It’s been said that you might procrastinate, put off pursuing goals, because you fear making a mistake. In a way, that makes sense. Should you have met punishment, ridicule or judgment in the past after someone discovered that you’d made a mistake, it makes sense that you might want to avoid making a mistake.
Achieving Your Goals
What is more difficult to understand is why you’d avoid doing what you really want to do, especially considering that you could start making smart efforts in that passion field in private. For example, no one has to know that you’re painting, playing a musical instrument, singing, dancing, writing, fishing or woodcutting for the first time.
Yet, even with the chances to make mistakes in private, you might still delay achieving a greater good or even stepping into your destiny. Just as with procrastination, you might think about, daydream about and even talk to others about what you really want to do. The thing you won’t do is get around to actually doing what you most want to do.
This is in regard to love-based good works that you absolutely know is what you came to this world to do. Why do you keep putting it off?
Perhaps you believe that you’ll always have time to do what you want to do. So, you keep pushing getting started into the future. Or you might equate thinking about, fantasizing about and talking about doing this work with actually achieving your goal.
Takes More Than Imagination
Depending on the strength in your imagination, you might feel similar emotions while just daydreaming about doing the thing that you’d feel if you actually did it. What you won’t do is leave the effects of your good work, your creative arts, you social good, etc. for others to benefit from.
After all, dreams and fantasizes are private. Even if you talk about dreams with others, another person can’t experience your dreams the way you do. In other words, you really do have to do the work. And, if you don’t, you could leave a gap. Who knows? The world might be waiting for you to achieve what you came into this world to achieve.
Whether you’re willing to accept it now or not, time is running out. Even as an eternal being, you won’t be in your body forever. You simply don’t have forever to do what you came here to do. Time is running out.
Powerful Motivation
Instead of choosing to accept that fact with fear, be encouraged. Let the fact serve as powerful motivation. Start taking actions to do the good that you came here to do. Research, but don’t stop at researching. Talk to others who’ve done what you want to do or who have done similar things, but don’t stop at talking to those with experience.
Set a day and a time when you are going to take smart action. Don’t talk yourself out of it. Just do it!
Those early attempts might fall flat. When I look back over my early writings, I’m talking work I’ve never published – yikes! I still have a long way to go, but I am so much better – beyond words better than I was when I started. To this day, it moves me deeply when readers approach me and tell me how much a book I wrote touched them, helping some to make life changes. That wouldn’t have happened had I not gotten started and kept at it.
What about you? Are you doing what you truly want to do, what you know you came here to do? If not, why not?
Go For It
Look for ways to encourage yourself. Read stories about other people who failed and made mistakes and failed and kept trying until they hit the bullseye. They really are no different than you from the standpoint that they too are human.
Encouraging you to go for it! Time really is running out.
By Fiction & Non-Fiction Books Author Denise Turney (www.chistell.com)
My love for reading books started when I was a kid. Back then, I easily read through stacks of books a week. Reading fueled my imagination, making it easier for me to envision myself in different environments and scenarios. It didn’t matter that my family wasn’t financially wealthy.
What an Imagination!
Strength in my imagination let me know that I wasn’t stuck. If I wanted, I could use my mind to make decisions that would change my life.
This might be one of the greatest benefits of investing in a lifetime of book reading. A lifetime of options, new ways of looking at life experiences, real-life success stories, thoroughly researched material that gives insight on important events, and first-person payoffs linking resilience and success are a few gains I got from years of book reading.
After I entered adulthood, I discovered that there are even more reasons why you might want to invest in a lifetime of book reading. For starters, it was surprising to learn that reading books supports brain health. About this, Healthline shares that, “Using MRS scans, researchers have confirmed that reading involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain. As your reading ability matures, those networks also get stronger and more sophisticated.”1
Reading Books Offers Benefits
Who knew something as fun as reading could offer so many benefits?
If that’s not enough reason to invest in a lifetime of book reading, check out these additional benefits that are gained from reading books. The ability to empathize is a benefit that the world is in dire need of. People might be more understanding, patient, forgiving, and caring if they felt more deeply connected to others.
Reading and becoming emotionally connected to book characters can help open the pathway to achieving that. Characters in a good book can help you see how childhood programming, hidden motivations, fears, hopes, trust, and beliefs, including erroneous beliefs, lead someone to feel, talk, and behave the way that they do.
Multi-faceted novel characters also give you a close-up view of how people can and do change, experience by experience. That alone could build communication and understanding bridges.
Book Reading Lifetime
Although the above reasons offer a wealth of pros, there’s more. Check out these below reasons why you might want to invest in a lifetime of book reading:
Stress reduction – Simply sitting down and reading a book could help your stress levels to lower.2 It’s a reason why some adults read one or more chapters in a favorite book before they go to bed.
Improved critical thinking – This ties into how reading can strengthen understanding. The more you read and gather information, the sharper your thinking may become.
Healthy self-care – Because reading can help reduce stress, it’s a loving act of self-care. “Today” puts it this way, “when you read a book, your brain comes up with images to accompany what you’re reading about, engaging your creative mind while helping you relax at the same time.”3
Rest – While reading books, you can gain “real” rest. As your mind focuses on what is happening in a book, particularly a novel you love, your focus shifts from cares of the day to what’s happening to characters in the book.
Lively discussion – Join a book club and you can engage in lively discussions about the latest book that you read. And although this isn’t specific to book reading, when you join and participate in a book club, you may also build marvelous friendships.
