Here is a quick reminder that whatever you are going through will pass. The night always gives way to the dawn
Some nights may seem like they last forever, but the sun always rises. Hang in there. You can outlast the night!
THE SUN IS COMING! 🌞
Tag: self improvement
QUIT THE RACE 🏁
Did you ever wonder why they call it a rat race? Who really wants to be a rat? I certainly don’t. Today, whatever day you are reading this, take some time out of the race. Focus on winning what is really important. That would be your health, your family and your friends. Take some time for self-care and you will win the race.
A GOOD WEDNESDAY 👍
Today, instead of focusing on doing a lot, let us focus on doing a few things well. Putting attention into detail instead of putting a million things on our to do list. It will increase our satisfaction and decrease our stress.
DROP IT! 🫳
It is Tuesday! Instead of adding on to what we have to do or worrying about what we didn’t do on Monday, let’s shed a few things. Let us look for things that are negative in our life and work to limit or eliminate them all together! It could be little annoying things, people or places. If we can’t find a way to change them, can we find a way to change how we view them?
These are good things to consider the second day of the week. Let us find things we can shed from our life to make us lighter and happier. Most important, let us have fun doing it!
HOW TO POSTPONE DEATH ⚰️
No, this is not a post about a healthy diet and working out several times a week. Although that can certainly help you do more of the above. No, it is a reminder that you must get out and live! Do not save your energy and time for a date in the future to enjoy life. Here is the thing about the future – we lease it. The tricky part is that we never know when that lease is up. If there is something that makes you feel alive, the time to do it is now. If there is someone you love, tell them now. You might not get a chance tomorrow.
Being scared of making mistakes or of looking foolish is no reason not to do something that makes you feel alive and happy. To really feel alive will often require us to make some mistakes. Just know that you are learning and growing. It is just a lesson. It will help you have even more fun, and get more juice out of life, the next time you do it. Live today my friends! It is the only way to postpone death.
2 STEPS TO A GREAT WEEKEND 👍
This is one of those things that can be all too easily dismissed on the surface. It is so powerful, I do not want you to miss it. Not only is this an over-arching formula to live an amazing life, but it can be broken down to increase your joy and satisfaction in any aspect of your life. We constantly discuss the power of gratitude on this site, but it deserves another look. In fact, it is so powerful that every time you are feeling down, you should give it another look.
How easy it is to focus on what we lack. Society seems to have pushed this narrative. You always should want more. While it is true that you should always want more out of yourself and your life, in terms of bettering them, it should not be at the expense of appreciating what you have. Why is this so important? Forget the law of attraction, forget the spiritual reasons, let us look at this practically today. There are many important reasons that fit into the two previous mentioned categories, I assure you. Today, we are just going to look at how this impacts our everyday world and why it could be so powerful.
Let us begin by asking a question, “How does it feel when you stop and think about everything you want but do not have? Feel free to take a pause from reading this and try it for yourself. If you do not want to take the time to do that, I will let you in on a not-so-secret, it feels terrible. You feel poor. You feel like your life is not complete. You feel like you need more. Businesses like you to feel this way. It keeps you as a passionate consumer. That is why many commercials and ads give you the feeling that your life would not be complete without product x or y. That is nothing but nonsense.
Now let us flip the script here. How does it feel when you focus on everything you are fortunate enough to have in life, even though it may not be exactly what you want? Your car may not be that Bugatti you want, but you have a vehicle that gets you from point A to Point B. You may not be working in your dream job, but you have a way to make income and pay the bills. In the 1930s, this would have been a dream for many. Your relationship can be a great source of anger or frustration at times. Still, you must realize that is because you have someone you love and care for so deeply that they can affect your emotions in such a powerful way. When you focus on all you have, you start to feel prosperous and blessed. There is no greater feeling in the world. Here is the awesome part – no matter what shape your life is in, you can use this formula. There is always, and I mean always, something to be grateful for.
If you are still having problems getting into a state of gratitude, try looking at some of those who would give anything to trade places with you. Boss stressing you out? Talk to someone who is desperately trying to find a job. Your house seems to be experiencing one issue after another? Walk through a homeless camp. In today’s world we still have issues of war, famine and genocide. Trust me when I tell you that our lives are not that bad.
As you look to improve yourself and your lot in life, remember to focus on all that you already have. Having a heart filled with gratitude will decrease your stress and increase your joy quicker and more powerfully than anything else I know.
THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN MORE! 🤝
In addition to being a future best-selling author, blog writer, podcast host and postal employee, I also DJ on Sunday with my lovely lady. It would not be my first choice of how to spend a Sunday with her, but she is happy and that is what matters to me. While there, I do my best to positively impact the lives of all those who attend. My goal is to have them feeling better when they leave, than when they arrived. If a couple comes, I do my best to assist them in seeing the miracle they have in their partner. When I am successful with either of these, it brings me a great deal of joy as well. To that end, I do my best to offer encouragement and genuine compliments to those I talk to. In regards to this, gender doesn’t matter. Race is not a factor. What faith they follow? Not very important. As we discussed last post, I believe each person has a great deal of value, whether we are privileged to see it or not.
