Progress differently from this moment

To progress differently from this moment, at this stage in your life, requires that you realize its not your job to "improve" per se.  In fact, at a very basic level, each human being represents perfection.  To reframe your sense of progress in this life, reframe your thinking based on the nature of your choices.  That is, each choice you make to love and forgive is to reclaim the power that fear had stolen from you.

1) Recognize when your beliefs are “out of whack.” If your mindset isn’t helping you realize dreams, it’s hindering you. To identify this is a first step to positive change. If you disregard an issue, then it doesn’t phase you or influence you. Yet, if it turns out ego and pride drive you, then you are thwarting your potential for new forms of success. Learn to see through the excuses and defenses you offer to explain procrastination or distractions. To permit a protective ego to control you means you choose to lose sight of your soul’s driving force.

2) Figure out what motivates you. Take the time you need. You only compete with yourself. What motivates you evolves with your level of self-awareness. How well you sense you know yourself directly relates to your sense of fulfillment. Resist judging or rejecting perceived alternatives based on what you’ve been told is good or bad. Be honest. Evaluate with an open-heart. Admit what no longer works, what no longer feels right, what causes guilt or discomfort. Your past choices led you here but they don’t define you. Take steps to redefine inner progress.

3) Nurture courage and self-growth. Dream-building is the act of willfully stretching yourself in enriching directions. You may decide to do something yet, it’s another thing altogether to actually do it. Begin to see beneath your excuses to zero in on hidden fears.  Move beyond rationalizing why you aren’t doing what you want to do. You can stop denying the truth as you sense it. Be prepared to learn from every experience. Get in touch with how your ego sets you up and transcend it. 

4) Believe opportunities exist. To come as far as you already have tells you that you hold a degree of faith in yourself. You care what happens or you wouldn’t exert effort. You love yourself enough to go a certain distance. What would it take to love, support and encourage yourself more? Trust options that strengthen your resolve, your self-confidence and inspiration. It makes sense to believe you’re more than adequate, highly-talented, and ready to seize opportunities at the right time.

5) Master your feelings. How you feel offers clues about your authentic self and what you seek to do with your life. Success comes in different forms, but its truth must be felt at your core. As you uncover feelings that were conditioned in your past, it’s up to you to learn to recognize the power they may still have over your mind and perception. You need to confront the shadows of yourself that you have been avoiding, qualities or feelings you dislike, in order to grasp they are illusions.

Are you disconnected from your true self?

If you're honest, its likely you would admit you have permitted yourself to be moulded to fit into a crowd or community.  This often promotes discomfort and dishonesty on a subconscious level.  In such cases, misery, frustration and anger arise and you may repress them at the same time as you repress your dreams.

To recognize you feel disconnected from your true self is the first step to transforming your life for the better.  You can benefit from learning more about Robin Sharma's Seven Stages of self-Awakening.  Consider these highlights:

1) Stage 1: people are unconscious to the truths of life and have little idea about how the world actually works.  As you project your fears, misunderstandings and false beliefs into your surroundings, the result is an inaccurate view of reality.

2) Stage 2:  As you discern you are following the status quo and living a life that appears incompatible with who you are, you realize you have choices.  You can buy into illusions, continue living as you always have, or decide to redefine your own path and happiness.

3) Stage 3:  This is the phase where you recognize your perception is evolving.  Your sense of the truth is changing.  You begin to grasp you're meant to experience abundance, to seize opportunities and to make the most of your relationships and experiences.

4) Stage 4:  As you seek wisdom, you seek out mentors and teachers to help you progress.  You admit you are hungry for answers and healing.  This is where you grasp the revelation that a sense of confusion will always lead to new levels of understanding and clarity.  Its a process of revelation...yours.

5) Stage 5: To transform and feel reborn may strike you as a most challenging phase.  And yet, it may also be where you learn the most in ways you'll never forget.  This is where your true self makes itself noticed on a regular basis.  How you perceive yourself, your potential and the world will never be the same.