Making Book Reading Investments
Fortunately, unlike watching television, streaming a show on your tablet, going to a concert or sports event, your brain can get more healthy exercise while you read a book. Even more, you don’t have to take college courses or study to make stellar grades in high school to learn while reading. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, there’s a lot you could learn before you reach the book’s last page.
But don’t just take my word. Try it. Start reading a novel that has a theme you like. Notice how you feel. If you read a nonfiction book, take note of what you learn.
Should you be like a lot of book lovers, you might start to feel better moments after entering a bookstore or library. No joke. You also might feel less alone. Who knows? After a few years of book reading, you might even become a storyteller, also known as a novel writer, yourself.
First, you must make this good investment. It’s an investment that could pay off for years and years.
Success is an experience that you should have. After all, you weren’t created to suffer. You were created to thrive, live in joy and peace and to succeed. Yet, if you’re not living a successful life, something is blocking you. The key is to discover what’s blocking your success. But how do you do that?
To begin, get clear about what you think success is. Why is this important?
What You’re Striving For
If you’re not clear about what you’re striving for, you may never know if you achieved your goal. Depending on your childhood programming, life experiences, and perceptions, you might think that success is having a lot of money. Or you might think that success is feeling powerful, with the ability to order people around, watching them adhere to your commands.
Owning luxury possessions, frequently traveling abroad, dating influencers, and earning graduate degrees are other ways that you might define success. Surprisingly, some of the world’s wealthiest achievers do not focus on money when they define success.
Define Your Personal Success
Mark Cuban is quoted in Business Insider as sharing that, “To me, the definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it’s going to be a great day.” Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, shares that he measures “success by how many people love me.”1
On the other hand, poet, author and actress Maya Angelou shared that, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”1 Working hard, doing work you love, helping others, and following your inner guide or higher self are other ways that wealthy achievers define success.
Counter this with leading goals many people have. Among these winning goals there’s the goal to lose weight and to break free from procrastination as reported by Psychology Today.2 Additionally, life is meaningful to many people if they have a happy, loving family.
So Many Success Definitions
Working a job you love, being materially stable, and having good mental and physical health are other ways that people find meaning in life according to Pew Research.3 The range of success definitions is broad.
On top of that, only you know what makes you feel successful. As simple as it may seem, it’s very important that you get clear about what success means to you. For instance, if you believe that success is having millions or billions of dollars and you gain this financial status only to feel unfulfilled, sad or depressed, you could feel traumatized and confused, even as you look at your hefty bank account.
This has happened to far too many people. Celebrities and business leaders aren’t the only people who pursued “success”, achieved “success goals” and found themselves feeling empty. Don’t let this happen to you.
Uncover What Success Means To You
Sit down, pull out a notebook, and describe the life you think will cause you to feel satisfied, happy, loved, and peaceful. Think about what causes you to feel fulfilled, truly fulfilled. Include that in your success definition. Also, write down what you believe must happen for you to think and feel that you are successful.
For example, do you believe that you must sell enough books to land on the New York Times bestseller list five or more times, launch a multi-billion-dollar business or lose 30 pounds to be a success? Or do you believe that you must earn a doctorate degree, land a political position, raise happy, responsible children or discover a medical cure to achieve success?
What You Must Do To Achieve Success
Take your time thinking about and writing down what you believe you must do to achieve success. As a reminder, include what causes you to feel fulfilled, truly fulfilled. Leave out the latter, and you may feel that your success is being blocked when it isn’t (even after you’ve achieved a lot).
Next, write down specific actions you could take to gain this experience, not once but over the long term. Aim to list more than 100 actions that you could take to achieve your success goals. Why?
Despite your best efforts, there will be setbacks. Not every action you take will yield good fruit. Building out a wealth of actions can keep you motivated, focused, and free of ongoing frustration. When one action doesn’t produce the result you want, you’ll have another action to implement.
Removing Success Blocks
To remove success blocks, you’ll also have to take an honest look at yourself. For starters, do you honestly believe that you deserve to be successful? If not, why not?
And how do you think success would change you or change your lifestyle? Do you think that success would alter your identity? How?
Even more, if you achieved success do you think that you would become like other successful people who lost their way? Search your mind deeply, thoroughly, for answers to these questions. What you discover during the search might surprise you.
It might surprise you to discover that you’re afraid of success because you believe you’d fall into an addiction, become rude and obnoxious, get stalked or become unable to trust family or friends, experiences that have happened to others but that don’t have to happen to you. That’s right.
You Deserve Success
You do not have to relive or repeat anyone else’s life experiences. That includes your parents’ and other ancestors. There is no requirement to repeat their experiences unless you choose to do so. More importantly, you don’t have to live above or beneath the level you perceived your parents as having lived at.
This is your life. Your parents and ancestors, everyone, has been gifted with a life to create or develop as they desire. Talk about a gift! Give yourself permission to partner with the Creator to design a life that will open you up to love, light, peace, joy, and success. You deserve to live a good life. You really do.
What’s in your toolbox when it comes to easy ways to reduce and eliminate stress? Do you feel like a hostage to worry? Whether you realize it or not, there are ways to release stress. There are ways to enter peace despite how hectic the world appears.
What Causes Stress
Few of these actions require a dime. Admittedly, the more stress elimination tools you gain, the better. Apply one or more tools early and you could shift from living with mild to chronic worry everyday to experiencing a growing inner peace. But why does stress show up?
