Being grateful should be listed as a super power.
As I write this, we are in the middle of a wicked snow storm. My lovely lady and I stopped at the store to grab a few things last night. It was packed. People were shopping like the world was ending. Another reason I would love to become a best-selling author and move to San Diego, but I digress.
A thought came to me as I watched people with their carts full of supplies. Why do we not prepare, at least with the same enthusiasm, for the storms of life? We act as if self-care, and the things that go with it, are for when we need them. In essence, we wait for the storm to arrive before we act.
Why not act like all of the crazy shoppers and prepare for the storms of life? Compose a list of songs that lift your spirits and save them in a Playlist. Have a list of movies that make you laugh. Have a collection of inspiring books. Whatever other items will help you make it through the storms of life.
Here is what I know for sure. The storms of life can come during any season and often with less warning than any extreme weather. We need to have preparations for our mind and spirit just as we have for any storm.
L
Many people I speak with have an outlook that puzzles me. When I tell them I am attempting some charity raising run, or obstacle course, they lol confused. Many times they ask if I am doing this on purpose. When I explain that I am working on my fourth book while working 45-50 hours a week at my day job and as a DJ on Sunday, they tell me “they could never do that.” On a rare day off, when I still go to the gym, they tell me they would be resting.
One of their arguments is that nobody could get them to do it. My response is nobody should have to, you should! They wonder why they should try to do a race, or push their body physically. They believe there is no way that they will attempt anything that makes them uncomfortable. This holds true whether that uncomfortable feeling is physical or emotional. They can’t grasp why it would be a good idea to do so.
Here is why. When you do not dare to push yourself, you become shackled to your comfort zone. “That’s not so bad.” You might think. At least your comfortable, right? Let us be honest. It is a lot more comfortable to sit on the couch eating pizza and watching Netflix than to go out in the cold to the gym and grind through a workout. Guess who is going to be uncomfortable a few years from now when they are out of shape and can’t make it up the stairs without help from a sherpa?
It is not just the physical. When you are afraid to do anything that takes you out of your comfort zone, it becomes your master. This can be extremely difficult as the brain is hard-wired to seek comfort and safety. This can kill you. Not only physically as we saw above, but it can kill your spirit. Not living a life that is fulfilling is spiritual suicide.
To discover your true life’s purpose, and live a life you are in love with, will require you to step outside of your comfort zone. Let me tell you that creating this blog took me outside of my comfort zone. Writing my first book, and with Margie pushing me, promoting it, also took me out of my comfort zone. On my first podcast episode my voice was shaky and nervous. I’m sure it sounded the same the day I went from behind the bar, to behind the microphone to become a DJ.
None of these things make me nervous now, but they required me to leave my comfort zone initially. I would have never have touched all the people I have. I never would have dated the beautiful woman I am with and I never discovered the talents that were inside me. Step outside your comfort zone. As the quote says above, “Not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.“
We have moved! Should you care to send correspondence to your favorite charming author and blog writer, or any staff at secret2anamazinglife.com, we have a new physical address to do so. Starting today, our new address will be as follows
Secret2anamazinglife.com
P.O. Box 333, Oak Creek WI, 53154 U.S.A.
Feel free to send us any ideas for topics you would like to discuss. Letters about how you enjoy secret2anamazinglife.com, or the Living the Dream with Neil Panosian podcast. We love seeing pictures of where you are from as well. Not to mention, we always respond and occasionally include a fun gift.
Send us a letter at our new address and say “Hello”. We love meeting our secret2anamazinglife.com family.
Have you ever met someone who is always talking a good game? You know the ones. They know what would make a successful life. They know how to get in shape. They know all about healthy eating. They have great wisdom on time management. It would seem a person like this would need a school to teach in.
When you take a close hard look at their life, you discover that they need a fire extinguisher. Why? Because their life is a total dumpster fire. They are full of wisdom and knowledge, but lack action. Knowledge without action is only potential power. If you know what you should be doing, and you are not doing it, you are actually worse off than the ignorant.
This week, hammer out what your philosophy of life is. Than, don’t waste time telling everyone what it is. Instead, think of ways in which you can embody it. What actions do you think would demonstrate your life philosophy? I would love to hear yours in the comments below.
As we begin the week. Let us remember that the future is uncertain. This can seem scary, but it is also a good reminder to focus on the present. In fact, the little influence we have on the future is the actions we take in the present.
As we all want the best future we can have, let us set ourselves up for success by living fully in the present.
Don’t forget to show your awesome this weekend. Shine like only you know how! Be authentically you. That is what the world needs, more people living life from their heart.
Also, create a space where others feel safe to do the same. Trade judgment for a desire to understand and replace expectations with appreciation. This is the key to a great weekend!
End of the first week of the New Year! What a wild ride it has been. As we jump into our goals for the coming year, we are going to take a few moments to look back at how we did in 2023. Above is a map featuring all of the countries that we were viewed in within the past year. We appeared on 6 of the 7 continents and in 148 countries. That blows my mind. I still recall writing my first blog 12 years ago and wondering if anyone at all would read it. I was one person who was struggling to learn the lessons of living a rewarding and fulfilling life. Using my passion for helping others, I continued to write. We are now have over 2100 posts on this site and have been viewed by almost 200,000 people!