6) Stage 6: Here is where you acknowledge trials and tribulations.  This is where you need to confirm you've learned the necessary lessons and admit how much you desire to reconnect to your true self.  Many people give up and retreat.  Only people who truly believe in themselves persist.

7) Stage 7: Your awakening or period of enlightenment is where you evolve into the qualities and characteristics which are your true nature.  You become fearless, innocent, infinitely wise.  You harness the power of pure love and unconditional compassion.  To get here, you have to evolve to where you desire to be true to yourself more than anything.  Discover your destiny.

5 Tips to learn from your emotions

How often have you realized that people can detect things about us that we don’t naturally sense or acknowledge in ourselves? Consider whether you easily notice when other people behave in ways that you feel are wrong or, evoke discomfort. What should you do about that? What can you get out of this to improve yourself?

1) Move beyond identifying what others do wrong. You may readily notice when people make mistakes or anticipate when they’ll make them. You may discern how other people could improve results. Many people never ask, and if some do, they may resent your feedback. It’s all in how you say it. Only the truly courageous and open-minded seek feedback and apply it. The discerning among us, evolve to read into the reactions of others and the meaning behind emotions evoked in ourselves.

2) Rethink whom you emulate. We all have role models. People refer to workshops, seminars, tapes, DVDs and a host of other sources of information to guide them. Yet, listening and observing others won’t necessarily trigger transformation in yourself. The answers you seek always lie within. Other people may raise your awareness about how you can uncover innate talents or create new habits and patterns. Ultimately though, you must exert the effort and nurture the discipline.

3) Recognize your strengths and talents. You may take your own innate skills for granted. You may focus on the frustration of weakness and overlook the flip side. Perhaps you don’t know how to handle joy of compliments? It may not occur to you to take steps to read between the lines and develop yourself further. As people draw your attention to what you do well, this is a sign to move to the next level. 

4) To repeat affirmations and good intentions aren’t enough. You can boost your morale and inspire positive change in yourself with a few words, yet, if you don’t change your behavior longer term, your life will remain as it has before. You may feel better because you feel you take some action, at least initially. However, you are also your own most influential motivator. What will you do differently?

5) Self-directed learning can emerge from good intention. Decide to become the person you envisage would be required to reach your specific goals. Your ideas may or may not be compatible with those of people around you. You can grow to evaluate what works and doesn’t work.  A process of trial and error will enable you to find your way. Rather than seek to change others, become the model you imagine.

Allow growth lessons to come to you

The desire to improve your life is a stepping stone.  You also need to be open to changing how you think and feel.  To be willing to release negativity, dark or heavy feelings and events past, is part of the process of evolving into a better you.

1) Choose to forgive another person for what was committed against you.  If someone has irritated or harmed you, be willing to release anger that arises when you think about the person or situation.  As you let go of jealousy or resentment, you'll begin to sense what it means to be purified, uplifted and energized by love.

2) Choose to ask for assistance and expand on your emotional intelligence.  Its a question of recognizing you wish to better understand why you feel as you do in specific circumstances.  You can refer to books, participate in forums, meditate and consult experts.  Each method will help you shed light on "why?" and "what next?" 

3) Choose peace of mind in exchange for releasing negativity.  No matter what your current conditions, you always have choices.  These choices are limited or enlarged based on your mind and your expectations.  As you learn to see the positive, opposite feeling for each negative one that initially seems to control you, you also learn to temper intense or destructive feelings while you create serenity. 

5 Tips to live a better life

You have incredible potential.  What could you do differently that would enhance the way you feel about yourself? How might you change the ways you think about life which would brighten your spirits and uplift your soul? In the midst of all your contemplation, its in your interest to remind yourself of these 5 things:

1) You choose everything you think about. 

2) You decide how you would like to feel.

3) You choose whether you will believe what people tell you.

4) You control all your behaviour.

5) You have the power and ability to live better.