What if I told you that you could be in a COMPLETELY different, much happier, and more successful situation in 30 days than you are now?
Being human is hard. And the hardest part is when you hear those negative voices in your head, telling you that you are not good enough or the world hasn’t treated you kindly. Or you can feel gripped tightly with a debilitating fear of failure and despondent about even TRYING to get what you want out of your precious life. It sounds miserable just writing it down, and it is when you are in the middle of it. And you would be a very rare human indeed if you could say you had never experienced it!
BUT there are two fool-proof methods for changing this scenario. And they all start inside you, giving YOU the power to change how you feel about yourself and the world and what YOU actually need to do to follow your dreams and craft your life exactly how you want it to be!
- The first powerful method is to practice gratitude and take stock of where you are and what you have to be grateful for.
- The second is to cast forward to the future and what you most want out of it, elaborating on your dreams and goals, breaking down exactly how to get there, and taking daily action.
Sounds simple, and it is. But let’s break these concepts down a bit and be specific. Vagueness is the enemy of true self-development!
Gratitude Practice
It’s an amazing truth that once you consciously open your eyes to what you have to be grateful for in your current situation, your mood lifts, your outlook expands, and problems start looking more like they have solutions!
Gratitude…
- Opens the mind to new possibilities.
- Puts things into perspective.
- Makes us realize what we have and makes us happier
- Reduces stress and increases happiness.
With so many benefits, you would think it would be natural and easy, but it takes some work and practice!
Here’s how to do it:
- Notice your day-to-day world – you will be amazed at how much there is to appreciate.
Sit down and think, ‘I am grateful for…’ If it doesn’t come pouring out of you immediately, just wait; it will. The words will come.
- Keep a gratitude journal. Writing it down is a great way to commit to your gratitude practice. Creating a list of what you are grateful for every day is like creating a bridge over the troubled waters of your fears and doubt, a safe place from which to keep going.
- If you are in a bad situation – ask yourself, “What can I learn that I will be grateful for in the future?”
- Commit to your gratitude practice. Every single day. There will always be something more ‘important’ such as cleaning the bathroom or washing your hair. But commit to doing it no matter what resistance your mind comes up with to try and stop you. Just do it! As soon as you have forced yourself, your positive mindset will open up again and allow you to see opportunities and possibilities.
- Work on FEELING your gratitude. Let it permeate through your entire body, and let yourself FEEL it!
- Create a specific time of day or ritual around your gratitude. It might be first thing in the morning or last thing at night that you create your gratitude list. It might be as you wrap your hands around your steaming mug of morning coffee or evening team (or cocktail). A ritual around your gratitude will help you move through your day with mindfulness. Mindfulness will help you to recognize new and more frequent moments of gratitude.
- If you struggle to make this a daily practice, get yourself a partner. You’ll gain a new perspective on what makes them feel grateful and have a stronger sense of obligation to your own gratitude practice.
- When things start improving and producing results, don’t stop – keep going!
- Understand your human-ness, and if you slip up, don’t beat yourself up; just get back on the Gratitude Horse and keep going!
Your gratitude practice will not only make you happier and less stressed but help you to appreciate the things that HAVE gone right and that you have been successful at.
If you want help and support as you start a daily gratitude practice, check out the FREE 30-Day Gratitude Challenge. 30 days is enough time to ingrain a new daily habit – a habit that will positively impact your health and well-being!
But, being grateful for Who You Are does not mean you don’t want to learn and grow and improve – gratitude and self-development are not mutually exclusive! We all want to change for the better, the next level of achievement in different spheres of our lives. So, while gratitude will go a LONG way to accepting where you are right now and opening up your potential for a lot more joy, you need more than just gratitude to truly progress.
You can change your life in whichever way to choose. Who you have been is not who you have to be. And what you do today determines the quality of your life tomorrow. We are always crafting our future selves. So, how do you become aware that you are in the process of becoming exactly what you decide to be?
Conscious Direction Toward Your Dreams
Every choice we make has some sort of impact. Whether it is what you choose to have for breakfast or how you choose to discipline your children. If you do not decide who you want to be and what your goals are, you will feel a lot more influenced by outside forces that you might feel are not under your control.
So, to become captain of your own ship and steer toward your destiny, you must become mindful and aware of every choice. Taking actions, no matter how small, WILL lead you in the direction you want to head in. Knowing what that direction is, is paramount to taking any sort of responsibility and control of your life. The joy in this approach is that you become aware that every decision is a building block, another piece in the journey that is the life you are creating for YOURSELF! If you want to become a better person, a more fulfilled person, you need to take action.
Making Decisions Sets You Free!
While it can be daunting to realize that you have to take full responsibility for yourself, it is an extremely liberating epiphany.
Some of the Best Fun You Can Have – Defining Your Goals
Chuck your preconceptions and limitations out the window, and have some fun defining your goals and creating your most delicious, ultimate life. Write it down, draw it, make a dream chart. Just don’t hold back, and don’t edit or censor yourself. Really, really GO WILD!
Then dig a little deeper as to the WHY of things. Do you want to be rich? Why? Is it because you want more freedom? Or more stability in an uncertain world? Do you want recognition for your monetary achievements, or couldn’t care less? This will give you a more profound understanding of what you actually want and start opening up the pathways to getting there. I told you this was exciting!
Creating Your Plan for Life Change
Now you can start making a plan! Through daily personal growth and change, you can formulate how you will get to where you want to be. Now, you can formulate a daily routine to help you move toward your goals. It might be tiny baby steps, it might be giant leaps, but you are moving in the direction toward your goals, not away from them. It is no longer random. And that is where the magic lies! Whether writing one page of your novel, going to the gym, or bringing a business idea to fruition, move forward a little bit EVERY DAY! By translating your goals into a set of practices and habits, you are taking them out of the vague concept of ‘maybe’ and pushing them into the concept of ‘reality’.
And THAT is extremely exciting!
I have to warn you, it’s not always easy, and it’s not always simple. But it is much more enjoyable than drifting around aimlessly feeling like a victim about what ‘happens’ to you. Be honest with yourself, take time to celebrate your triumphs, and overcome your difficulties. Being honest and recognizing your progress is a powerful way to boost your self-awareness and self-esteem.
And the journey is never quite over.
You will have set yourself new goals by the time you achieve the current ones. You will always be, at all times, both a masterpiece and a work in progress.
