitable negative emotions which arise from life.

There are many different ways to meditate; to me, there is no wrong way. You will be able to find guided meditations easily. I use an app on my phone called Insight Timer, and there are many others.  They offer a chance to be conducted in a direction you need to work on, or you can use their timer with ambient sound and focus on your breathing.  Whatever method resonates with you and helps you live a healthier life is a good thing to do. Give it a try. You will only find positives.

These are a few little thoughts to make life a more enjoyable experience.  Keep your foul weather gear handy and ride out the storm. Understand life is a long game, it may seem unfair at the moment, but it all equals out in the end. As long as your alive, there is a chance for a comeback.  Kindness is always the right choice. If you are questioning whether or not understanding will work, practice compassion.  Find your moments of quiet, just for you, because you deserve it. We all need to contemplate the things which make us feel fulfilled, what steps to take next, and where our power lies. To that end, give practicing meditation a chance. It can allow you to tame the negative thoughts and produce a positive force of action in your life. Be physical, and take care of your body in some way. You only get one of them, and it will take you as far in life as you let it.

Keep these tools at your disposal, and they will help you overcome the hard times and answer the question: What is this trying to teach me?

 

21

Resolute

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Resolution-a firm decision to do or not to do something.

Each of us has to take a hard look at our lives from time to time and evaluate our progress toward becoming the person we desire to be. This passion can lead to changes like losing weight, being more responsible, working toward a goal, or any number of other tasks we can set our resolutions toward achieving.  Doing this is a positive and vital part of life, and I encourage everybody to look at ways you can improve your life starting today. Because when you are striving to be your best self, you are not only making yourself and your life better, but you are making the world better.  If you have a dream to make your life healthier, wealthier, or just more enjoyable, you should do it with full conviction.  Here are a few areas you can focus on in your thoughts, words, and actions to create positive resolutions for yourself and support positive changes others are attempting.  

Do Things that Make YOU Joyful

There are things we do that bring us joy and things we do that don’t.  I think the first resolution is to do more of the things that bring joy into my life.  resolutionJoy comes from within and can be accessed at almost any time. Of course, there are situations in life when you are disappointed, angry, worried, sad, frustrated, or any other uncomfortable emotion you can think of. Still, hopefully, they are a passing wave in the ocean of your life. I hope the overall current is joy, and I can do the things that bring it into my life.

As I grow a bit older, it seems these are easier to find.  Time to think and write something that is on my mind. Spending time working on a project with someone about improving in some way.  Learning something new and applying it to life, exercising,  or just appreciating the good things life gives you.  All of these make me joyful, and I look forward to doing more of them in the years to come.

Be Aware of the Unique Experience of Life

Life is a total one-of-a-kind experience. We start it out with no real clue Resolutionabout what is happening and try to piece things together over time, collect information, and think we are figuring it all out.  The fact is we never will, but you can choose to enjoy all the experiences along the way.  The bottom line is that this is a unique and one-of-a-kind experience for all.  Too often, we spend time worrying about the things we don’t have and ignore the experiences we can create for ourselves.

This life is only going to happen once, and then it will slip off into the quiet oblivion, and nobody is going to remember how much stuff you collected or how rich you were. But, they are going to remember how you made them feel, and the tenor of that memory is your legacy to the world.  You only get one chance to do this, and you can spend it being someone that lifts people, or you can spend it being someone who pulls people down. That is the unstated resolution you make every day of your life.  So pay and live your life to the fullest and help others do the same just by having a better attitude.

Be a Better Version of YOU

Finally, I am going to endeavor to continue my pursuit of the .001% rule of life.  I will find a way every day to be at least .001% better physically, spiritually, and mentally.  If I can accomplish that, then I am guaranteed to make a difference in some way.  I hope that I have provided support, examples, and strength to those who have needed it and hope to do the same every day.  People often refuse to see how awesome they are because they focus on limiting beliefs on them by their past.  Let these go.

The simple fact is that you can think, feel and move, and all of these things you can learn or work to do better.  But let’s be clear, you are awesome just as you are. A resolution to change one or two aspects of your existence is great, but the overall package already is pretty awesome. Realize this about yourself and life, and much of the struggle will be over.

Focus on Resolutions

So to focus on the changes that will tweak your existence in a good way.  Stop doing things that are harmful to you, and do more of the things that really bring joy to your life.  Find improvement in small increments,  but most of all, learn to love yourself and know that you are awesome.  You have to start believing it.  This begins by looking at your thoughts, words, and actions and building a conscious awareness of your experiences and why.

