Navigating Big Success – First Life Wins

By Books Author Denise Turney

You’ve probably heard it too. Real “significant” success takes time, a long time. There are quotes lining walls, shared on social media, and framed in beautiful artwork – all vowing that success takes time. But does it?

Which Side of Time and Success Are You On?

Then, there’s an opposite belief, a thought on the other side of the fence, if you will. Within this belief, big success can happen just-like-that, in the spur of a moment . . . in a second. Today, rooted in the motivational-thought world, success, including first life wins, happens soon after you align your vibrations with the success you want.

Repeating positive affirmations, meditating on what you want, reading positive self-help books, and creating success focused vision boards are tools that are said to be effective regardless of which side of success and time you function on. Another element that applies regardless of your notions about how much or little success is tied to time is YOU.

Do you believe that YOU can achieve and/or receive the big success you want? It’s key.

Are you willing to consider it?

Success Keys You Hold

If it is you who must make the decisions and take the actions that take you from where you are right now to where you want to be, how could you decide and act if you don’t believe you could ever (ever possibly) get what you want? Therefore, when it comes to navigating big success, those precious first life wins, the first step rest with you and only you.

After you decide to not only win or succeed but that you CAN win, you will almost certainly require the support of one or more people. For example, if you want to write compelling stories that possess lasting depth, you need to deepen your life experiences, partner with editors, and read great works written by other writers.

Should you want to sell books that you write, and perhaps even sell enough books to afford a full income writing and selling books, you’ll need to gain commercial writing skills. You’ll need to learn how to turn your writing into a marketing tool, this in addition to using words to create those compelling stories – novels, if you will – that you love.

Learning About Success

So, study what you want to achieve success at. If your success requires you to be an innovator, explore the lives and choices of other innovators. Did their success efforts require funding? How and where did they gain funding?

Even if success, for you, rest in an area that has long been explored, maybe explored many times, see if you can approach the endeavor from a new angle. In other words, bring yourself to what you’re striving to achieve.

Navigating Life Success Actions

Here are more ways to start navigating success, including big first life wins. As you read through these actions, remember that you are key. YOU must believe that you can do what you want to do.

  • See yourself doing what you want to gain success at. Not once, not twice – every day. This isn’t self-help mumbo jumbo. As you continue to see yourself doing what you want to gain success at, your brain will start to focus in this area. Once this occurs, your brain might offer suggestions, ideas, on ways to step into the success.
  • Brainstorm for ideas on ways to find the time to actively pursue focused success. Write ideas down or type them on a spreadsheet, etc.
  • Reach out to one of the first three to five people your mind suggests as someone to connect with as it relates to navigating your success. This means you don’t talk yourself out of picking up the telephone and calling an award-winning movie director, a highly respected scientist, a social or community leader, etc. Remember YOU believe in YOU.
  • List actions that you are going to take to get from where you are right now to where you want to be. Actually, write each step down with specificity. Get clear about how you are going to make this journey.

Success Demands Smart Action

Take chances. One action after another — take action. However, don’t stop there. Don’t just take actions, measure the results of your efforts. Years later, you may appreciate listing the actions you will take, and the results of those efforts more than you can imagine.

These records can help guide your future successes. Because you’re recording your efforts, you won’t have to start from scratch the next time you set out for success – in a different arena or focus area.

Of all the tips for navigating success, including big first life wins, this one may sound strangest. As excited as you might feel to share what you want to achieve success in, consider keeping what you are trying to do to yourself.

Reach out to contacts who will play a role in your success, but don’t tell anyone the whole of what you are trying to do. Why? Despite what you think, you might not yet believe in your own inherent good enough to not yield to conflict, bullying, teasing or attempts to deny you access to success.

Celebrate Big Life Wins

You might give up if you’re not strong enough to withstand the onslaught of disbelief and negative feedback. Hence, the importance of seeing yourself doing what you want to gain success at every day.

Yet don’t stop there. Celebrate each forward step that you take. Avoid glossing over a forward step. Actually take note of what you are doing, what you are achieving. Acknowledge your success. . . . talk about being your own cheerleader.

In closing, be prepared to stay the course. After all, navigating success, especially big first life wins, may take lots of trial and error. So, be open to pivoting, shifting, and trying different approaches and strategies. Above all, keep going. There is no doubt that YOU can achieve the success that you want.