Stress shows up for a myriad of reasons. Even more, you could find yourself struggling with stress at any point in your life. Back to stress reasons or causes – Job demands, relationships, finances, political conflicts, parenting, and health concerns are just a few key players when it comes to stress causes. But they aren’t alone.
Dealing with a school or workplace bully, dread about seeing a relative you don’t like at an upcoming family reunion, and concern that a neighbor’s pet has it out for you are other reasons why you could feel stressed. If you’re working a full-time job, you’ve already faced and managed your way through stress (e.g., connecting with friends, engaging in a hobby).
Stress Reducers That Are Already Working for You
So, you already have at least one de-stressor in your toolbox. To add another de-stressor to your toolbox, revisit your childhood. Think back to a time when you found yourself worrying, really worrying. It might have been about an upcoming school exam, a kid who picked on you, or a book report you had to deliver in front of the entire class. (As a kid, speaking in front of a classroom used to scare the wits out of me.)
How long did you feel uncomfortable before you realized what was happening, that you were stressing yourself? What were the first thoughts, including solution ideas, that popped into your mind? Finally, what did you end up doing to reduce or eliminate the stress?
For example, did you talk with a friend or relative about what you were afraid of dealing with? Did you read and meditate on scripture and pray? Or did you write in a journal or speak with the person related to the stress and work out a positive solution?
Hopefully — and although it might look easy at first glance – you didn’t decide to carry the stress. If so, you could still be dealing with the stress, allowing it to show up in different ways.
Easy Wasy to Release Stress
On the other hand, if you found a positive way to release stress, write the action down. It’s a part of your mental wellbeing toolbox.
Here are more easy ways to release stress while living in this hectic world. Consider trying one or more of the ways the next time you start to feel tense:
Diet – This one may come as a surprise. However, studies show that there may be a link between diet and mood. As shared in Very Well Mind, Kaleigh McMordie, a registered dietician, says that “There is evidence that diet affects mood, including depression and anxiety, as well as our body’s stress response.” Additionally, in a 2021 study, the study participants “who ate at least 470 grams of fruit and vegetables daily had 10% lower stress levels than those who consumed less than 230 grams.”3
Self-Awareness – It’s hard, if it’s even possible, to beat self-awareness when it comes to spotting, stopping, and releasing stress. Get to know yourself. Tips to strengthen self-awareness include writing in a journal, walking in nature in safe areas, and being honest about what you are feeling and thinking. You don’t have to act on what you’re thinking or feeling, but it’s incredibly beneficial to be aware of (and honest) about what you’re thinking and feeling.
Pray – Communicate with the Creator. Do this regularly, throughout the day, and your trust level (trust that you can deal with whatever comes your way) may rise.
More About Self-Awareness, Stress and Peace
As noted, self-awareness is key when it comes to spotting and releasing stress. After all, self-awareness can alert you to what causes you to become stressed. Reach this point and you could become aware of what to steer free of.
Check out these easy ways to release stress. See which ones you could easily incorporate in your life:
Sleep – Create a routine of retiring to bed around the same time at night. Turn off electronics (e.g., cell phones, TVs) before you climb into bed. To sleep better, make sure the temperature in your home is comfortable. Also, start to wind down an hour before bedtime.
Exercise – Get outside in safe areas. Move your body. Taking a walk, going for a jog, riding a bike, or swimming are great forms of exercise. Exercising outside allows your body to soak up vitamin D. And light from the sun helps the body release endorphins, natural mood lifters and stress reducers.
Positive Affirmations – Repeating positive affirmations and posting one or more positive affirmations in your home and at your workplace can keep your thoughts focused on hopeful, encouraging, and loving events and situations.
Music – Listen to music you appreciate and enjoy, music that lifts your mood and generates peaceful feelings within you.
Soak – Enjoy taking a relaxing and warm bubble bath.
Let Go of Stress, Welcome Peace
Even more ways to release stress follow. You might do one of these actions already which is very good:
Meditate – Although you could sit on a mat and focus on your breathing, it’s not necessary. Another thing you don’t have to do to meditate is to empty your mind of all thoughts. If you’re new to meditating, simply sit and watch your thoughts pass as if you’re merely watching clouds float by. As you become aware of your thoughts, you could say, “I seem to be thinking about paying the mortgage.” or “I seem to be thinking about a project at work.”
Talk with a Friend – Visit or call a friend or a close relative. Simply talk with them about what’s troubling you. Be willing to listen to your friend or relative when they share something that’s troubling them too.
Yoga – Practice two to three yoga moves for 10 to 15 minutes. See if you don’t start to feel better.
Sing – Make your own music by singing a song you made up or recently heard on the radio that you’re digging.
Dance – Yes; dance!
Read a Book – This one has worked for me more times than I can count. Getting caught up in an entertaining story that also relaxes you can do wonders for your mood, not to mention help you sleep better.
Don’t Go It Alone; Say Good-bye to Stress
Socializing with friends, relatives, colleagues, and neighbors is another good stress reducer and eliminator. If you’re shy like I was (I was painfully shy years ago), take small steps. But start getting out with people who truly love and care about you.
For instance, you could go to the movies, bowling, fishing, hiking, visiting museums or to arts events with family and friends. Joining a book club, traveling, spending time at the beach, and watching uplifting TV shows can also reduce stress.
Whatever you do to release stress as you navigate a hectic world, don’t accept that you have no choice but to hang onto stress. Why? Stress doesn’t generally go away on its own.
