Tag: Change

Choose Your Thoughts

“I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life—whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.”

~Elizabeth Gilbert

         Life and consequently happiness is all about perspective. You can be miserable because you choose, yes it’s a choice, to look at every bad or unfortunate circumstance as a curse or omen for a miserable life. Likewise, you can choose to perceive every unfortunate circumstance as an opportunity to grow. It can be as simple as a lesson on what isn’t working. You can choose to speak positively to those who don’t speak highly of you. You can choose compassion over cruelty. The point is you ALWAYS have the power to choose your thoughts.

Life’s Lessons

“Everyday of your life is another lesson. If you learn the lesson well and apply it; whether positive or negative, you determine what happens in your tomorrow.”

― David Kofi Awusi

       Life is full of teaching moments if you choose to view it as so. Every experience whether good or bad should be treated as a stepping stone leading you toward a better, brighter, and healthier future.

Your Potential

“Each one of us holds the promise of greatness within our heart, minds, and souls. Our potential and where it leads us are as unique as our fingerprints, yet the way to access what is possible is universal. Affirm your life; find joy every day, even in the mundane; and embrace your strengths and use them to better yourself and the world.”

― Marianna Olszewski

          There is great potential within each of us. Whether you fully realize that potential is up to you. To realize your potential, you must commit yourself each and every day to embracing all that life has graced you with. This means finding joy in every moment of life no matter how small or how dark the day. It means embracing the good and not so good in yourself and in others. It’s about using the tools and resources available to you to better yourself and those around you.

Believe in Yourself

“I didn’t know I had it in me. There’s more to all of us than we realize. Life is so much bigger, grander, higher, and wider than we allow ourselves to think. We’re capable of so much more than we allow ourselves to believe.”

― Queen Latifah

        Don’t sell yourself short. You are capable of much more than you allow yourself to believe. It is so easy to limit ourselves and simply say that’s impossible or is some silly pipe dream. But the reality is that if you allow yourself to try and just go for the “impossible dream,” you may discover that what you once thought to be an insurmountable mountain was nothing but a grain of sand.

Stop Overthinking It

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. In other words, a wish is a good place to start but then you have to get off your butt and make it happen. You have to pick up a quill and write your own damn story.”

― Suzanne Selfors

         It’s so easy to get lost in our heads and in our own self doubts. We so often set ourselves up for defeat and failure before we even start. So, if you have a dream, then get up, start making it a reality, and stop overthinking it.

No Excuses

“Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses in your life; you realize everything that happens in life is a result of the previous choice you’ve made and start making new choices to change your life.”

― Roy Bennett

         It’s so easy to complain about the things going wrong in your life and to continually make excuses about why you haven’t done anything about it. But at some point, you will have to stop making excuses and start making different choices in order to change your life. And know that change won’t happen overnight, but at any time you can choose to stop walking in circles and start moving forward. So, choose today to make a different choice and change your narrative.

It’s Never Too Late

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.”

― Sharon Salzberg

         It’s never too late to make a change in your life. It’s never too late to change the channel from a rerun to a new show. It’s never too late to break free from the chains of your past. For at any moment, you have the ability to wake up, change your perspective, and decide that this isn’t how your story will end.

The Long Road

“There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures.”

– Josiah Gilbert Holland

           Nothing that’s worth anything in this life comes easy or happens overnight. We’ve all heard that saying so many times that I think we forget how true those words are. We so often look for change to happen quickly or tomorrow, but that isn’t reality. Reality is that the really important things in life you must work hard for, you must nurture, and let it grow over time into the rose garden you’ve dreamed about. So, at the end of the day, work hard, be patient, and most importantly stay true to your path because it will truly be worth it in the end.

Define Who You Are

“Each of our lives is a separate and precious journey. No matter how happy, sad, painful, tragic or confusing it may by, it is unique and beautiful. No matter if we hurt others or if we ourselves were hurt, it happened and it is part of our story.

If we think we can have complete control over this journey, our journey will wake us up… usually with a very unpleasant surprise.

More than genetics, money or education, it is our journey who defines who we are. It defines what kind of person you are. Not the experiences you encountered nor the happy or traumatic events you may have endured. But rather how we dealt with those events and how we continue to deal with those events; when we evaluate ourselves and how we treat others.

Your journey is part of your story. But it is not the complete story of who and how you are. You are a soul, a spirit, who has traveled through this life and along the way; you learned and gathered bits and pieces from here and there. And you, yourself, have woven together a soul, a spirit. And that is who you are today. You define… you.

Oh, and just in case you thought your journey, your story was over… surprise, its not. So keep weaving. You are not finished yet. It is never to late to define who you are.”

― José N. Harris

          As you grow and evolve throughout life, you will find yourself redefining who you are along the way. You will find your priorities and what drives you changing. So, embrace the fact that your story is ever changing and at any point you can change the narrative.

Action

“No one rises above who he or she has been without first having fallen down. The best time – in fact, the only time – to make a real change in your life is in the moment of seeing the need for it. He who hesitates always gets lost in the hundred reasons why tomorrow is a better day to get started.”

― Guy Finley

           Don’t wait until tomorrow to make changes in your life. The right time is now. For when you put things off, you’re more likely to find an excuse not to do it. So stop thinking so much and start acting.