Goal Setting, nutrition resolutions, weight loss resolutions, How to set goals, Being a better version of myself, Being better, growing as a person, becoming a great person, Resolution quotes

Resolution Quotes

“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.” ― Aeschylus

“A long December, and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.”- Counting Crows

“It is always during a passing state of mind that we make lasting resolutions.” Marcel Proust

“You have to live today. And I think one of my New Year’s resolutions is definitely trying to stop and live in the moment and cherish it.”-  Thomas Rhett.

 

21

Improve

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Improvement and growth are what life is about.  I try to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday. The great thing about this is there are literally thousands of ways improvement came come. I focus on the big categories of life, spiritual, mental, and physical. Still, there are specific things each day you can focus on to improve your energy, productivity, and enjoyment of life.  Today there are three that I am focusing on just because I came across them in my notebook.

Enjoying Life

There are days when everything flows perfectly, just as you want it to. But other days are not so fluid. Often we blame the weather, other people, or life in general for the problems.  The enjoyment you get out of life is never from how smooth things go but how you react to them.  Each moment has good things in it, and if you can avoid attachment to a certain outcome, then all results become something you can enjoy.  We are not all-powerful gods, and occasionally things out of our element are going to happen.  Learn to roll with it.

This means I am focusing on enjoying the rain and the sun, the cool and the heat, the love, and the anger. It is all there, so it must be there for a reason. Those who judge me are there to remind me not to be judgmental. Those who love me are there to remind me to love others. There are just too many good things and experiences in life to focus on the bad ones.  I am working on enjoying life and all of its experiences. It is a short ride, after all.

Improve Relationships

Relationships with others are the way we get our bearings about ourselves. I am fortunate to have great relationships with special people, but there is always room for improvement in all of them. I want to get better at making sure that those I love know it and understand how much they mean to me.  In a relationship, there are two parts, yours and theirs. Allowing them to grow and for you to grow as well is a good thing. I am looking for new ways of appreciation and love. 

I am fortunate to have been in relationships where we embraced new things all the time and tried fun things together. It is fun and allows us to experience life on a level of adventure, which is fun and exciting.  I want to make sure that I never take that for granted and continue to enjoy all the things we do which are new and interesting. I have a suitcase of memories, but I want to fill a large storage building with them.  So I want to continue to improve in enjoying all relationships and all the things that are unique about others. People enter your life for a reason, and most often, it is to teach you something. There are a rare few that stay for the duration, and those are the ones that teach, allow us to teach them, and learn together with you. Improving yourself and your life.

Move Away From Worry and Fear

This is a broad range of topics for how I look at others and life in general. It can be difficult to keep an even keel and see the good in all people when they do such a good job of hiding it. But look, and you will find it and see it.  Much of my mindset is positive, but I am not perfect and have moments of poor quality thinking.  Sometimes fear creeps in and makes you look at people harshly.  Worry and fear are a combination we all face daily. We are afraid people won’t meet our needs in some way. What is anger but a loud alert to the world we are afraid of not having our needs recognized or met?  Worry is the same, and we create grand scenarios in our minds that will never happen and give them our attention. Even though it is only misplaced imagination, the stress you feel is real, and that releases hormones into your system, which are detrimental to your health.

To lessen the effects of fear or worry, it takes an active consciousness.  I am endeavoring to be aware of my thoughts and their resulting feelings.  Determining if they are something I should really be afraid of or if it is just a figment of my imagination created by misguided thought? Most people never look at their thoughts in any real constructive way. That makes you a slave to any thought that pops into your head.  We think we react to, and thoughts of fear and worry are prevalent in our lives because we are inundated with messages of fear through the media and society in general. My goal is to remember that love is greater than fear, and it is always a choice. I can’t control how others live their lives, but I can improve how I experience mine.

So that is it, I will endeavor to become a better person today than I was yesterday!! I will enjoy life more, value my relationships and improve them, and move away from worry and fear towards love.  How about you?

“The health of your brain is much more about your actions than your age.” —Dr. Daniel Amen

“You’re either green and growing, or you’re ripe and rotting.” —John Addison

“Growth is actually contagious, so if you want to reach your goals, you’ve got to get around people who are going in the same direction you want to be going, and you will catch the success.” —Dr. Henry Cloud

“Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations.” —Brendon Burchard

“When you are at that intersection in the road, and you’ve got two paths to go down, because of the impact of certain people in your life, you’re able to choose the right path.” —Jason Witten