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!
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.
It is estimated that we have 60,000 thoughts a day. It may be hard to imagine, but when you think of how much our brain jumps from one thought to the next, it really shouldn’t be. As an author, I think that number might even be double.
This year, let us focus on making a good percentage of those thoughts positive and empowering. According to the national science foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative. Somehow, that is the human default. Scary part is, 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. If you are keeping score at home, 80% of what we think is negative and we repeat that 95% of the time. Is it any wonder our lives are not ones of overwhelming joy and fulfillment?
This year, take some time, even 5 minutes a day, to relax and focus on something positive. I would recommend starting with things you are grateful for. Then even try adding things you are looking forward to. Let us make this year one where we defy the numbers and have more positive thoughts and repeat them!
Happy New Year to all of our family at secret2anamazinglife.com! As we all begin our journey into 2024, let us ignite a fire that will burn in our soul. Let us fan the flames of hope, love and resilience! Let us fill and strengthen both our spirit, and those around us.
Share what you are going to do to help you burn bright this year and show the wonderful light that is you.
Can you imagine walking everywhere leading with your butt? Just picture that for a second, walking into a room butt first. How ridiculous would that be? Some people seem to lead into every conversation talking out of this, but that is a matter for a different post. It is obvious that you would not want to lead with your butt in life. It would really make it difficult to see where you are going. It would also create several obstacles where there should be none. Think about trying to open a door butt first. This would be difficult, if not impossible. How about driving butt first? Not only very dangerous, but could be fatal. All of these, and more, would be so much easier if we would just leave the butt where it belongs – behind us.
Other than highlighting things that would be comical or dangerous to be done being led by your posterior, and providing some comic relief in your day, what does all of this have to do with living an amazing life? Before I answer that question, let me share that looking up “Images of a butt” to write this blog is not something you would want to do in a public space…say like Starbucks. The reason we are discussing this today is far too many of us to go through life leading with our butt. Before you stop me and say although you have seen people driving who resemble a butt, they are usually facing the right way, we are not talking about the body part.
Today we are talking about people who are led by the word, and worse the thought, ‘but’. You know the people I am talking about. The ones who say, “I could have a better job, BUT” or “I would take better care of my health BUT” They are leaving room for their excuses. I understand that in life there are plenty of obstacles. It can be easy to through out a ‘but’ here and there to excuse our lack of progress, or even sometimes lack of effort.
When it comes to any project or goal we are pursuing, if we lead with a ‘but’ we are no likely to succeed than that poor individual trying to open the door with the seat given to them by mother nature. When we begin with a ‘but’ we are highlighting our obstacles and short-circuiting our success. Yes, there will be challenges along the way. However, using them as an excuse will have us looking like the young man on the toilet in the picture above. Do not lead with your butt. Much like the physical example, doing so in word and thought will create obstacles where there was none and make every situation more difficult.
Get the ‘buts’ out of your life. If you find yourself uttering this phrase, or thinking this way, too often, realize that you cannot lead with your butt. Picture our friend trying to open the door, people facing the wrong way behind the wheel or even our toddler confused in the restroom. They all look really silly, and so will you. Do not let ‘but’ ruin your chance for success. Just like when you are walking through life, make sure the ‘buts’ stay where they belong – behind you.
Just a reminder, no matter how tough life seems, it is not as tough as you! It won’t be easy, it may be rough, but if you just keep going you will get through. Feel free to read through the over 2000+ posts on secret2anamazinglife.com to fill you with inspiration and motivation. We are always here to help. If there is a subject you would like us to discuss, leave it in the comments or send us a message.
We are here to believe in you and support you in your dreams!
After a season of gift giving, let us not forget about the person in the mirror. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is to take charge of our own happiness. Too many times we hear people say things like this – “I was having a great day until —-” or “How can I be happy when traffic is bad, my boss is a jerk and the bills keep growing?”
My response to any of this is to ask if you know of anyone who has faced any of these circumstances, often worse ones, and managed to keep a positive disposition? My second book, Living the Dream, has a collection of stories of people who faced much worse than you and I probably will and are some of the most positive people I know.
The Secret they use, and we can too, is to not let our circumstances dictate our happiness. Be determined not to let others, or even life in general, tell you how to feel. Do not give anyone, or anything, that much control over your life! Make happiness an inside job.
Here is a book I cannot recommend enough. Not only because it was written by a very good friend of mine, but because of what it can do for you, and even more, why it was written. You will not only enjoy reading the funny stories contained within, you will be learning as you do so. It will not take you long as it is a quick read, but you will walk away with a greater understanding of your own life by reading about the authors.
Within each chapter, Kurt, the author, shares a story from his life. They are all entertaining, and many stir up emotion. After the story, he shares the lesson he learned. It may remind you of something similar that happened in your own life. It may even start the gears in your brain turning and thinking about how many lessons you could pull from your own life experiences! What if that happens? Do not worry, Kurt has you covered. After the lesson, there is a space you can jot down notes that have occurred to you while reading the proceeding chapter. You don’t have to even have a separate notebook handy. How great is that?
Last week, the author stopped by to help Margie and I with a technical issue. He, and his wonderful lady, shared a meal with my lovely lady and I. We talked as friends do and he shared with us a very gripping story. I would have normally supported this book because the author is my friend and it really will positively impact a lot of lives, but the why behind how it was finally brought to market makes me want to do so even more. Kurt and his mother were very close. He shared many of the fun activities they would do together. I can relate to that as my mother and I often go hiking and get coffee, among other such things. Sadly, Kurt’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. When that happened, they still spent time together by watching movies together. One evening after doing so, he got her a bowl of ice cream and told her he loved her before leaving. She told him, “I love you more.” and he left. The next day she had a doctor’s appointment but tragically did not make it to that appointment. She passed away.
Before she had passed, she made her son promise to publish his book. To honor his mother, he did just that. It is my firm belief, she would not only be proud of her son, but of the amazing book he created. I know she will be looking down and be filled with joy at all the lives her son will have impacted with his thoughtful book. Won’t you honor both him and her by allowing his book to touch your life? You will walk away a more introspective and thoughtful individual, and you will help a young man who kept his promise to his mother. I have included the link to order the book below. You can also search Nothing is Everything by Kurtis W Perkins on Amazon yourself. I would love to hear how this wonderful book has impacted your life, as would Kurt. Feel free to leave a positive review on Amazon to let others know as well.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 