Month: May 2017

The Journey Within

“The best journey of life that you can take is inside yourself to discover your new thoughts, new ideas, and new hopes.”

― Debasish Mridha

          As you embark on a journey to pursue your goals and dreams, don’t forget about the journey of self-awareness and self-care. The journey within is just as important as your external pursuits. Always take time to just sit with yourself and reevaluate who you are and what your beliefs and hopes are because you will find that they will evolve and change over time as you grow and experience life.

Navigate Your Way

“The ship is always off course. Anybody who sails knows that. Sailing is being off course and correcting. That gives a sense of what life is about.”

― Michael Meade

         Life is about being able to think on your feet and adjust your course if things aren’t working out. No one’s path was ever meant to be straight leading directly to your destination. No, every path is meant to be winding filled with choices that allow you to navigate the direction your life heads in.

Your Core Values

“Life has a tendency to provide a person with what they need in order to grow. Our beliefs, what we value in life, provide the roadmap for the type of life that we experience. A period of personal unhappiness reveals that our values are misplaced and we are on the wrong path. Unless a person changes their values and ideas, they will continue to experience discontentment.”

― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

            It is important to remember that your core values and beliefs influence every aspect of your life, including the kind of people you choose to surround yourself with and the paths you choose to follow. So, it is only natural that you should reevaluate your values and beliefs when you’re unhappy with any aspect of your life.

Control Your Reactions

“Along our journey we will be confronted with many situations, some will be filled with joy, and some will be filled with heartache. How we react to what we are faced will determine what kind of outcome the rest of our journey through life will be like.”

― Susan Samaroo

          Life is truly 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. You, and you alone, get to decide if you will let life’s circumstances define who you are and the course of your life. For you can’t control what curveballs life will undoubtedly throw at you, but you can control how you deal with it.

Triumph Over Adversity

“My Dear Son,
I am so very proud of you. Now, as you embark on a new journey, I’d like to share this one piece of advice. Always, always remember that – adversity is not a detour. It is part of the path.

You will encounter obstacles. You will make mistakes. Be grateful for both. Your obstacles and mistakes will be your greatest teachers. And the only way to not make mistakes in this life is to do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all.

Your challenges, if you let them, will become your greatest allies. Mountains can crush or raise you, depending on which side of the mountain you choose to stand on. All history bears out that the great, those who have changed the world, have all suffered great challenges. And, more times than not it’s precisely those challenges that, in God’s time, lead to triumph.

Abhor victimhood. Denounce entitlement. Neither are gifts, rather cages to damn the soul. Everyone who has walked this earth is a victim of injustice. Everyone.

Most of all, do not be too quick to denounce your sufferings. The difficult road you are called to walk may, in fact be your only path to success.”

― Richard Paul Evans, A Winter Dream

         You will undoubtedly face many setbacks and difficulties throughout your life. And at times, it may seem like your path is strewn with jagged rocks and rough terrain. But you must not look at your struggles as merely a cross you must bear. No, use your struggles as stepping stones to propel you forward. Gather strength and perseverance from your challenges to triumph over any curveball life may throw at you.

The Sun will Rise

“The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it’s here is up to us. Journey wisely.”

― Alexandra Elle

          Each day is a new opportunity to try again, to start over. It is a chance to leave the baggage of yesterday where it belongs and begin again. It is the time to start a new story, a new journey. Most importantly, each day when the dawn breaks marks a pivotal moment when you have a choice to discover what it means to truly live or continue to merely exist.

Enjoy the Moment

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realise that that is enough to be happy.
There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”

― Charlotte Eriksson

           It’s so easy to get complacent and set in our daily routine that we end up just going through the motions. We tend to forget or get too busy to just stop and enjoy the present moment. So, it’s important to remind ourselves to simply stop, put the phone away and go outside and sit on a bench without a reason for doing so. Go take a walk without a destination in mind. For life is about enjoying the small miracles that surround us each and everyday like a butterfly taking flight or the warmth of the sun on your cheek.

Perspective

“People who are too optimistic seem annoying. This is an unfortunate misinterpretation of what an optimist really is.

An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist.

An idealist focuses only on the best aspects of all things (sometimes in detriment to reality); an optimist strives to find an effective solution. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist makes choices.

When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie.

Annoying? Yes. But, oh-so tasty!”

― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

        The amazing thing about life is the ability to choose your perspective. At all times, you get to choose from which lens you view life from. You can choose to only see the negative. Or, you can choose to see both the good and not so good aspects of life and work towards finding solutions to effect change for the greater good. As always, the choice is up to you.

Reach for the Stars

“When you reach for the stars, you are reaching for the farthest thing out there. When you reach deep into yourself, it is the same thing, but in the opposite direction. If you reach in both directions, you will have spanned the universe.”

― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

        To achieve your full potential, you must first believe in a future of limitless possibilities and have the drive to never stop reaching for the stars. In the same vein, you must harness that same drive to reach deep inside yourself in search of the better version of you. Self-care and self-discovery are just as important as chasing external goals.