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CELEBRATE AND FOCUS WITH ME TODAY!🥳🎆🎉

Today is my birthday! On this day, I like to do a little self-reflection. Who are we kidding? I like to do that every day. On my birthday, however, I do it a little more intensely. I review the previous year and look at where I am now. What did I learn? Am I better than I was last year? Are the things that are truly important to me still taking center stage. Most importantly, what can I do to improve all of those in the year to come?

This year, those questions have different answers. It is the second birthday 🎂 I have celebrated since my open-heart surgery. I still treasure each day that I am given. It is interesting how the emotions surrounding that creep up on you as time goes on. I learned one very important lesson this past year. By focusing on who I want to become, what I should do makes itself abundantly clear. Am I better than last year? In some ways, but there is certainly room to improve. A more concentrated focus on my health, and more to the point diet, would get me a lot further next year. Are the important things still taking center stage? More so than last year, but again room for improvement.

As you join me in celebration of the day of my birth, ask yourself these questions. You do not have to be celebrating your own birthday to have some productive self-reflection. As to who I want to be, that answer has become more clear. I want to be a person who has positively impacted as many lives as I can. I wish to be remembered as someone who left the world a little better than they found it. I think if we all did that, we would have a lot better world to share. As I parting gift for my birthday, I wish to leave you this bit of Native American wisdom to ponder.

EMBRACE THE TEST 💪

There will be tests in life for all of us. Nobody is immune. This begs the question, “If all of us are tested, how come some come out thriving, will others come out barely surviving?” The answer to the question involves the use of one of our greatest weapons  – our mind and attitude.

Most people when faced with a challenge,or test, of any kind ask,  “Why me?” This leads to a feeling of victim mentality and loss of control. It feels as though life is happening to us. When we change that question to “What strengths can this help me develop?” We feel like we are in control and no longer feel like a victim.  It also trains our mind to search for seeds of opportunity in the face of challenges.

Change your attitude about challenges and the tests of life and you will discover strength you never knew you had. Just like in the gym, where it requires resistance to build physical muscle, the same can be said about the muscles of character.

PEACE CAN BE FOUND AT THE END OF YOUR WRIST 🧘‍♀️

There are simple things that we can use to have a transformative effect on our lives. In my first two books, I mention the power of talismans. When most people hear that word, they think of an inscribed ring or stone that has magical powers. In fact, that is how the definition reads online. We are not talking about anything occult, but the way in can affect your life will seem like magic. As with everything I share, I can relate to you from personal experience. I am going to show you how simple it can be to cultivate inner peace by looking at the end of your wrist.

Above is a picture of a bracelet I purchased from an amazing young lady who turned her own personal struggles into a way to help and serve others. Her name is Pamela and she is the owner of At Peace Designs. A link to her amazing website will be found at the end of this post. I met Pamela at a local event called ‘West Allis A La Carte’ where I live. I noticed her stand and was drawn to it for the simple, yet powerful, message. The engaging owner came up and shared with Margie and I her story and what took her on the path to create the business. This included a great story about a tattoo on vacation, but I will let her share that one with you personally.

What makes Pamela’s products so great is that they provide us a simple reminder to put an accent on maintaining our inner peace. For me, all I have to do is look at the end of my wrist. She also has coffee mugs, yoga mats, stickers and my personal favorite – gratitude journals! She has many other products that feature her amazing logo as well. In a world where chaos and stress are everywhere we look, what a great advantage to have a simple reminder to focus on our inner peace. I highly suggest you take a look at Pamela’s amazing website at the link below and pick up your At Peace Designs before stress and fear gain any more ground in your life. Do you know someone who could use a little more peace? They make great gifts as well.

CLICK HERE GET YOUR INNER PEACE PRODUCTS AND CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING WEBSITE

PAUSE AND APPRECIATE 🧘‍♀️

Many of us feel a mid-week slump. The stress of the work week is getting to us. Perhaps a lack of sleep is beginning to stack up. How do we counter these feelings? By pausing for a little Wednesday gratitude. Switching our focus from how tired and exhausted we may feel, to what we have to be grateful for will energize us and get us back in the game.

Gratitude can do many things. It will force us to breathe and bring us a moment of inner peace. That is very important in the middle of the week. It will also remind us of how amazing our life truly is. Even if it is just being able to read these words of encouragement and inspiration.

If you really want to have a bonus, pick one, or several, people and share gratitude with them. You could do this by telling them why you are grateful for them, or even asking what they are grateful for. Creating an atmosphere of gratitude will only improve your life as we finish out the week!

