Create A Meaningful Life - Part II

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

Dr. King's quote is one that is steeped in choice, intention and right action and that power is ever-present with each breath we take. Isn't choice something we would all say yes to each and every moment? Of course, and yet we often unconscioulsy say no to choice because we rely on that automatic pilot-our habits, our ego-self that we have relied on for many years.

We don't even think about it. Many of us manage hourly, daily, weekly and yearly with our habits and ego guiding our thoughts, feelings and actions. To be unconscious to our own light and power could be due to many things: our lack of awareness of who we really are, our lack of discipline, our lack of a plan, our willingness to play small.

We just need to clearly remember and recognize who we are at the core of our being and act from that place of love and strength.

Create A Meaningful Life - Part I

The way we choose to think, feel and act directly comes from one of two places-our egos or our higher self. If ego or personality is at the root of our thinking, feeling and acting, our decisions/choices may be based on lack, survival, or fear. None of these would come from our higher self. Rather, our higher self shows up as possibility thinking, gratitude and inquisitiveness.

When we listen to our higher self, choices, decisions thoughts feelings and actions take on a whole new realm of possibility. Our perceptions are more objective, our thoughts are more compassionate, our feelings are more loving and our actions are in integrity.

New Beginnings

We may tend to think of a new beginning in terms of external change, but it actually begins as internal experience. It may be experienced as a subtle inner shift: a new sense of readiness, an inner awakening. Sometimes our dreams presage the New Beginning. Dreams of birth, of moving into a new house, of discovering something new are often signals that new life is emerging....

One of the best ways to prepare for a New Beginning is to discover your soul's deepest desire. A true New Beginning will be some expression of this desire. And how do we discover our soul's desire? This is an extremely personal endeavor, so it is difficult to give a "formula" answer. Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to facilitate this discovery:

1. What is it that I have always enjoyed doing?
2. What has always come naturally for me?
3. What would I do if I could not fail?
4. If I were to die today, what would feel unfinished in my life?
5. What is it that is so important to me that I would risk everything in order to achieve or experience it?

Why It's Really Okay to Mess Up....

If you've already broken your New Year's resolutions, don't sweat it: Every setback contains its own reward.

 

By Martha Beck
O, The Oprah Magazine | From the April 2012 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/What-to-Do-When-You-Mess-Up-Break-Your-Resolutions#ixzz1pi9cEcXV

Overcoming your Career Challenges and Creating the Journey of Your Dreams

What you tell yourself affects the way you behave. So if you think negative thoughts, you will behave in a way that confirms them. For example, if you think career fairs are a waste of time, you will avoid them. If you think instead that you might make some useful contacts, you will go.

Now changing your negative thoughts to positive ones does require a conscious effort not to get caught up in negative automatic thoughts. Here are some tips to keep you focused on your positives:

1. Notice when you are having these negative automatic thoughts. Understand your triggers as it will help you to minimize them or prepare to replace them.
2. Get yourself to stop the negative thoughts. Either by something simple as saying “stop” or placing a rubber band on your wrist and snapping it when you have the negative thought.
3. Replace the negative thoughts with positive ones about the same topic.
4. Get support from friends or family that are good at being positive.
5. Praise yourself for your little and big successes and do not engage in negative thoughts or punishing yourself when things don’t go well-take something positive from the situation — a learning lesson perhaps — that will keep you going forward.

Start today on facing the career issues that you have been avoiding and begin on a path where nothing is impossible and you let positive thoughts, not fear, define your future.

Game Changers....

What are the game changers for you? "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody is willing to die." But what does that have to do with game-changers? Everything!

Many people say that they want to see a radical change in their finances or they want a healthier lifestyle- they want more income, increased savings, or want to improve themselves through proper diet and more physical activity but the strange thing is that many are unwilling to change their vision, themselves, their processes, their expectations or their attitudes.

The stage is set for success for those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone. I'm not saying you have to "go to heaven", oh no. But if you want to experience some success, a great deal of success, or extraordinary success, decide just how uncomfortable you are willing to become-stretch that vision, push your own envelope, and remember to surround yourself with people who are already where you want to be.

Here's to your great success!

Identifying Self-Limiting Beliefs

Years of self-limiting beliefs may be sabotaging you without your realizing it. These beliefs reveal themselves in patterns that keep coming up again and again in your life. For example, you attract the wrong kind of romantic partner: “I can't attract a good man because I always fall for losers just like my Aunt Milly.” Limiting beliefs are often so ingrained that they may seem to be at the heart of who you are, the very core of your being.

Self-limitingbeliefs hold you back from most personal and spiritual growth. You may harbor a fear of failure, a fear of never finding Mr. Right, or the fear of success. Perhaps you have engaged in self-sabotage, working hard to achieve something only to undermine your hard work with persistent, self-defeating inner criticism. Or perhaps you have always equated success with “no pain, no gain.” With the Law of Attraction, you can have success and abundance and you do not have to suffer to achieve it. You do have to recognize and release self-limiting beliefs.

If you feel stuck or trapped, set goals for various areas of your life — spiritual, health, family, work, personal. List specific reasons that keep you from reaching your goals, and include what has stopped you in the past. Know that you have the power to release even the most ingrained beliefs and turn them around into affirmations of unlimited potential.