How Stress Loves Bad Company
In fact, and unfortunately, stress has not lowered during 2024. Some studies show that the numbers of people reporting that they are stressed has increased. The American Psychiatric Association shares that, “In 2024, 43% of adults say they feel more anxious than they did the previous year, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022.”1
Furthermore, Forbes shares that, “Compared to other countries, 2022 data from Gallup shows that Afghanistan currently has the highest reported stress level at 68%— the U.S. is not too far behind at 53%.”2 Akin to other issues, stress doesn’t hang out alone.
Let stress build and hang around too long and you could develop headaches, achy joints, trouble sleeping, and high blood pressure. Ulcers, moodiness, problems focusing or concentrating, and inflammation are other issues linked to prolonged stress.
Shift Out of Stress into Peace
Hence, the importance of practicing stress reducers and eliminators. See if you can catch yourself early. As soon as you notice that you’re becoming tense, reach in your toolbox and put a positive stress reducer or stress eliminator into action. Avoid engaging in unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking caffeine and alcohol, and sleeping all day.
Should you still be wrestling with stress, even after implementing several stress elimination actions, consider speaking with a licensed, experienced, and ethical psychologist.4 You are too important to allow suffering to become “normal” for you. Take care of yourself. Love yourself. You may find it helpful to journal about your day, releasing stressors as you express yourself honestly in a journal.
Try Looking at the Stressor Differently
Look at what you are allowing yourself to enter into a stressful state differently. Try asking yourself questions about the situation. Sample questions include: Is the conversation going to go as negatively as I keep trying to convince myself that it will? Could I be happily surprised at the outcome? Have I always been right when I’ve worked hard to predict how a future event would go?
When has a future event not gone “exactly” as I had tried to convince and worry myself that it would go? Am I partly trying to force myself into a stressful state because I am afraid of being wrong? Then, encourage yourself that it’s okay to be wrong. It’s okay to think a conversation, relationship, work project, arts production or situation is going to go one way and then be surprised when it turns out differently.
Personally, there have been countless times when I thought a situation was going to blow up and it didn’t. And there have been times when I thought someone hated me only to discover that they care about me. So, try to look at the stressor differently. That alone might open you up to peace.
Journaling can yield deeper personal understanding, peace, reduced anxiety, and improved mental clarity. The benefits appear so simply that, if you’re not paying attention, you could miss how much you’ve gained from journal writing. This may be what happened to me.
Journaling in a Diary
When I was a kid, I started writing in a diary. Back then, it seemed as if diary writing went hand-in-hand with being a young girl. My paternal grandmother might have been the first person to give me a diary. Straightaway I started writing about crushes I had, TV shows, and fun I’d had playing outside with my siblings and friends.
Later, I wrote about track races I trained for and competed in. Looking back, I wish that I had continued writing in a diary and, even more, that I’d had kept the writings. If I had, I would have insight into my childhood that is more accurate than memory.
Fortunately, a colleague would give me a set of journals for Christmas years later. That’s when I started journaling with intent and commitment. Because I’d been given the journals as a gift, I told myself that I had to write in them.
Benefits Gained from Journaling
More than 20 years later, I’ve filled in well over 25 blank journals. Dreams, challenges, life changes, vacation experiences, and relationships have been written about in my journals. More than filling out blank journals, I’ve gained far reaching benefits. Among these benefits, there’s:
Insight into what’s coming (this has often come through writing down dreams)
Ability to express uncomfortable emotions (e.g., fear, jealousy, anger) without blowing up on anyone
Opportunity to record personal history (this single act can help me to spot harmful habits, behavioral or thought-based, and start to work to release the habits)
Strengthen my writing skills
Improve self-confidence which, in turn, improves communication skills and personal relationships
You could tap into these and other benefits too. According to Healthline, journaling helps you to understand your needs. Other benefits include lowering stress and improving the perception you hold of yourself.1
Journaling and Depression
Psychology Today shares that regularly writing could help to keep depression at bay.2 If you’re seeking to stabilize emotions, writing in a journal might pay off. As you continue to write openly and in freestyle fashion, your creative juices might also start to flow.
Once this happens, ideas about a new novel, photography project, crafts assignment, or communication strategy may surface. Here are more advantages that you could gain after you start writing in a journal regularly:
Improve your memory – Psychology Today shares, “Keeping a diary can help improve your memory, as you can reflect on past experiences and remember details that may have been forgotten. Writing stories down can facilitate memory and serve as a reminder of the meaningful things that happen in your life.”2
Manage mental health – Writing challenges and concerns down is an effective way to release worries. Once you get what’s been worrying you into your journal, you no longer need to keep the experience “secret”. This doesn’t mean that you tell anyone else what you’ve experienced or what you’ve been thinking. It means that you’ve freed yourself from suppressing the experience in your own mind.
Increased energy – The former benefit raises another plus. After you free yourself from the effort of suppressing, you can access the energy that you’d been using to keep the worry “hidden” and use that energy to do love-based work.
Linking Hints About the Future to Journal Writing
Since thinking and action require energy, writing in a journal to give yourself access to increased energy is a far-reaching benefit. In turn, access to increased energy could give you a motivational boost.
Even if you don’t become keenly aware of the benefits gained from journaling, as you continue writing in a journal, you can consciously or unconsciously spot positive shifts in yourself. On the other hand, if you’re in the habit of practicing self-awareness, there’s a strong likelihood that you will link certain benefits with journaling.