The importance of this was driven home to me the other night by someone I had never met. Margie and I have a friend Nicci. She is a teacher and was about to leave to take some of her students overseas to Italy and Greece. This is incredible. I think it is so valuable to be exposed to different cultures at a young age. I give credit to Nicci and the other chaperones for taking the responsibility for these children on this trip. Before her departure, Nicci had ben kind enough to hang out with my lovely lady and I. She invited several friends and coworkers to join her in this sort of impromptu Bon Voyage party. It was one of these people that generated today’s post.
As we were going through the evening, I was doing my best to help each person to see the beauty in themselves, others and the world around them. One gentleman, Tyler, happened to notice. He also is a DJ and mentioned how much he appreciated the kind words. He also mentioned something that I think is very important for us to take notice of.
Tyler mentioned how rare it is for men to uplift each other. Today’s world can be filled with sarcasm, competition, and all to often, mean spirited banter. Men have a hard enough time expressing their emotions, let alone paying a genuine compliment to other men. We need to make this more of a normal occurrence. Women, if you think this post is just for the men, think again. Encouraging your husband, son or even your father to pay a genuine compliment to another gent may be one of the most important things you can do. Help show them this is not something that makes them less masculine, but quite the opposite.
As a gentleman, I can promise you that is offers a certain amount of pride when another man offers you a genuine compliment. It also shows a great deal about their character as well. Gentleman, when you compliment another man it demonstrates your confidence in yourself not only to them, but to anyone else who is listening. It shows that you understand that highlighting someone’s worth does not diminish your own. Let us all work to create a society where men feel both safe, as well as compelled, to pay another man a genuine compliment. Thank you Tyler for this great reminder.
EXPAND YOUR WORLD 🌎
Above is a picture from an Ethiopian coffee shop that Margie and I visited the other day. I’ve been drinking coffee for years, Margie had really just started to get into it. We have tried many different kinds of coffee. My personal favorite is Jamaican Blue Mountain. We have never had anything like this coffee before.
Not only was the coffee unique, but they served it with some incense and other details that set it apart. The atmosphere and service in the coffee shop was wonderful. There were small food items to try as well. We relaxed and had a great time.
The point of this post is to remind you of the benefits of trying something new. Would I switch to this coffee everyday? No. What was nice is having this experience and sharing it with the lady I love. Keep an open mind and try something new in your world. Feel free to share an experience where you tried something new and the joy it brought you.
NOTICE YOUR CHAINS! 🔗
This is a new quote to me, but what a great thought. If you never push yourself, you may never see what is holding you back. Not exactly sure what the percentage is, but I would wager the situations in which you, and your thoughts, are your strongest chains is above 90%. There are many times that I am looking to do something I have never done before and the reasons are often clouded over in my mind. This is why it is so important to surround yourself with people who will help improve your life, as we noted last post.
In my life, there have been many examples of chains that I have let hold me back. We all have them. What often surprises me is how often these chains exist in my own mind and manifest themselves as something else. I consider myself a fairly introspective individual, but we all tell ourselves little white lies to stay in our comfort zones. This is what our brains are hard-wired to do. Your mind does not want you to risk doing something that would be uncomfortable, even if it would further your life. We may believe the obstacle is outside of us, when it is really our beliefs that are keeping us from moving forward.
Let me give you 2 quick examples in my own life. I was preparing to do my first ever book signing. I was nervous as it was my first book, not to mention first book signing. It was in the sunny village of Greendale. I was going to put up flyers in some of the shops to promote it. I figured there were 2 or 3 businesses that would let me do that. With me I had this attractive lady I just started dating. She informed me that we were not going to the shops that I was sure would let me put up the signs, but we were going to ask in all of them. Informing her that is not how this small village worked, she informed me that I was just being too nervous to do so. She even promised to go in and ask for me to prove that more places would hang up one of my signs than I expected. Little did I know at the time this would consist of her getting the attention of an employee, shoving me forward and exclaiming, “This man has something to ask you.” As it turned out, all but 2 of the businesses, whom I should note are no longer in business, agreed to put one of my flyers in their windows. Proving it was my fear and not the businesses that prevented the promotion.
Another example is when I was going to start my podcast (Living the Dream with Neil Panosian) which you can find on all of your streaming platforms. Every time that I had coffee with my good friend Nick, I would tell him how I was going to start this podcast. He informed me that I had been telling him this for six months. I explained how I did not have the equipment, know exactly how to go about starting one or promote one. He countered that one is able to learn all of these things on this wonderful thing we have called the internet. Great things about friends, they call you on your B.S. when you are full of it, as Michael Franti says. Again, an assist to Margie who reminded me how right Nick was.
In our lives, it is often when we push outside our comfort zones that we realize there are chains holding us back. It can take some introspection to discover what they truly are. It may also take some hard truth from a close friend. We must keep our minds open and be honest with ourselves if we hope to free ourselves from our chains. What are some of your chains holding you back and how can you free yourself from them?
MAKE SURE TO BE PRESENT!
Look at how happy this kid is looking at this duck. He is taking it all in. You might be thinking to yourself, “Oh, to be a kid again. ” You would be on to something. How long has it been since you looked at something with childlike wonder?
Today, spend at least a few moments looking at something as if it were the first time. Notice, without judgment, all of the little details. Soak it all in. Don’t get lost in your own head with all of the worries and thoughts that seem to plague our waking hours. Just purely enjoy the moment.
I find this can work really well with people too. Looking at someone you care about as if it were the first time can remind you of many of the wonderful things we often take for granted. I would love to hear about your experience in the comments below.
