My mum used to tell me that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. And there’ve been plenty of times in my life when my intentions were strong, but my resolve was too weak for anything significant to be different.
I was always putting off today what would wait until tomorrow. Personal growth could wait ‘till tomorrow. Spiritual development? No time today, will get started tomorrow. I intended to make a difference in the world, but not today.
Sound familiar?
And then tragedy struck; I lost someone I truly, deeply loved. It turned out that I didn’t have all the time in the world after all. Together we wouldn’t have tomorrow, or next week or next year. I came to the realization that life is a privilege and wasting it was a sacrilege.
If you feel you’re off track with what matters most to you, don’t wait for tragedy to strike before you wake up and don’t allow complacency to hinder your growth and expansion.
Even if you’ve fallen far and hard, you can always bounce back higher than ever. My hope is that this post reminds you not to put your life on hold or let anything get in the way of your success and that you no longer do things that get in the way of your greatness.
1. Don’t settle for less because at some point in life you began to believe you weren’t good enough
One of the biggest causes of dissatisfaction and discouragement is the need for success and perfection. For many, falling short comes with feelings of not being good enough and a sense of being worthless. So not true.
Remember you are here for a purpose. One that is totally unique to you. No one else, no one, can take your place. You are meant to be here, you are meant to flourish. Free yourself from everything that brings you down, people, things, food that isn’t good for your body and allow yourself to grow and expand.
2. Accept that you won’t get what you want while making excuses for why you don’t have it
Every excuse you make for not living the life you desire postpones the joy you deserve. If you’re busy making excuses, there isn’t time for seeking opportunities. Who hasn’t used the ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I need more money, or things don’t work out easily for me excuses’?
If you’ve ever been told you wouldn’t make anything of yourself, or you don’t have enough experience now’s the time to prove everyone wrong. Stop making more excuses than progress. But you must believe in yourself, prove it to yourself first…give up excuses.
There’s still magic in the world, despite all the evidence that you can point to that insists there isn’t. Life will surprise you if you let it.
3. If you don’t trust your own judgement, you place your life in someone else’s hands and they don’t have to live with the consequences
Your choices control your destiny. Take a look at all the choices you make in a day. Start today. Did you make decisions that limit you or choices that expand and lead you in the direction you want to go.
Stop being a willing victim, looking around for someone to blame. Don’t allow your life to be anything less than amazing. Forget what anyone says, have faith that making the choices that are right for you will bring the experiences you want.
Don’t waste a single second on those that doubt or minimize you or leave you feeling small. Learn to trust your instincts and stop giving away your power to others.
4. Be willing to believe in yourself if you want others to believe in you
You are destined for great things. Can you believe this? It’s okay for you to believe great things are possible and available to you.
Don’t be defined by your past.
Regardless of your level of education, or your previous attitudes and beliefs about life, you can choose something else, something new. You can learn to develop empowering beliefs. Belief is the star of your life, but it requires patience and persistence to shine it’s light on your future.
Invest time daily in reinforcing the beliefs you want to hold through your own self talk. There’s no need to continue to allow invisible, limiting beliefs to run your life into the ditch.
5. Turning away from what you’re afraid of locks you out of a greater way of living
We’re not all fearless beings. The ones who’ll dare anything. The ones who never back down. But we can all decide to be brave despite the fear. We can be strong because we know what it is to be weak.
Identify yourself with a fearless image, one that inspires and encourages you, it can change your world.
Be willing to be afraid; it means you’re about to do something new. Don’t keep yourself in a prison of sameness, break out. On the other side of fear lies your freedom.
6. Your mind needs to be stretched to make progress
A little imagination will take you a long way. But it’s useless without being used for creative purposes.
Michelangelo imagined the angel in the marble and carved until he set it free.
Imagine your future in all it’s incredible detail and then move every day towards your vision. Don’t insist on living out of your history, decide to live out of your imagination.
Don’t misuse the creative power of your mind by focusing on what you don’t want, what you can’t do, and what doesn’t work. Begin to create a mental blueprint of the happiest life you can imagine and begin building.
7. You can’t hate your way to a greater life
If you’re consistently complaining about your job, your relationships, your body or your health, know this…it isn’t helpful. The likelihood is that you’ll lose the job, your relationships will fade and fall away, your body or your health won’t improve.
