Category: Life

What is Life

What is Life…

You know, I ask myself this question and I begin to add to the question like:

What is life about

What is life meant to be

What is my purpose in life

You could add many more thoughts to the start of that question.  The thing is, if you answer just the three words I initially put down, “Life can be whatever you make it to be” for you.

I have been reading a lot on my social media accounts, facebook  and Instagram mainly and there are so many quotes on life that are going around every day.  The quotes have to do with personal growth, chasing dreams, building businesses, etc.  It is amazing all the positive influence that is out there.

Back to what is life.  Life is what we make of it.  From the moment you wake up in the morning, you begin making decisions, choices of how you are going to start your day.  Whether you think about it or not, if you get up in the morning and start complaining about how tired you are or how you don’t want to go to work, or you get up and begin being grateful, you are making a choice on how you are going to start and go through your day.

Life is all about choices.  Choices only you can make when it comes to YOUR life.  You can choose to wake up and be negative or you can choose to wake up and give thanks for the new day.  How you choose to go through your day is solely your decision.

The choices you make today can determine the path you take tomorrow.  Life is not easy.  The choices you make will not always be the right one at that moment.  Some people call that failure.  I call it a life lesson.  I call it a chance to learn, to improve on an area of your life.

This life that you have, you only get one go around.  So, use it wisely.  Make positive choices.  Choose to be grateful for what you have.  Choose to say a kind word to someone rather than looking the other way.  You really do get out of this life what you put into it.

So, what is life?

Let’s add to it….”What is life about for ME”  What do you want out of this life?  You want a new job? Go after it.  You have had a dream of starting your own business, well then, go start it.  You have a goal of loosing weight and being healthy?  Start your plan today.

It is all about choices.  Start making some of those decisions you have been putting off.

Until next time…

Chase your dreams

Happy New Year…

Here we are with a new year upon us.  A fresh start.  A time of kick starting our ambitions.  A time to be refreshed and ready to go after anything, right?

For many people this is the case.  At the start of a new year, we begin to make our new years resolutions.  We begin to look ahead and plan for things that we know are coming during the course of this year.

When it comes to making new years resolutions, some of us stick with the more common like getting fit, eating right, loosing weight, etc.  And for the majority, these resolutions are all but gone within the first couple weeks of the new year.  Not because we really don’t want these things, but simply just may not have the desire, the discipline or the passion to carry them out for the entire year or make them our new way of life.

Then there are those of us that reach for the stars.  We resolve to start a new business.  We resolve to get into the ministry.  We resolve to go back to school in order to further our careers.  Now the previous, more common resolutions I mentioned, I would consider them as superficial.  They are more about appearance and the health of our bodies and are easily thrown to the side after a short time with no major consequences.  The next ones go a little deeper.  They are more ambitious and require more desire and discipline to accomplish.

All of these are good resolutions.  They deal with health and wellbeing as well as personal achievements.  The thing is, so many of us just go through each day running through the motions with no real perceived purpose.  The fact is that it doesn’t need to take a new year to bring a fresh start in life.  Every single day that we wake up offers us a new opportunity, a fresh start.

I would say that if asked, the majority of people would say they have some sort of goal in life.  Some sort of dream.  This could vary from person to person as much as night differs from day.  The fact is though, that most of us have a goal or dream in life.  The problem is, we either don’t see that the dream or goal is possible if we take steps towards it or we just don’t see it as all that important.

This life is meant to be lived!  And that is exactly what I plan to do with mine.  I have learned  that my procrastination gets me nowhere.  I have dreams and goals of my own and they will not come to fruition unless I pursue them with passion and discipline.  Everyone out there has the possibility to accomplish anything they set their mind too.  You may need to learn something or develop a skill set, but the possibility of accomplishing your goals and dreams is only limited by your belief that you can.