7 Reasons to Celebrate Love This Valentine’s Day and Beyond

By Books Author Denise Turney

Photo by JessBailyDesign at Pixaby

February is hard to beat when it comes to celebrating love. Red and pink heart and passion colors are popping up, filling the day. It’s an exciting time. Ask a florist, jeweler or restaurateur. Love is more than in the air! In fact, a National Retail Federation survey shares that people expect to spend $27.5 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2025.1

Celebrate Love’s Sweetness During and After Valentine’s Day

Even now, couples are seeking ways to express their deepest and most profound feelings for their partner or spouse. Admit it. Love is the one truth that you never get enough of. Fortunately, love comes in a delightful range of forms, from passion that makes your heart race to a remarkable inner strength to joyous freedom.

So sweet and delicious is romantic love that it may often be the first idea that pops into your mind when you hear or read the word “love”. But you don’t need to be in a romantic relationship to feel and celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond. Although it may sound surprising, you don’t need to be part of a “couple” to set aside time to treasure love.

Reasons to Celebrate Love This Valentine’s Day

Do you doubt it? Feeling left out, alone, or abandoned because you’re not “coupled”? It’s not as bad as you think. As a matter of fact, it’s not bad at all. Check out these 7 reasons to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year:

  1. Regardless of what has happened or is happening, you can love yourself. Miley Cyrus says it beautifully in her hit song “I Can Love Me Better Than You Can”.
  2. Making friends stays open. Even if you can’t see it now, you have the chance to introduce yourself to someone, opening the door to a new, healthy friendship.
  3. Although this may sound harsh, it’s true. Tomorrow is not promised, making celebrating love every day a real smart decision.
  4. Celebrating love helps you to focus on the good in your life. This, in turn, may lift your mood and open you up to more peace and joy.
  5. Love connects all living beings. Try it. Commit to loving (only loving) all living beings for a week. See if you feel different. Notice if animals and people react to you differently.
  6. As you celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond, you redefine what it means to be in love for yourself. After all, just as you can be in a loving, intimate relationship, you can also be in love with life itself. Other ways to be in love include being in love with the arts, music, dance or work that you do.
  7. The Creator always loves you – always.

Love is Gentle so Be Gentle with Yourself

This Valentine’s Day and after the holiday passes, consider freeing yourself from the idea that life must be a “specific” way for you to give and receive love. In other words, your work environment or work situation doesn’t have to be a certain way for you to find at least one thing to appreciate about work. Feeling pressured, stressed, under-valued, acknowledged, promoted or esteemed can’t stop you from appreciating a characteristic related to work. That applies whether you have an employer or work for yourself.

Even more, your family doesn’t have to be perfect for you to love yourself and every person in your family. In this vein, you can love your neighbors and people in areas you travel to regardless of what’s happening in those areas or with those people. Bottom line, love is a choice you must make.

There are so many ways love expresses itself. I Corinthians 13:4-8 captures a few love traits. For starters, I Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 shares that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Furthermore, “Love never fails.”

Ways to Celebrate Love on Valentine’s Day and Beyond

Now that you have reasons to celebrate love, here are ways to put that celebration into action. Please don’t skimp on this, as just knowing why it’s good to appreciate love is not enough. Love is a choice that requires action.

  • Pamper yourself with a relaxing bubble bath
  • Send a friend flowers (this includes yourself)
  • Go to a concert with friends
  • Take time away from work and visit a place you’ve long wanted to explore
  • Enjoy dancing with someone or alone with your favorite music playing in the background
  • Create homemade Valentine’s Day cards and send them to family and friends
  • Facetime loved ones who currently live in another country
  • Light candles and enjoy their sweet scent
  • Read a beautiful love story captured within the pages of a romantic novel
  • Paint a picture that expresses what love means to you at this stage in your life
  • Have fun swimming at an indoor pool

This year, commit to looking for love in all the right places. Count your blessings every day and appreciate the goodness within and around you. Let trustworthy people in your life gift you with hugs, delicious meals, flowers and more this Valentine’s Day. Open to giving and receiving love more and more. As you do, watch your life open to greater goodness. You deserve it!

References:

  1. NRF | NRF Survey: Valentine’s Day Spending Reaches Record $27.5 Billion