Should you receive prophetic dreams, visions or strong intuitive guidance, writing these experiences in your journal could provide clues to what’s coming next. For instance, you might notice that one or more dream symbols (e.g., a specific animal, plant, word) appear in your dreams weeks before a job change, residential move, or relationship shift.
What About Trauma and Journaling?
There may be no way to fully tell you how advantageous journaling is. Not only might you gain clues to coming events, as you look back over prior journal entries, you may come to understand yourself more fully.
Psych Central also shares that journaling could help you move through trauma. More specifically, Psych Central reports that, “a 2015 research paper explains that consistent expressive writing may help reduce PTSD symptoms. It also suggests that writing at length about a traumatic or stressful event can help manage PTSD symptoms.”3
However, if you do use journaling to work process through trauma, consider reaching out to an experienced, licensed, and ethical therapist, especially if the journal writing proves to be triggering. After all, the point of journaling is to heal and become more fully aware of the “real” you.
Types of Writing Journals
Although we’ve shared numerous journaling benefits, you might discover more advantages linked to journaling. If you’re wondering how to get started with journaling, the process is simple. All you need to do is get a blank journal. You might use a digital journal. Should you choose a digital journal, remember that you could lose what you’ve written if the electronic device you journal with breaks permanently.
Yet, in today’s electronic world, a digital journal could prove to be a great fit for you. Retailers, bookstores, and crafters design and sell blank paper journals. These blank-page journals are designed with brilliant, clever, and beautiful covers.
Consider choosing a journal with a cover that inspires, encourages, and motivates you to keep writing in the journal and that also inspires you to continue to practice self-awareness, share love, and awaken. Next, determine how often you’re going to write in your journal.
Getting Started with Journaling
For example, are you going to journal daily or weekly? Or are you going to write in your journal after you have a dream or while you’re working through a difficult shift?
As a tip, the more you write in your journal, the more you may capture what you’ve been thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Again, it’s a combination of these three that can help you come to know your authentic self more fully.
Try it! See if you spot positive inner growth after you’ve been journaling for several weeks or for several months. Also, if you do write your dreams in a journal, don’t be surprised if you start remembering your dreams (and in greater detail) more frequently. It’s a great way to know what your subconscious mind is focusing on! It’s a great way to begin to heal.
Each day offers you the opportunity to receive a miracle. Don’t think so? You might be overlooking the good that’s nearby. Here’s an example in the form of a question. When’s the last time that you saw your nose?
In Your Face
Now, this is not to demonstrate that being aware of your nose is a miracle. Instead, it’s to show that there are fortunate happenings right in front of you that you don’t notice or pay attention to. Furthermore, not only might you overlook miracles, you could take a blessing for granted.
Check out these everyday miracles that you might be overlooking. If you don’t overlook these fortunate experiences, you might diminish their worth, seeing them as ordinary or expected events.
The right name popping into your mind seconds after you try to recall the name of a friend, neighbor or relative you haven’t seen or spoken to in years
A friend calling or visiting you within seconds of you deciding to give up and their telephone call or visit serving as the event that led you down a fulfilling life path
Agreeing to take a later flight to accommodate an overbooking and receiving a free airline ticket that you have up to a year to use.
Speedy recovery following an accident or injury
Clear signs that you will benefit from resting and enjoying life instead of pushing yourself to complete another work project
Dreams that offer guidance on what you should do now to advance on your life’s journey
Genuine smiles and care that you receive from friends, family, colleagues and strangers
Your favorite song suddenly playing on the radio just when a pang of hopelessness came over you
Sharpen Up
Clearly, just because you don’t notice them, that doesn’t mean that miracles aren’t popping up around you. Therefore, as a first step to open to more success and greater good, sharpen your awareness. Here’s a way to do that within seconds.
Count three events, sounds or scents at your living space each morning
Walk through your living space and count each light source, including windows
Pay attention to how often plants or pets thrive while they are with you and vice versa
Become aware of how many different foods and beverages your body digest absent discomfort every day
Another way to sharpen your awareness is to listen to the sound of a speaker’s voice, picking up the slightest inflection. It also helps to actually listen to people while they speak with you. Even if someone tends to repeat a phrase, when you actively listen to that person, you might hear what they are saying for the first time.
Check Your Miracle Beliefs
In addition to sharpening your awareness, to open to more success and greater good, check your beliefs. For instance, these beliefs could make the path to opening to success challenging. If you believe that you must work hard or long hours to receive success, this could lay out a hard road (something that isn’t necessary).
Also, if you believe that you have to do everything yourself, it could take longer to achieve success. Had you believed that you could trust others, you might have built a reliable, experienced team and cut the time that it took to open to more success in half.
Regarding beliefs, be willing to approach success plans in small actions. This could keep you free of stress and burnout. To avoid stress and burnout, take regular breaks. Actually plug an hour of relaxation into your day.
Daily Motivation Tips
It might not look like it, but adequate rest and relaxation are key success components. So too is motivation. For you, motivation might come in the form of a song, poem, book, discussions with a friend, camping, swimming or nature walk.
Read motivational quotes when you start feeling like success will always be out of reach. And count those seemingly small miracles. After all, like your nose, success can go unnoticed, but that doesn’t mean that good isn’t right in front of you, which brings up a final point. Recognize your forward steps, celebrating the completion of each activity that opens you to more success, greater good.
Consider your passion. This is an activity that you absolutely love engaging in. Could be in the creative arts, business, technical, scientific, social or educational field. For instance, you might love spending hours working in a dark room, developing new photographs. Even if you made a lot of money from your passion, there may be no bigger reward than the joy that you feel while you’re deeply involved in your passion.