I have fallen into this same belief many times.  I have often allowed the opinions of others to persuade me to not go after a goal or dream.  I have often not thought to highly of myself or believed in myself again detouring me from chasing something I really wanted.  We have but one life.  Every new day is a new start.  To brush off the things of yesterday.  To look back and learn from a mistake and start again.   Everything you see every single day was at first a thought or vision in someone’s mind before it came to be.

You have the right to go after  your goals and your dreams regardless of what anyone else says or the opinions they may have.  They are YOUR dreams.  This year, go after those dreams.  Go after that goal you have.  I would first tell you to do this:  write down your dreams and goals, not only for this year, but for the years to come.  When you see them on paper, it makes a big impact and that is the first step.  The next thing to do would be to develop a plan.  The plan does not have to be an elaborate plan, but a plan that will take you one step closer every day to your goal.

Make sure to record your successes and your failures along the way.  This will give you something to look back at, to give you encouragement and something to learn from.

I have heard it said that if your dreams don’t scare  you, then they aren’t big enough.  I am starting to understand this concept.  Dream big, reach for the stars.

We started out talking about resolutions.  Again, there is nothing wrong with resolutions so long as we stick to them.  I would encourage you to think about life long resolutions.  Resolutions that go deeper into who you are, who you want to be, how you can be a better person.  I am currently reading, Resolved 13 Resolutions for life , by Orrin Woodward.  It talks about life long resolutions like character, leadership, purpose, adversity, etc.  These will definitely be my resolutions for this year, with hopes of making them part of my everyday life.  I believe these life long resolutions will help me with my goals and dreams for this year and beyond.

So, I will ask the question, what will you do with this new year?  Do you have goals and dreams?  Do you aspire to do something greater or something you are very passionate about?  Do you desire to make a living at something other than your normal day to day job?  Do you know what your purpose in life is?  (We all have a purpose in this life)

Then I would say to you, go do it.  Go chase those dreams and let nothing stop you.  You have the ability, you have what you need to begin going after whatever it is you want to achieve in this life.  Setbacks will happen.  Things will be tough at times.  You will encounter opposition.  These things are merely lessons to be learned or maybe they are a redirection, a better way of getting to your end goal.

The sky is not the limit, your imagination is.

 

I hope that everyone has a very blessed and happy 2018!

Chasing Dreams

Until next time…

 

Reflection

Christmas has come and gone. It is sometimes unreal how quickly an event or holiday tends to come and go. Especially when it is something we really look forward too. This year has been that way for me. We look forward to birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, vacations, etc. Sometimes though our plans get delayed. The events don’t go as we had hoped they would. Vacations get pushed back or cancelled. The list goes on.

Each year so many things happen in our lives. Both for the good and the not so good. The not so good also seem to sneak up on us at times. That is what life is. All these little pieces of a puzzle if you will to make an overall picture.

All these puzzle pieces fit into our lives a certain way. All the things that happen, again, both good and bad, cause us or lead us to take some of the paths we take in our life. Some of these can be successes that lead us to landing our dream job or an opportunity we thought we never had. Others of these cause us to rethink our current directions. They teach us what is important or show us what we have been neglecting.

As this year comes to a close, I would challenge you to take just a few minutes to reflect on what this year has been for you. Reflect on it. Don’t dwell on it. Big difference. Look at your successes, your failures, your struggles and so on. How have they helped you? What have they taught you? Have they changed you for the better or the worse?

Self reflection is a time when you can evaluate where you have been and in what direction you are currently heading.  Have you made progress toward your goals?  Have you made steps in the directions of what you want to accomplish?

As I reflect on this year, I have many things that have helped me become a better me. There have been things that have help me with direction and change. If I look at these things one at a time and dwell on them, it could be not such a pleasant site. When I look at them as a whole, they have given me new insight. They have helped me to look at things with a new perspective. I am progressing in the direction I want to go and things I want to accomplish.  This may only be one small step each day, but it is still a step in that direction.

Now, I am not painting a picture of perfection, I’m just saying that even with the ups and downs of life, there can always be a lesson to be learned. It’s all in how you choose to look at it.