Nothing gets better, stronger or more lovely through negativity. It might be annoyingly obvious but if the only voice you listen to is the loud, overbearing voice of negativity don’t expect your current experiences to improve.
Give the smaller, quieter voice of success and encouragement a chance to be heard. Listen to the momentary whisper of thoughts laden with the promise of greatness and happiness and allow them to stir you into action.
In the comments below I’d love to hear what things you need to stop doing to yourself! What you share could be the trigger someone needs to help them bounce back.
Let’s encourage one another.
Love Elle
xox
Thank you for reading and commenting. You are awesome. Please, share this article on your favourite social networks. Every share, thumbs up, like or tweet helps us reach more people who need practical encouragement in their lives. We all truly appreciate you!
14 Comments
Hi Elle; Once agin you nailed it. The one thing I believe in is that thoughts impact words, words impact actions, and actions determine your life’s outcome. You need to keep negative influences out of your mind body and spirit. Last week I won the online business superhero summit contest’s third prize with help from my friends and a big save from adrienne smith. I’m not mentioning it to brag. I mention it because I went from entering for the heck of it to being in the running to thinking maybe I can win to believing yes I will win. we have to be open to life’s opportunities even if they aren’t the ones we saw ourselves looking for. thanks for sharing and take care, Max
Yay Max. Congrats on your big win, that’s wonderful. Love how open you are to life’s opportunities. You’re remarkable. 🙂
Thanks Elle; sometimes I worry people think I am mentioning it to brag but basically i’m just so surprised that such good things have come to me. I really didn’t expect to win but i did want to hear the speakers and you had to enter to log in to the videos. And I think the problem most people have with not getting opportunities is skepticism along with the fact that a lot of opportunities aren’t the ones we were looking for or chasing after. Great posts, Max
We need to focus on our demonstrated ability to overcome our weaknesses.Weare already a champ.Or do we disagree with that?Why just because we don’t hear the echo of ten thousand hands in applause?Come on now ,we can give ourselves a break.Surely our self belief cant be so cheap that it holds no thrill for us.?
We positively need to encourage ourselves and spend more time looking for solutions,searching possibilities,and pushing back self imposed limits.
Thanks
Mona
Encouraging ourselves is so valuable Mona. Sadly all too many have been conditioned from childhood to be more aware of their faults and shortcomings than the brilliance that shines within. As always, you have such a wonderful perspective on life. 🙂
Thanks for this article Elle. I definitely need the boost right now. I’m in a place where I am unsatisfied with myself and a lot of my relationships because I am not being authentic and hiding parts of myself that I am ashamed about. Number 4 resonated strongly with me. If I believe in myself, but am not willing to share with others in my life on what am I doing, do I really believe in myself then? No. I know this is kind of vague, since I don’t want to write a page on what it is going on right now in my life hehe. Just know that it helped.
So glad it helped Sebastian. There are times when it’s good to know that we’re not on our own in all this. I’m always here if you need a friend in your corner! Feel free to e-mail me any time. elle@reflectingalife.com
Thanks Elle. I appreciate that offer. I may take you up on that offer someday : D.
Elle, such powerful truths. They are so hard to see sometimes, but they are so absolute. I really love number 7. How often are we all guilty of that? But yet, that one simple mantra “You can’t hate your way to a better life.” is going to be my new best friend any time I find myself in a bad mood. Once again, Elle, you’re a genius!!
Hi Jessica, thanks for stopping by. You encourage me and I’m grateful. 🙂
Great post, Elle. I love number 7 as well, “You can’t hate your way to a greater life.” Complaining never gets you anywhere, yet it is such an easy habit to fall into. Staying positive helps as well as reading your amazing posts! Take care.
Thanks Cathy for your kind words, glad you enjoyed the post. Maybe we should all work towards a complaint free month and see what happens then! 🙂
Hi, that’s the ultimate truth about life and our greater purpose. I’ve seen it and have the habit of procrastinating-it doesn’t help and at times, I feel I am stagnating. Also, negative thoughts keep flowing and high time to flash them down the drain.
Hi Vishal – welcome. I know what you mean my friend. I’m currently working on limiting the beliefs I have and see how that improves my ability to procrastinate! 🙂