IT IS AN EVENT, NOT A PERSON 👩‍🏫

A lot of people, I may even say most of them, have this confusing conclusion. Something they try doesn’t work out and they say out loud, and worse to themselves, “I am a failure.” Failure is an event, it is not a person.

Like almost anything in our life, the act of failing, and even the word failure, have a negative meaning. Why wouldn’t it? We want to succeed and in this case we haven’t. In some of our lives, we have decided something different. We have decided failure is not a result it is a stepping stone to greatness. Failure is a teacher of what does not work. That gets us one step closer to discovering what does. Failure can be fuel to pushing forward to never feel that way again.

How about you? What does failure mean in your life? Could the definition use an upgrade?

THE SKY IS FALLING! 🐥

We have all heard the story about chicken little. He runs around yelling everyone the sky is falling. I’m sure most of us know people that fit this category. I want to share a recent story with you about the sky falling in my life.

This past week had been a busy one. Wednesday I ran a 5k. I really don’t run so that was something. Woke up feeling a little sore the next day. I thought I would do my best to take it easy at work. That day the city dropped off a dump truck full of mulch for me to spread. The put it conveniently 100 yards away from where I needed to spread it. I worked on this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By Saturday night I was ready to collapse in Margie’s arms. That was not to be…

We came home from dinner to discover it was raining…in our spare bedroom! Bits of plaster and paint were decorating our floor. We both were exhausted, but what could we do? Taking turns running with mops and buckets 🪣 we stayed up most of the night and got up early the next morning. So much for a relaxing day off.

Actual picture of our ceiling

Have you ever had one of those days when you think you have reached your limit, only to find the sky is falling? What do we do then? We could be like our friend chicken little, running around telling everyone the sky is falling. You could also do what Margie and I did, we focused on what we could control.

What did this focusing on what we could control get us? Due to the repairs needing to be done we worked together to reorganize our house. Then Margie’s daughter came over to help us out. Finally, my mother invited us over for dinner so we wouldn’t have to cook. Further proof, gratitude can save the day even if your sky is falling!

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL 💪

Because there are a lot of things to read in this picture, I’ll keep this post short. Earl Nightingale once gave us a list of things we worry about. I’ll give you the percentages here. Things that never happen – 40% Things over and done with that can’t be changed by all the worry in the world – 30%. Needless worries about our health – 12%. Petty miscellaneous worries – 10%. Real, legitimate worries – 8%.

You can see, out of everything we worry about, a full 92% are not worth spending, or should I say wasting, our energy on. Of the 8% that are legitimate, only 4% are things we have control over. Let’s focus on that. Anything else is just a waste of our precious energy.

LET’S END THIS RIGHT!🤙

Today is Friday, the end of the week! Let us go into the weekend strong. What I mean by that is to really appreciate the now. How can we accomplish this? Today, let us focus on one thing we are grateful 🙏 for this week.

What happened that you are thankful for? Did you reach a goal you have been chasing? Did you get closer to accomplishing something you have been working on? Did you brighten someone’s day? Maybe you are just grateful to have made it through the week?

Now, let us add one thing you are grateful for this weekend in advance (this is also known as looking forward to using the law of attraction) It could be time with your spouse or family. Perhaps working on that passion project? Enjoying some peace and reflection while enjoying a good book?

Personally, I am grateful for completing a 5k with the love of my life, enjoying a dinner with a good friend and accomplishing some things at work. This weekend I am going to have coffee ☕️ with a good friend. Looking forward to the conversation there. Margie and I have some relaxing plans. How about you? What are you grateful for this week and what are you thankful for in advance this weekend? Share your joy with us!😃

DO YOU HAVE THEM? I HAVE THEM TOO.🤨

A lot of people incorrectly assume that I do not have bad days. In fact, a more common but just as incorrect assumption is that the goal of self-improvement is to rid you of ever having a bad day. There are, believe it or not, many benefits to having a bad day.

Yes, bad days are not fun. What they do is help us grow at a much faster rate than good days. It also helps strengthen our character and positive mindset. Just like in the gym, you only achieve strength through resistance.

You might be thinking, “Neil that is all well and good, but what good is self-improvement?” What my books, and this blog, teach us is how to reduce the severity and frequency of bad days. This is done by mining them for lessons and growth.

When you ask yourself, “What can I learn and gain from my life being a dumpster fire at the moment?” You view and approach life, and your challenges, in an entirely different light. Learn to use your bad days and not allow them to use you! Please share your strategies for putting your bad days to work for you.