Avoid The Trap
No amount of money may center you in that type of joy. If you already pursue your passion, you probably are familiar with this. Yet, in this world, you could miss this fact and start chasing external approval, awards or titles. Even more, you could start seeing your passion as primarily a means to bring more and more money into your home.
For certain, you wouldn’t be the first to do this. As much as I don’t like to say it, I fell into this trap, lingering in the trap for several years. If I didn’t sell a lot of books, I told myself that it wasn’t worth it to write a new book.
Fortunately, I shifted out of this trap. After I was out of this snare, I realized that the more important thing was to “do the work”. Makes good sense to me now.
After all, without the work, there are slimmer chances of getting to the book sales success that I want. But, there was another lesson that was birthed in the realization that “doing the work” was the more important goal.
It’s So Simple
And, that other lesson was the importance of valuing how engaging in my passion helped to open me up to joy. Spend five minutes in joy and you might come to see that there’s no better feeling than joy. Add to that how easy it is to get into joy simply by engaging in your passion.
Talk about your passion being a blessing. For this reason, be encouraged to return to your passion. Should you not return to your passion, you could rob yourself of a lot of joy and satisfaction. Let that occur and no amount of work, food or sleep might feel like enough.
Sounds simple.
However, it’s not always so simple.
Stop Avoiding Passion
This is a busy world, full or responsibilities, deadlines and distractions. Get distracted or caught up in other “safe” or “comfortable” pursuits and years could pass without you even thinking about your passion, let alone engaging in it. In fact, you might even convince yourself that you just don’t have time to pursue your deepest passions.
Should this be where you are right now, consider pausing. Think about the power and the importance of joy. There’s a wealth of power in joy. Then, start to search for activities to spend less time with, making room to engage in your passion. Of course, do this with love. In other words, don’t cut down the time that you spend with your family.
Find The Time
Instead, carve out “meaningless” activities, things that you do merely to fill up time. Take this rediscovered time and focus on what you truly love to do. The payoff might be greater than you could ever imagine.
You have to make the shift though. It really is true that you won’t know what could come of your passions if you don’t work them. What you do could bless you, those around you and generations to come.
Here’s to finding the time to pursue your deepest passions.
How would you change your life if you believed that you’re supposed to be enlightened with joy? Would you continue to look outside yourself for direction, turning to other people’s experiences and mounds of information when you wanted to know what to do now and next?
Is Information the Link to Joy
Today information is everywhere, filling our minds with images, sayings, opinions, warnings, advertisements, advice, and teachings. There are messages that espouse the importance of sacrifice, as if to gift the world with meaning you must give something up. Right now, technology via electronics is pushing out information at an alarming rate. It’s hard not to turn to data or other people for guidance, as if that’s where you should go to fully know what you should do to experience joy.
Then, there’s artificial intelligence, a growing form of technology and data that is taking humanity into new territory. It’s definitely not a boring time, but could our main purpose be the oldest aim, perhaps forever unchanged. What if, through the information age and beyond, the main aim is joy?
In other words, what if you’re supposed to be enlightened with joy? After all, throughout time, a myriad of situations, and lifestyles, there are but a few things that have remained unaltered: peace, love, and joy. If joy was, indeed, the aim of your being, how would you allow your physical experiences to unfold?
What Would You Do If Your Goal Was Joy
Would you work where you now work, focusing on projects that you now focus on? And would the physical structure that you call home be as it currently is? If not, where would you work or live and who would occupy your space?
Looking back, if we’re supposed to be enlightened with joy, it could be why I received inner guidance to “not seek after comfort” when I was a kid, about 12-years old. Of course, I’ve spent much of this journey seeking comfort. Fortunately, I’ve been curious enough about life and our Creator to follow higher guidance which, so often, takes one away from comfort.
Think about it. Is it not clear that you could go one way or another, but not two ways at the same time? You can seek comfort or truth. Also, you could seek illusions or truth.
Choosing to be Enlightened with Joy
Choose to be enlightened with joy and you’ll have to break away from worldly traditions. 2 Corinthians 6:17 shares that you’d have to “come out from among them.” (KJV) Furthermore, Romans 12:2 shares, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (NIV)
Admittedly, this is no easy task. At the start, it may feel as if you’re giving up everything that you want, all that you value – happiness itself. As you keep going, changing your mind and choosing anew, you may enter a state of peace and joy that you maintain regardless of outer circumstances.
Imagine experiencing joy, love, and peace regardless of what you hear, see, perceive, or feel? Talk about graduating. It may very well be impossible to experience suffering, anger, jealousy, or hate once you reach that level of enlightenment.
Could it happen quickly, or would it take years, decades? What do you think?
Progressing Toward Joy Enlightenment
Depending on your childhood programming and training, you might have to become intensely curious about life to start to distinguish between profitable and unprofitable childhood and adult lessons. For instance, it might take curiosity, courage, and determination to stop following old, worn life paths: going to school to obtain degrees and certificates as proof that you can complete a task.
Or you might face financial rewards differently, choosing not to allow the opportunity to receive more money to guide your path. Overall, you might have to discontinue the tradition of allowing what your body’s eyes see to guide you, to tell you which way to go.
Talk about breaking away. Traditions that you heard while growing up might follow you for years, shadowing you, even as you commit to following a specific path that shortens your enlightenment with joy. Back and forth, returning to old worldly traditions to break free again, you might go for quite a while.
