Everything Happens for a Reason...

Everything, and I do mean everything, happens for a reason. You should make sure you watch, listen, feel, experience, learn and grow.

That situation that seems to be a coincidence is actually a consequence. What you thought was a random occurrence is actually a direct result of something.
Life’s events and situations have a way of telling you something of value. You have to choose to pay attention and, stay firmly grounded in your purpose, so you can hear what life has to say.
When you understand where consequences come from, you learn to choose the ones you desire. If you focus carefully on life’s various causes and effects, you will create the specific outcomes you wish to experience.
When things don't go your way, you will find it easy and tempting to blame it on random bad luck.  However, if you choose to take full responsibility for your situation, because that puts you on a path to change it for the better, you will find a sense of empowerment.
Everything happens for a reason.  For every result, there is a cause. Choose to strive to take positive, purposeful control of the causes, and get the results you truly desire.

Wonderful from Bad...

In every bad situation that you encounter, you must remember that something wonderful will come from it. Something of great value is already taking shape.  You just have to go through it to get to it.
In all your disappointments, there are fertile seeds of accomplishment. In all of your pains, there are opportunities arising for magnificent joy.

As you find your way through the dark and lonely valley, it is important to keep going. When you choose to keep going, you’ll soon reach the place where you begin to climb out and up toward the mountaintop.
I challenge you to choose to allow your difficulties the opportunity to give you strength. Choose to let the tough times make the good times much more rewarding than they otherwise would have been. Choose to be truly thankful for each opportunity,especially to fully appreciate life’s goodness. Choose to be confident that the goodness is always there.  In every bad situation, know that something wonderful will come from it. And it will.

Time is Valuable...

Just how valuable is your time to you?  Do you know that the value that you place on your time will determine what you receive in return for it? If you are careless and wasteful with your time, you’ll have very little to show for it. But when you see your time as precious, making an effort to get the most from every minute, success and achievement will be the end result.
The wealthy businessperson, the winning athlete, the accomplished musician, the published author, they all have the exact same number of hours in the day as everyone else, including you. What makes the difference?  They value, appreciate and make the most of each moment, which makes their lives filled with exceptional accomplishment.
If you have the feeling that there aren’t enough hours in the day, consider how you’re using those hours that you do have. There’s always something you can do, to take full advantage of your time, to get more out of it.
Remember, time can work for you or against you. It depends entirely on the degree to which you utilize each priceless moment. So choose to value your time and it will bring value to you.

Uncertainty Can Be Good...

There is so much for you in the uncertain areas of your life.  To live your possibilities, you must step away from your certainties. Your past is safe, secure, certain -- and impossible to change. Your future is filled with uncertainty, and in that uncertainty are limitless possibilities. Your future is unknown, and because of that it harbors every opportunity imaginable.
The choice is yours.  You can choose to stay safe and secure in what you already know for sure, but you won’t find any opportunities there. Or you can choose to move confidently into the unknown territory that is the future, where you will find a world of possibilities.
Though your possibilities come packaged with uncertainty, you have the ability to transform the best of those possibilities into certain reality. Yet in order to do it, you must be willing to venture into unknown territory.  
The walls you build to keep you secure from uncertainty are also the same walls that hold you prisoner. Beyond those walls exist your grandest possibilities. Have the confidence to explore those possibilities. Detach yourself from the need for certainty and security. The future is indeed unknown, and ready to be shaped by your imagination.

Never Too Late to Learn...

It is never too late to learn.  You should strive to learn something new everyday.  You can learn from everything. Choose to take full advantage of every great opportunity.

From joy, you can learn. From adversity, you can learn. From friends, from travel, challenge, disappointment, pleasure, achievement, anger, frustration and beauty, you can learn. There is something to be learned from the biggest ideas and the smallest details.

You can even learn just by thinking in a new way about what you’ve already learned. Whatever it is you wish to learn, you can learn.  

Your knowledge and wisdom add great value and effectiveness to whatever you do. Each day you will encounter countless opportunities to increase your knowledge and wisdom.

Remember that learning is the ability from which all other abilities arise and improve. So choose to keep on learning all that you can learn.  It is never too late to learn.

What Do You Expect?

What do you expect?  Is there room for improvement?  In order to achieve improved results from yourself and others, you must first improve your expectations. If you truly expect to do something, you’ll find a way to do. Whatever you genuinely and positively expect of others, you must firmly encourage them to make it so. It starts with respect.  If you respect people enough to expect the best of them, with confidence and sincerity, you'll find that they’ll come through with an impressive performance.

We communicate our expectations to yourself and to others through words, actions, thoughts, posture, and attitude. When these things are positive and empowering, the positive expectations they convey will bring impressive results.

I challenge you to base your expectations not on what has happened in the past, but rather on what you desire for the future. Expectations exert a powerful influence on you and on those around you, so choose to use that influence wisely.

When you choose to expect to improve your situation, you will. When you choose to expect to have a productive day, you will. In essence, you’ll likely get whatever you truly expect. So choose, with your words, your thoughts, and your actions, to expect the very best.

In this Moment...

You are in this moment, so why not live in it and enjoy it.  Don’t let the need to have what comes next take away from your enjoyment of what is now. Choose to let your gratitude serve as the doorway to the abundance that is all around you.

