Reject Rejection

Rejection is something we will encounter at sometime in our life.  Does the fear of rejection hold you back? Are you so concerned about what others might think, say or feel about you that it keeps you from taking positive action?

Rejection will hurt only when you allow it to hurt you.  Why would you choose to be hurt?  Who you are cannot be changed by someone saying no to you, or someone saying something negative about you.  It will only affect you if you allow it.

The words, actions and opinions of others have no real bearing on your worth as a person. Choose to be helpful and desirable to make a good impression whenever you can.  Remember,  it’s not the end of the world when you experience rejection.

When you set out to make a difference, there will always be someone who disagrees with you.  There will always be someone who will ignore you.  You will even have someone who will flat out reject what you’re doing. You have to choose to look beyond them and keep your focus on what you’ve decided to accomplish.

Positive feedback is a great thing, but it simply does not always happen. You don't need it to know where you’re headed.   Your true worth does not depend on the judgment of others. I challenge you to go confidently forward, doing what you know must be done, and let others think what they will.  It only hurts you if you let it.

Choose to Grow

What will you do with today?  Did you know that every day is an opportunity to grow. So ask yourself, how will you grow today?

Every experience or every situation that you encounter daily, whether positive or negative, gives you the chance for positive growth.  You are provided with a way to grow stronger  with every situation, every encounter, every victory and every defeat.  But you have to choose to grow.

Each effort can make you more capable. Each thought can make you wiser.  But you have to choose to grow.

You can choose to take the best of who you already are, and expand on it. Growth will not change you into a different person, instead it will allow you to more fully express your own uniqueness.  But you have to choose to grow.  

As you choose to grow, you will notice that you become more complete.  As you choose to grow, you become more authentic.  As you choose to grow, your own special goodness becomes more prominent and the limitations steadily fall away.

I challenge you to choose not to merely let this day come and go without any positive progress. I challenge you on today, with what you have and where you are, to choose to grow.

Refuse to Have a Bad Day...

Are you having a bad day?  Are you just not feeling it?  Did you know that bad feelings have a purpose?  They are to spur you into action.  One of the best ways to change a bad feeling into a good one is to do something positive about it. 

If you just sit there, and keep wallowing in negativity never doing anything about it, that brings you down. Not only do you feel lousy, but you also pass up the opportunity to get motivated by those lousy feelings.

When you take a positive cue from a negative feeling, things immediately begin to change for the better. Quit giving away your power, especially to negativity.  Take back your power by doing something about it.  You are in control and you are moving forward.  You have the power.

I challenge you go from being a victim to being a beneficiary of your negative feeling. Start by taking a step in a positive direction.  Once you start, keep going, and you’ll soon leave that negative feeling completely behind.

If you seem to be having a bad day, it’s not the day that’s bad. It's your reaction. It’s your lack of a positive response to it that makes it seem so bad.

I encourage you to stop and listen to what your bad feeling is attempting to tell you. Then get busy, do something about it.  In n time at all, you will find you have turned your defeat into a triumph.  It's not such a bad day after all. 

Do Something...

Today is a new day full of goals, wishes, dreams and ideas.  What you get out of it is up to you.  One way or another, you will get something accomplished today. Exactly what you get accomplished is up to you.  What you put in is what you get out.  

The hours of this day will go by, no matter what you do. What you get from them is up to you.  You can waste them being busy with foolery and negativity, or you can use them to work towards your goals and dreams.  Regardless, the hours will pass and this day will soon be behind you.  

The world is filled with challenges, frustrations, joys and opportunities. You will be faced with new ones everyday.  What you make of them is up to you. Some of the people around you will praise you and encourage you, others will curse you and oppose you, still others will ignore you. Does any of that matter to you?  The way you respond is completely up to you.  So decide today to choose what is worthy of your time, efforts and energy.

You can hide away from life or you can live in its glorious richness. There will always be  people that will help you, some will hurt you, but nobody can live your own unique life for you. The way you experience this priceless gift of life is up to you.  

Footprints...

Your life is a journey in the sand. The footprints you leave behind show where you have been. But they do not dictate where you can go.

Your life up to now may have been difficult and filled with disappointment or it has been easy and filled with good fortune. But that is irrelevant to the choices that are now available to you.  None of that matters now. At this moment in time, you can go in any direction you choose.

At this point in your journey, it is okay to look back at the footprints you have made.  You can learn much by looking at how you arrived. You can benefit from what you’ve learned and experienced.  You can use it all to thrust you forward into where you choose to go.  

The past is the past.  Now that you’ve been through your past, you have a much better idea of where you truly want to go or definitely where you don't want to go.  You know what you want to experience and what things you never want to experience again. So stop, look back at all the footprints you’ve left behind, and decide what will be the next footprints you will take.  Choose your footprints wisely.

At this very moment, your possibilities stretch out in countless directions, yet the next step you take must be in one specific direction. So where do you choose to go?  What do you choose to do?  Who do you choose to be?  You have a choice to make right now, so choose the very best and become the best you that you can be.

Choose Happiness

Do you recognize happiness?  Can you look at somebody and tell if they are truly happy?  There are plenty of people who appear to have every reason in the world for happiness, who are in fact miserable. And there are others who seem to have no reason at all to be happy, yet they are as happy as can be.  Why? Because happiness is not a result, happiness is a cause. 