Yet, if your aim to be enlightened with joy is maintained, progress you shall. But first you must begin. To do that, you may consider following your Higher Self. Those early followings might come through journal writings, recording your dreams, and interpreting those dreams.
Journey Toward Joy
More ways to begin the journey toward enlightenment through joy include:
Praying to the Creator with the belief that you are always loved
Watching your thoughts pass as if you are merely watching clouds float by, without getting attached to any of the thoughts
Investing in a healthy diet, including eating fresh vegetables, fruits, and hydrating your body with lots of fresh water
Looking for blessings and counting them to become more aware of the countless way that the Creator blesses and loves you
Gifting yourself and others with acts of kindness
Another way to become enlightened with joy is to live honestly. This doesn’t mean that you become harsh. It means that you don’t lie to yourself. Instead of proclaiming that you are always happy, you accept what you truly feel.
Opening to Honesty to Become Enlightened
You open to the idea that “what you feel” is not what you are, nor is it a judgment on you, freeing yourself to accept what you’re currently experiencing. This gives you the opportunity to work through contradictions, worry, and trauma.
Rather than holding you back, living honestly helps you to “let go” of what’s been holding you hostage to sorrow, regret, and guilt. Throughout the journey of living honestly joy remains the aim.
Keep going. There is so much to explore, learn, celebrate, and love. It may help you to realize that you are not alone. In one way or another, everyone is on a journey. You’ve come this far on your journey. Obviously, you possess the courage to step into the unknown, expecting good outcomes.
Be patient with yourself. Whether you accept it now or not, you do have what it takes to live in joy. Allow yourself to be curious about experiences you have. Love yourself and give yourself room to make mistakes. Expect greater good to enter your sphere. You deserve it. You really do.
Stop daydreaming if you want to experience real life success. Admittedly, daydreaming feels good which might be why you do it so much. There could also be brain benefits associated with daydreaming. According to studies, including those shared in a Harvard Medical School article, daydreaming may improve brain plasticity. More specifically, “Based on the results of the study, the researchers suspect that these daydreams may be actively involved in brain plasticity.”1
Can Daydreaming Become Addictive?
Furthermore, Smithsonian reports that “psychological research is beginning to reveal that daydreaming is a strong indicator of an active and well-equipped brain.” Smithsonian goes on to share that a “wandering mind correlates with higher degrees of what is referred to as working memory. Cognitive scientists define this type of memory as the brain’s ability to retain and recall information in the face of distractions.”2
Memory and brain plasticity benefits aside, if you daydream to the point that daydreaming becomes addictive, you might be surprised to find yourself stuck in life routines that you hate. It could range from relationships to work to creative pursuits to your inner journey.
Before you know it, you’ve invested 15 years in a job that sucks the happiness out of you. Or you’re going home to a relationship that you haven’t felt good about for a decade. Each time the pain of staying in the situation gets too intense, you start daydreaming, pretending that your life is different.
Stop Daydreaming If You Really Want It
You daydream that you’re in a loving relationship with someone who makes you feel loved and deeply appreciated every single day, even as you roll your eyes each time your “real” lover kisses or touches you. And you daydream for hours at work, pretending that you’re doing entirely different work in an entirely different city with entirely different business partners.
Even if you delve into exploring a new job, relationship, fitness routine, etc., you won’t go as far as you could if most of your efforts are limited to daydreaming. On top of this, if you’re merely daydreaming, do you really want what you say you want?
Do you really want it?
How To Replace Daydreaming With Action
If you do, stop “only” daydreaming. Replace daydreaming with action.
Create an action plan. For example, if you want to start a business, start building your board of directors. Research licenses and certificates that the business you want to start is required to have. Work with market research organizations to learn about the best places to launch your business. Also, get up to speed on effective marketing and promotion strategies in the industry you want to work in. And set deadlines for when you will complete each action in the plan.
Learn and learn. Enroll in postsecondary courses that help you stay aware of industry trends and market and product cycles. Stay abreast of technology, marketing pros, and product designers who are shaping the future of your industry.
Take smart risks. Don’t play it safe. That’s what daydreaming is for. Break old industry habits and patterns. Be the courageous creative who does the thing that hasn’t been done before. Have the courage to stand alone for a while. If what you take a risk on takes off, you can best believe that there will be lots of people who will try to mimic what you just did.
Keep it new. Continue to develop and create new products and services. This one is important, because if you don’t keep releasing new products and services, your offerings may start to feel stale to consumers.
Daydreaming Habits
Should you have slipped into the habit of daydreaming for hours a day, use a tool (e.g., spreadsheet, daily planner) to track your actions and the return on your efforts. This simple activity can keep you from falling prey to magical thinking.
Even more, it can protect you from lying to yourself. Tracking your actions and return on efforts can prevent you from believing that you’re doing things that you actually aren’t doing. Unfortunately, this is what happened to me when I decided to pursue freelance writing full-time, and not just pursue freelance writing, but pursue freelance writing as the Great Recession was kicking off.
Poor timing, I know. But that wasn’t the bad part. What hurt was daydreaming versus putting more of my plans into action. How I turned it around was to get out a spreadsheet and start recording my actions.
How To Give Yourself a Chance
The payoff was huge. Money that I generated from freelance writing increased significantly. Confidence that I could make it as a writer strengthened. To this day, the single act of tracking my actions and the return on those actions is one of the smartest moves I’ve made.
