Circle of 5
Your circle of 5 – the 5 people that you associate with the most have a powerful and subtle influence over you. Your associations don’t shove you in a direction, but rather like floating in an inner tube in the ocean, you drift towards the same behaviors they have. This group determines as much as 95% of your sucess or failure in life according to Dr. David McClelland of Harvard. They end up determining what we say, how we think, our attitudes, even how we dress – and for most of us we aren’t even aware of it happening. That being said, what are the attitudes, health, and behaviors of the 5 people that you associate most with? Then ask yourself is this who I want to be? Your relationships can nuture you or keep you stuck. Evaluate and shift your life starting today.
Kissing the Shoreline
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s swept away” – Sarah Kay
In case you didn’t listen to the spoken poetry on my page, this is a small quote from it. From this I think about how we try to accomplish a goal and we are all gung ho, then get swept away and maybe we restart it and maybe we don’t, but we get swept away again and how many of us keep trying no matter what? Because if we do, then momentum is going to happen and pretty soon we start seeing results, and then we have a new habit and life. So no matter how many times you get swept away keep coming back and kissing that shoreline!
Enjoy
“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness. Not because they never found it – but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” – William Feather
Sometimes I am so busy at work I forget to breathe. I am so caught up in what I want to change in my life and how I want to help others in the world that I forget to take a moment to be happy for where I am. I am so grateful for just this past year. This has been the greatest year of personal growth for me and it has happened because of the people that the universe has brought into my life.
Miracles
Detours, challenges, and crises are simply covers for miracles that had no other way of reaching you. It’s all good.
– The Universe
A better way of saying that everything happens for a reason – it makes sense that some things you learn from the challenge could not be learned in any other way – some things in life have to be experienced in order to really understand. I don’t get the impact by just looking in your shoes, I have to walk in them to understand where and why they are pinching.
Lessons
“Remember there are no mistakes, only lessons. Love yourself, trust your choices and everything is possible.” – Cheri Carter Scott
I think that most of the “mistakes” come as a lesson to not let other people make our choices, or to teach us to start trusting ourselves. Those few “lessons” that we do experience from trusting ourselves are because we need that experience to grow and be ready for the next one. Trust your inner guidance and see what passion is yearning to be expressed and courageously pursue it!
Bump
“I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.” – Tom Hopkins
There are bumps (failure) in life’s road that you can’t always avoid and they can spin you out of control. The good news is that it is simple to get back on the road, back into the drivers seat, and running along smoothly. As long as you keep moving, you will reach your destination. The road doesn’t chain you to the bump so that you lie there forever more. It is always your choice to lie there or to get back on the road and get moving onto to your destination of succeeding.
Gratitude
“The way to love anything, is to realize that it might be lost.” – Gilbert Keith Chesterson
We take for granted the wonderful families that we are part of; the homes we live in; the cars we drive; our careers; the animals that love us; the food on the table. We only realize when something is lost how much we had. Instead lets give thanks for the many blessings in our lives, and express that gratitude out loud every day.
Possibilities
Choose to look at the possibilities. Life should be about the next open door, not the one closing behind us. We choose our joys and sorrows by the attitude that we bring to our experiences.
Change
“There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley
Sometimes we don’t know what is wrong, just that for some reason we aren’t happy and satisfied. What we need to do is look at our life to see where the dissatifaction is, and then investigate the alternatives that we have for change. Then we can either change the circumstances or how we view the circumstances. We may love what we do for a living, but not living in the big city where the office is located. So the answer may be telecommuting to work from the country; finding similar work in the country; or creating a more “country” atmosphere around us. Or it may be that we find reasons to fall in love with the big city. Just make a small change and go from there to being a happier, healthier person!
Believe
“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash
Limits box us in and create a prison with bars that we accept as our limits. This is a self made prision of stories that we have accepted as our truth. It is scary because the fear mind creates the fear of failure, of looking stupid, and tells us the bars are real and in place for a reason. We are all far more talented and capable that we can imagine, but we have to be willing to believe and step outside of the bars and test our limits to find them. Test each bar of belief and you will find they are illusions, easy to remove and move past.
Sharing Gifts
“What I wanted was to be allowed to do the thing in the world that I did best – which I believed then and believe now is the greatest privilege there is.” – Debbie Field.
She was told that no one would buy her cookies, but she did it anyway not because she wanted to be successful financially – she wasn’t chasing dollars. She did it because she felt a need to share something of herself with others, to give and be a part of things. And I believe that is why she was successful. She was passionate, gave from her heart, and she connected to people by using her talents. Sharing your gift is a critical part of your success.
One Choice
“You are always one choice away from changing your life” – Macy Blochoviak
Your life today is made of the choices you made in your past, and with one new choice put into action today, you can change directions is a moment. Don’t cheat yourself or those who are waiting on you to use your gifts. Ask yourself a better question than can I do this – ask what do I need to do to make this happen?