Don't wait for happiness.  Choose to be happy now.  If you wait for a reason to be happy, that reason will likely never come. Choose to be happy now even though there’s no reason for it, and pretty soon an abundance of reasons will begin to appear.

We create our reasons.  Smile, and you will find much to smile about. Be thankful, and you will begin to realize all the reasons for being thankful.  Choose to create your reasons.  Choose to be happy.  Refuse to put conditions on your happiness.  If you make your happiness conditional, you’ll limit it and drive it away. 

My challenge for you is that instead of waiting for happiness to flow toward you, let it flow from you. Choose happiness and it will never fail to find its own very good reasons in your life.  Choose happiness today.  

Life is a Choice...

Life is a choice.  Everything you are, everything you have, and everything you do is all the result of choices you have made. Think about it.  Where you are right now is a direct result of a conscious choice you made, be it a minute ago, an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago, a month ago or a year ago.  It was a choice.  Now you may not be happy with your life right now.  I want to encourage you to not waste your time, effort and energy blaming someone or something for your situation. We all face obstacles.  Our success in life is based primarily on whether we chose to see obstacles as excuses or to see them as challenges.  Remember life is a choice.  The direction in which our life goes depends on the choices we make along the way.  

You can choose to sit around all night watching TV, or you can choose to spend your evening enriching your mind or learning a new skill. You can choose to damage your body with drugs and alcohol, or you can choose to exercise and eat healthy. You can choose to stand quietly in the corner at the party, or to use it as an opportunity to network and meet interesting people.

You must realize that the important choices aren’t the big ones. The biggest difference comes from compiling all the little decisions in our life.  We may agonize for weeks or months over what school to attend, what career to pursue or what job offer to accept. These are considered big, important choices. But our life is determined more by the “little” choices that we make every day: Should I make that phone call? Should I volunteer? Should I introduce myself? Should I have another piece of pie? Should I roll over and sleep for another 20 minutes? Should I watch that episode of Housewives, again?  It's these little choices that impact the bigger choices we will encounter in life.  So choose wisely.  

It is choices, not chances, that determine our destiny.  

Big Things are made out of Little Things

Big things are made out of little things. A tiny droplet of water is soft and relatively harmless. If it were to fall on your head from out of the sky, you probably would not even notice. Yet when enough tiny, soft droplets are grouped together, they can form a large and powerful storm, with the force to topple buildings and alter the landscape. In order to gain control over the big things, you must control the little things, over and over again. Small things such as moments of time, don’t seem like much. They come and go often without notice. Yet, when we put enough of them together, and are focused on a clearly defined objective, they tend to bring truly awesome results.

Imagine a brick.  It is easy to set one brick on top of another. However, if you do it often enough, you will find that you have built a strong, solid wall. It is easy to pick up the phone and make a single call. Do it often enough and you’ll find you have built a massive customer base. It is easy to put a few thoughts on paper. Do it often enough and you’ve written a masterpiece.

Big things are made out of little things.  Every achievement is built, one small step at a time. So choose today to plan your steps. Then take them, one after another, and you’ll find that you have achieved your goal. Step by step, and all the little things in your life will become the big things you desire.

Limits?...What Limits?

Do you have any limits?  Do you know you are the primary power source for your own limitations. 2014, I challenge you stop maintaining your limitations, stop giving them support and feeding them.  Just like anything that doesn't get support and get fed, those limitations will fade away and die. 

Do you know that every time you put, “I could never do that” out into the atmosphere with your words or thoughts, that you affirm your limitations?  Do you know when you use the excuse “that’s just the way I am” for your behavior, that you’re building and strengthening the limits which hold you back?  Well, now is the time to do away with the negativity.

Your reality is just that, yours.  Your mind is responsible for your own version of reality.  So any limits which take hold in your mind, are very real indeed. What is that “little voice” inside your head talking about all day? Are you listening to it?  Is it holding you back, or is it pushing you ahead? Is it constantly saying “I could never” or “I’m always” or “I can’t"? It should be screaming "I can" or "I will" or "I am".  Are you busy convincing yourself of your own limits?  Choose today to do away with those limits.  What limits?  Today is the best day of the rest of your life.

That little voice can say anything you want it to say. You can control it with some effort.  It is your mind, so be aware and listen to what you’re telling yourself.  Stop and think about it. There is no need to be criticizing and limiting yourself?  Choose to start being supportive of yourself, and watch how quickly the world changes for the better.  You will find yourself living a life with no limits.

New Year...New You

Did 2013 not go your way? Did you find yourself agonizing, complaining and bringing yourself down by feeling sorry for yourself? Did you make the situation even worse by letting it stop you in your tracks?  Well guess what?  That is all behind you now.  2014 has arrived.  A new year means new experiences and new opportunities.  

A negative experience is no reason for negativity. A negative experience is actually the driving force behind you remaining resolutely positive.  So choose this year to face everything differently. When you get knocked down get back up. Refuse to wallow in any misfortunes that you encounter.

Did you have a bad day? a bad month? a bad year?  Smile. It’s over and done with. Choose today to move forward. The past does not equal the future unless you allow it. Have you tried your best and failed? Smile. That’s history. Look up. Look forward. Refocus and reload, and try again.  This year set an even more compelling goal and create an action plan to move you toward it.

Remember just because misfortune affects you doesn’t mean it has to control you. This year get misfortune behind you. Transcend it. Rise above it and move swiftly forward as you surely can into 2014.