So again, I challenge you to reflect on this year. If it’s been a great year for you, then that’s awesome. Look how you can make it better. How can you help someone else this next year? If it hasn’t been a stellar year, what have you learned from it? How can you apply the lessons and make the improvements or changes for the coming year?

Do you have goals?  Do you have things you want to accomplish?  If so, then start with a plan to make that one small step each day toward that goal or accomplishment.  If not, then I would challenge you to also sit down and write out a few things you would like to do.  They could be personal items, changes, etc.  They could be career related.  What ever they might be, start by writing them down.  When you see them on paper, they become a little more real.

I would love to hear about some of your successes or trials throughout this past year and how you managed all the things in between.

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you will have a blessed new year.

Until next time…

Focus on Today

Today is what YOU make it!

Today is a new day.  Yesterday is gone and won’t be back.  What happened yesterday is over.  What tomorrow will bring, we do not know.  So, focus on TODAY!  Today has many blessings to be seen.  Many things to enjoy.  Many opportunities to give back, opportunities to help others.

So, don’t dwell on yesterday or last week or last  month.  Focus your sights and your energy on today.  Take hold of it and make it great.

It is up to you to make your day your own.  Don’t rely on others to make it great for you. If you rely on others, you will be disappointed at some point.

Think about your goals, your ambitions and your dreams.  Do something today to move one step closer to them.

Make it a great day!

Until next time…

 

 

Today we give Thanks

Thanksgiving is a day where we gather with those we love, our families and our friends.  We spend the day cooking all kinds of good food, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and so much more.  (I can smell it already).

We also spend the day visiting, catching up with family members or friends we haven’t seen in a long while.  We watch sports, we play games and just enjoy one another’s company.  Once the food is all cooked, the table is prepped and everyone sits down, we give thanks for the day, for the food or anything else we are thankful for.

I think though sometimes in all the hustle and bustle of the activities, we tend to take for granted all of those things I mentioned above.  Not all of us, but some for sure.  We take for granted the conversations we have.  We take for granted the mere fact that we are able to do this.  I also think we take for granted the act of saying our thanks.(again, not all, but some of us).  We tend to just go through the motions if you will.

I don’t believe we do this on purpose, we are just enjoying the moments and after it is over we leave and go about our business.  Not really taking time to reflect on those moments and treasure them.

Everyone of us has so much to be thankful for.  For me, as each day goes by, I think of more things to be thankful for.  The littlest of things that I took for granted before.

Today is a great day to reflect on those things that we are thankful for.  But, today is not the only day.  Everyday we should get up and be grateful for all of those things.  Every day that we are able to get out of bed, see our family, go to our jobs, put food on the table and everything else we are able to do, we should be thankful.

We should be thankful 24/7 365.  This is something that I have struggled with.  Just going through the motions each day, but I have been trying to really reflect on the things that I am thankful for.

I would encourage you to take a moment today to really reflect on the things you are thankful for and think of the things that you normally don’t give any thought too.  Those little things that many times go unnoticed.  Maybe take a minute to write some down on a piece of paper or in a note book.

Then as you go through today, spending time with family and friends, embrace those moments, maybe just stand back and look at the things around you, capture the moments in  your mind and hold on to them.

At the end of the day, look at your list.  Is there anything you could add to it?  I am sure there will be.  Try doing this each day.  Even on the difficult days where everything seems to have gone wrong.  There is always something to be thankful for.

I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone has safe travels.

We only get one life, and that life is meant to be lived.  But, don’t forget to be thankful for that life for which you have been given.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time…

 

Road of life

The road of life is a busy one.  It is full of twist and turns.  It is full of traffic jams, stop lights, wrong way signs and so much more.   Navigating itself can be a challenge.  Sometimes the roads we travel are smooth and enjoyable.  They are full of great scenery.  They are full of adventure and excitement.