Being able to reach so many people in so many places is such a rewarding experience. There are so many negative news outlets, that we want to continue to serve as a beacon of hope, motivation and inspiration. 2023 was great, but we are looking to do even better in 2024. We are going to reach even more people and bring the light of hope and positivity to even more corners of the world. If you like what you read here, feel free to share this site with your friends and neighbors. Print out posts you like and hang them up in the office. Share links on your social media timeline. The more souls we can reach, the brighter we can make the world.
Secret2anamazinglife wishes to thank all of our contributors, followers and even our passing viewers. You make all of this possible and worth it. We look forward to finding new and exciting ways to serve you in the future. Do not forget to check out the Living the Dream with Neil Panosian podcast wherever you stream your content. It is free and brings you the same great tools and strategies in audio form!
Here is a picture of the calendar that I have hanging at work. As you can see it adds a little splash of color to an otherwise dull space. There is much more to this story than meets the eye. The calendar in question was purchased for me by the love of my life. She bought it for me at a bird show at the Wisconsin State Fair. The profits went to support the animals in the show. They are presented by the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. They have an array of products for sale, the profits going to support the animals that are found at their center.
Sure, a button would have been cool, maybe a t-shirt. Why did my lady choose a calendar? Besides the fact that I have no need for another t-shirt, no matter how cool, it is a gift that keeps on giving. Each month they feature a picture of an exciting bird of prey. In addition to some quick learning, I am reminded of the amazing show we were at, the fun we had and the fact that the lady in my life loves me enough to surprise me with this calendar.
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, and the fact that you should always be thinking about great gifts that help keep the love and passion in your relationship, a calendar is a rather cool gift. They have fancy day by day ones, you can even have personal ones made! The price point is not that much, but it serves as a reminder all year long. Already have a calendar? A daily journal could be fun. Anything that can be used daily, or at least on a regular basis makes a great gift to remind someone you care. This year, I have a calendar of tropical locations that I got while shopping with my lady. We are going to take a trip to the Bahamas this year and it will serve as a great reminder of that and other fun we have had, and will have. How about you? Is there an item you have that reinforces positive thoughts and memories?
It is mid-week, time for a little uplifting thinking! How about how to have an amazing life, or at least starting with the rest of the week? You deserve it and it really isn’t that complicated. It is finding ways in which to turn all of the negative energy in our lives into something to be grateful for. That may sound like a daunting challenge, but it is really an opportunity! At the end of the day, it can be a fun game to play with ourselves. Even endeavoring to find the positive in the negative will have us feeling better and looking at life in an entirely different way.
How to do it? That is the question. How do you turn the negative in your life into something positive? There are many ways. I am going to share two of my favorite with you and I would love it if you would share some of yours with the readers of this amazing blog, including yours truly. The first way I turn the negative into the positive is by escaping the situation. This is not always possible physically. If you are stuck at your work and the boss is in a bad mood, you are stuck there. Maybe, like myself, you live where the sun rarely shines this time of year. I think it has been over a week since we had a day where the sun came out for more than just a little while.
If you are physically stuck in a bad, or negative, situation, how can you still escape. By using a strategy that I teach and remind everyone of constantly. That there is no law of physics or biology that states your mind and body have to occupy the same space and the same time. The body, so far as we know, is limited. It can only be where you find yourself. The mind, however, has no such limits. The picture above may sound humorous, but I have honestly used this method to save my sanity on more than one occasion. How powerful is this really? There have been stories of holocaust survivors using this method to make it through one of the worst situations man has ever found themselves in. If it can work in that situation, it can work for you and I. Try it for yourself. Recall a vacation you particularly enjoyed. Do so using as many senses as you can. The scent of the ocean and the tanning lotion. The feel of the warm sun on your skin. The sound of the waves lapping against the shore. The vision of beautiful turquoise water. The flavor of some delicious island food. Take yourself on a mini mental vacation. Haven’t been on a vacation in so long you can’t remember these things? Go buy a bottle of sun tan lotion, make some jerk chicken for dinner or take yourself to a tanning bed while listening to ocean waves. Whatever it takes to make it real for you.
Next is to use the power of gratitude. I know, I know. You have heard about gratitude over and over. Oprah talks about it. It is in the movie The Secret. Apparently, even the author Neale Donald Walsh is in on the subject. Do you know why all of these people are talking about gratitude and why you are hearing about it everywhere? Because it works. Your mind can only focus on one emotion at a time. If you are focusing on what you are grateful for, even for just a minute, your mind cannot be focused on whatever negative crap is going on in your life at that moment.
Another thing that gratitude allows us to do is to get our head out of our butt. Look, I get it, when things go wrong, it is so easy to get fixated on what is not working in our lives. Even if 99% of our life is amazing, we will focus on the 1% that is bringing us down. As we discussed a few posts earlier, according to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our daily thoughts are negative. Those stats are for the average person. We all know people who would fall below average in this regard. Where do you want to be when it comes to your thinking? By spending even five minutes of our day focused on what we have to be grateful for, we begin to create a habit. It is that habit that will allow us to become better than average thinkers. It will have us feeling joyous and abundant.
Use these two strategies to change the negative situations in your life and become happier and more fulfilled than 80% of the population. Using mini mental vacations and the power of gratitude, we can radically transform our life for the better. I would love to know any tools or strategies that you use to turn the negative into the positive in your life. Perhaps they will be featured in a future post.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 