So, give yourself a good chance to experience real life success. Commit to taking smart actions. Avoid believing that success is rooted in luck. To speed up your success, set aside time each day to use your imagination (a great time for daydreaming) to surface new ideas, innovative ways to grow your business.
Just a few days investing in idea creation could see you come up with more than 100 ways to grow your business. The number of ways you could strengthen your business might even shock you. Give it a try!
Deepen Relationships In Real Life, Not In Dreams
After you stop daydreaming about what you want (in place of taking smart actions), build healthy connections. After all, no one knows everything about anything. Despite how independent you might be, you need other people to support and partner with you to experience long-term success.
To build and deepen these relationships:
Join industry associations
Sponsor events that appeal to your target audience
Attend conferences and cultural festivals that attract business leaders and consumers your products and services aim to improve the lives of
Visualize Your Success
Not only does that strengthen important connections, but it also reinforces your brand. Speaking of strengthening connections and your brand, make keeping what you do in the human consciousness a priority. Ways to do that include:
Designing a logo with colors and an image that generate positive emotions
Ensuring that your logo is on all of your products and promo items, also known as “swag”
Interviewing in media outlets that appeal to your target audience, guiding your responses to your products or services.
During times when you don’t see your efforts paying off as much as you’d like, visualize yourself succeeded – not later – now! See and feel yourself achieving what you want to achieve – not later – now!
Your Success Won’t Be a Daydream
Feel the success. Allow it to become part of your identity while you love yourself as you are. Continue growing by looking at your spreadsheet or daily planners, revisiting your start, noticing how far you have come.
Set new goals. Keep challenging yourself while loving yourself as you are. If you keep taking smart risks, making good connections, deepening relationships, and enriching your brand, and improving the return on your efforts, one day you’ll look back and wonder how you achieved as much as you did. And it won’t be a daydream. It will be real!
Unexpected events run the gamut. There’s the unexpected job promotion, welcomed new relationship, lottery winning, unparalleled artistic performance and sports victory. Let one of those experiences plop into your life, seemingly out of nowhere, and your mood might soar.
Life Throwing You Off Guard
Those are the “good” unexpected life events. Not to be outdone, “good events” also have an opposite in this world. Just as a start, there’s a job layoff, a loved one transitioning, a health challenge, an onstage performance snafu and an athletic strikeout.
Let one of these events pop-up, and you might feel unequipped to deal with the experience. On top of that, “normal” experiences could suddenly feel like too much for you to manage your way through. Receive an emergency telephone call from a first responder, telling you that a relative was in a life altering accident and you might feel as if you can’t catch your breath.
Even more, you might feel like you’re unable to go to work, finish school or manage even one other existing relationship. According to the Mayo Clinic, “You experience more stress than would normally be expected in response to a stressful or unexpected event, and the stress causes significant problems in your relationships, at work or at school.”
Signs You Might Be Stressed
Signs that you could be struggling to move forward post an unexpected life event vary. Generally, these signs include:
Change in sleep patterns
Inability to eat or eating and/or drinking excessively
Unusual irritability
Disturbing dreams that could be a sign that your subconscious is trying to clue you in to the fact that you’re stressed
Trouble concentrating
Memory issues or forgetting simple things like someone’s name, where you parked your car, etc.
Worrying what feels like all the time
Preparing For Life’s Unexpected Events
Surprisingly, it could take just one unexpected life event to seemingly knock you off balance. Just one. Fortunately, and although you may not be able to prepare for every experience, there are actions that you could take to support yourself as you move through the unexpected. Among those events there’s:
Cancel unnecessary expenses and build up your financial savings
Join a good support group with members who have gone through one or more experiences similar to what you’re struggling to move through
Explore treatment options if the unexpected life event involves a health challenge
Use a fitness watch to monitor your deep sleep. Head to bed at the same time at night to encourage more deep sleep.
Eat a healthy diet of natural foods and herbs, and drink lots of fresh water.
Meditate
Get outside and soak up natural sunlight in healthy ways (i.e. take a nature walk, go camping, hiking, bike riding, read a good book on the porch or front stoop).
Talk to a friend who has proven that she/he can be trusted.
Write in a journal. Express what you’re feeling and thinking.
Seek professional support, as needed.
Friends Matter A Lot
Regardless of which actions you decide to take, it’s good to have a strong support system. Building this system could take time. Yet, it’s relatively easy. In fact, building a strong support system is an exercise in friendship building.
This means that you stay free of isolation. When friends invite you to a cruise, get together, movie or lunch, consider saying “yes” sometimes. Give yourself the chance to spend time with people who care about you. Feeling brave? Host an event of your own and invite friends and relatives to your place.
It might not seem like it now, but these relationships are where you could tap into the strength to keep moving forward after an unexpected event shows up. All said, the best time to start preparing for life’s unexpected events is now.
Being Present
Being present for others you know may seem like a small thing to do. However, in being there for others, you can learn how to sit still and be fully present while someone moves through challenge. Additionally, the people who you’re there for may be more open to supporting you when unexpected events take a shot at your internal balance.
Furthermore, being there for others is a great way to learn more about yourself. And, who knows? What you help someone else adjust to now could be what you’re faced with later. You might not see it now, yet that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. After all, as much as you might try to peek into the future, on this side, it might very well be impossible to foresee all coming events.
So, make smart decisions. Take good actions now and also when you face the unexpected. Build and nurture strong support systems. Learn to sit still and make self-care a daily practice.