Then sometimes that road turns a little rocky.  It tends to jar us around a little.  We encounter difficult obstacles that we have to navigate around, over or through.  Depending on the complexity of these obstacles (circumstances) determines the actions that are required to make it through.

Although I am trying to use the analogy of driving along difficult roads,  the principle holds true for roads of life we travel down each and every day.  There are those times that we seem as though everything is going smooth just as we would like it too.  We are enjoying the scenery and the adventures.  (The smooth road)

And even though we travel on smooth roads, there are still ups and downs along the way.    Then there are the times that things get bumpy.  These can be times of hurt, financial distress, job loss, etc.  These are the things that can take a huge toll on us.  These are the obstacles that are not so easily navigated at times.  Depending on the circumstance, some of them will take a little longer to get through.

Unfortunately, that is life.  Things happen, both good and the not so good.  No matter what it is that you go through (whichever road you travel), Just know that you will be able to navigate around it, over it or even right through it.  We are all put here for a purpose.  We are all traveling down the road of life.  Everyone goes off on a gravel road at times.  We all hit the potholes, go down one-way streets in the wrong direction.

The good thing, all these mishaps can be corrected and fixed.  Life is a journey.  Take the time to look around during those smooth rides, take in the views, the blessings and be thankful.  Then as you get off on those rocky roads, as difficult as they may be at times, take time to look around, there are lessons to be learned.  Lessons that will navigate you through these temporary rough rides.

The road of life is full of surprises.  Both good and not so good.  But that is ok.  Be sure to take the roads that are for you.  Not everyone travels the same roads.  They may cross paths, but just because one road appears to be great for someone else, that doesn’t mean it will be for you.  Everyone is different on purpose.

Do not be afraid to take the road less traveled at times.  Sometimes those are the greatest journeys.  If you veer off the road, slow down, correct what caused it and get back on.

Life is a journey, take hold of it, embrace it, but don’t forget to learn as you go.  Keep your eyes looking forward.  If you spend too much time looking behind you, you will miss beautiful things right in front of you.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Until next time….

The past

From the moment we are born our history, our past begins. Of course, at that young age and for many years after that we have no idea no knowledge of this. It isn’t until later in life or as we get old enough to begin seeing or thinking about things we did in our past. These could be things that were fun that we did with our friends our families. They could be things we said or things we saw.

And of course, the older we get the more of a past we accumulate. We all have a past. It doesn’t matter whether it is good bad or anywhere in between. It’s there. Our pasts can tell stories. We have heard stories from our grandparents and things they did or saw long ago. These stories can tell us a lot about our family members that came before us. They can show us how we learned to do different things. They can teach us.

The problem with our past is that it can hold us back from our future. I am sure there is at least one thing in each of our past that was not the greatest moment, idea, choice, etc. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s one thing or many, these not so good moments if you will, can keep us from moving forward. There is a common misconception that we (I) tend to believe at times. It is, that our past is what tells us who we are, who we can be or what our remaining life will be like. It is, that our past determines our future.

Yes, our past can tell us many things. It can tell us the mistakes we’ve made. It can show us the bad choices or bad roads we’ve taken. It can bring back many memories, some good, some not so good. The other bad part about our pasts, others around us use our past choices, failures, slips and falls against us. Even long after those things were done. People like to judge others according to their past. This happens in all parts of our lives. They like to bring them up time and time again. This happens with spouses, family members, co-workers, etc.

With all of that said (so much more could be said), there can be a bright side. Just as I stated earlier, our past can teach us many things provided we listen and learn from it. You see, we all make mistakes. We do it every day. At home, at work, at the store. We are human, it is going to happen. Learn from it. Your past doesn’t have to determine your future, unless you are using it to better yourself. Unless you are using it as a change point in your life. It is possible to get past the strongholds of your past. It will take determination. It will take work. But, it is possible.

I am going to go outside of my comfort zone for a minute (Very difficult I might add)

This was a huge struggle for me for many years. Now as I said earlier, we all make mistakes. So, my life was no different. I have had ups and downs just like anyone else. So, with certain choices I made or mistakes I made, failures, etc. I not only had to deal with them myself, I had to deal with things people said. I had to deal with those things being brought back up to me numerous times long after that fact. People had said some pretty hurtful things to me.

With all this, I really struggled to believe in myself. I struggled with my self-worth, my purpose in life. You see, I allowed all the negative things to consume me and basically take over. I didn’t think that I would amount to much. I didn’t feel like I could contribute anything of value in any area of my life.

Here’s the thing, it is possible to overcome those things in your past and even the things people like to say about them. I am so very thankful for all that I have experienced in my life. The good, the bad and everywhere in between. It has taken a long time but, I have used my past as a reflection of where I have been, not of where I am headed. I don’t dwell on it nor on the comments of others regarding it.

So, here is my point, our past is what it is. It will not change. It will always be what it was. The strongholds of our past can be broken. We can learn from it. We can use it as fuel to help us progress into the future. This can be in your personal life, it can be regarding your career, it can be in any area of our lives. The thing to not do is, to hold onto your past. This is true whether it is some success or a failure. Because even holding on to a success you had in the past, will only last for so long before it begins to hinder you from moving forward. Holding onto a failure, allowing it to bring you down emotionally can take a toll on you over time. This again will hinder us from moving forward with our life.
Learn from your past. Take key points from your past and use them as fuel to help you progress. Don’t dwell on the negative too long. Focus on the positive and keep moving forward.

The more time you spend looking back and dwelling on the past, the more you are going to miss the most beautiful thing right in front of you, LIFE.

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Life is what YOU make of it. Don’t let others determine that for you.

Until next time…

Life’s a dance

“Life’s a dance, you learn as you go. Sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. It doesn’t matter what you don’t know, life’s a dance you learn as you go” John Micheal Montgomery

You know, there is a lot of truth in this song. If you have experienced life at all, you know good and well that life is full of all kinds of twist and turns. It is full of uncertainties and expectations. Life is full of highs and lows, happiness and broken hearts. The list of what life is and what it can have in store is almost limitless.
Everyone has a different story. Everyone experiences these ups and downs, successes and disappointments and the like at one point or another in their life. That’s just life. Each of us has a different idea of what life is. To one it may be climbing that corporate ladder. To another it may be a life of missions in a third world country. The good thing is, that neither of these two mentioned or anywhere in between are the right or wrong thing for everybody.
We all have different goals and ambitions in life. That is what makes this life go around.
There is not a step by step guide to take us through this life. We begin this journey the minute we are born. Life is about learning as you go. That is how we get to where we want to be. We learn to crawl, to walk, to talk, etc. If we didn’t learn as we went, we wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Just as the song says, sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. Those times when we follow is a time to learn. We can learn a lot by following, provided we follow the right things. Things that build us up. There are those times where we follow the not so great paths. (Been there many times myself) Even in these times we can still learn from what we experience.
Then there are the times that we lead. Many times this can come with successes in our life. It is a time to reflect on what we have learned and possibly teach or encourage others. There have been many times in my life that I have experienced both. I have learned a lot about overcoming trials and obstacles.
Life is not about going all out until you get knocked down and then just staying there. It is about getting back up, dusting yourself off and continuing on. It is about chasing your dreams. It is about the journey. If you hit a wall, either find a way around it or climb over it.

Life is not perfect. Our world is pretty messed up at times. It is not always pretty, but it is also not always doom and gloom. Life is what you make of it. Life is a journey, not a destination.

So, regardless of whether you are leading or following or anywhere in between, you will step on some toes or get yours stepped on. There is nothing wrong with either, so long as we learn from it. Life is full of lessons to be learned. Life is meant to be enjoyed! Life is meant to be lived!
It doesn’t really matter what you don’t know, we learn as we go through this thing called life.  Learn from your experiences. Build upon your successes.

Life’s a dance, enjoy it!

Until next time…