Did you know that the way to stop needing anything is to be thankful that you already have it? When you put your energy into needing something, that energy works against the reality of you ever having it. The more you persist in being thankful for it, the more real and available it becomes for you.  So decide today to be thankful or everything you have, everything you are going through.  Accept this moment, for what it is, your moment.  

Don't long for things to be a certain way, choose to find value in the way things already are. Move in the direction you want to go, while being appreciative of where you are.

Let your heart be thankful. Open your eyes to the reality of abundance already within your reach.  This is your moment, live in it and enjoy it.

We all have problems...

You are not the only one with problems.  We all have them.  Just as we have problems, we have the ability to solve them.  Even though it would be so easy to blame someone else and rely upon them to solve them, there is no true value in that.

No matter who has done what, your best thing you can do is to take responsibility for it. Even if it is their fault, it’s your life. You can't depend on those who have hurt you in the past to help you in the future. Choose to forget about who is to blame and focus on what is to be done.

Examine yourself.  If you’re not satisfied with your circumstances, it’s up to you to change them for the better. There will always be many things outside your control. Choose to accept them, adjust for them, and put your efforts into moving ahead because of your own thoughts and actions.

I challenge you to put the energy it would take to blame and hold a grudge toward making a positive difference. Your past is your past and we all have one.  Rather than perpetuating something unpleasant in your past, choose to leave it behind. Your life is your life, so decide to create your future the way you would like it to be.

Burdens...

Burdens are defined as something that is carried, something that is emotionally difficult to bear, a responsibility or duty.  Everybody has burdens.  If you are feeling tired and weary, now might be the time to evaluate what is weighing you down.  There are many burdens you can get rid of today.  Burdens that you’ll easily be able to do without.

Let's start by abandoning any resentments that you carry. Each resentment costs an enormous amount of time and energy, and provides absolutely nothing of value in return.

Then check your anxiety.  Choose to walk away from your anxiety. All the anxiety in the world cannot add a single positive moment to your life.

Next decide to let go of the need to prove that you’re always right. Instead, use the time and energy to more effectively listen and understand.

Since you are on a roll, go ahead and abandon your envy, anger, impatience and frustration. These are all things that are doing you more harm than good.  They are taking up space in your life, leaving negativity where there should be positivity.  

Taking the necessary steps to drop the burdens in your life is easy when you realize the value that they are taking away from your life.  They are holding you back.  Choose today to lighten your load, become burden free and move quickly to where you truly wish to be.  

Give the Encouragement You Want...

There is no better way to encourage yourself than to encourage somebody else.  Nothing can lift you more genuinely than your own efforts to lift someone else.

Think back on the times when you were at your greatest. You’ll see that those days have been days when you’ve given most generously of yourself.  Those days were days when your focus was not on yourself.

When you focus only on your own problems and challenges, it puts you in a negative and helpless state of mind. When you find yourself in this situation, challenge yourself to turn your attention to helping others with the problems they face.  You will find that there is always someone with issues far greater than your own.  You will find that you naturally become more positive and effective.

When you find yourself feeling sorry for yourself, redirect that energy. Choose to turn it into compassion for others. There is always something you can do to lift up those around you, a smile, a hug, a kind gesture, are all reliable ways to lift your spirits as well.

Choose to give the encouragement you would like to receive. You will find that you will indeed receive it in double measure.

Peace is a Choice...

Being at peace is a choice.  The innermost part of you can only be reached by those things you allow to get close to you. The world around you may be filled with turbulence and noisy confusion, but the inner you can be at peace at any time.  You have a choice.

People will hurl insults, anger or disruption in your direction, but you have the choice to ignore them.  There are many things that will affect your outer world, but the choice is yours if they affect your inner peace.

You can have peace.  Deep inside, you can remain strong, confident and peaceful, affected only by the things you truly value and desire. The stronger and more positive you are on the inside, the more that strength will surely make its way to the outside as well.

Just as you can allow the negative and disruptive things to get to you, to affect you all the way to your very core, you can just as surely keep them out. If you choose, you can stay strong, confident, and true to your highest purpose. That strength will, without fail, radiate outward.

You may not be able to control everything that goes on around you, but you can always choose to fill the inner you with strength, faith, confidence, and love. Choose to put positive energy into the inner you, and the rest of you will benefit greatly.  Choose to be at peace.

Stop and Think...

It pays to stop and think before you do anything. You should never just automatically react to life or live by blind habit.

Stop and think about what you’re about to do, and think about the consequences. When you choose the action, you’re also choosing all the things that result from that action.  It is your choice.

When you choose to eat half a dozen doughnuts, you’re choosing to put fat on your body. When you choose to be sloppy with your work, you’re choosing to sabotage your career.

When you choose to rise early and start getting things done, you’re choosing to create real and lasting value in your life. When you choose to stay focused on an important task, you’re choosing to enjoy the rewards that come from a real accomplishment.

Choose to live your life based on your own best intentions. Each action you take has very real consequences, and you get to select the exact consequences that you wish to bring about.

It pays to stop and think before you do anything.  It only takes a brief moment to think before you act. If you do it every time, and your life will start to follow the precise path you choose.  Just remember to stop and think.

Power of Admittance...

Don't be afraid to admit it all.  There is power in admittance.  When you admit to being frightened, your courage will grow. When you admit to not knowing, you will learn. When you admit your weaknesses, you’ll become stronger. When you admit your mistakes, you’ll begin to move past them.  When you admit you don’t know what to say, you’ll find just the right words. When you admit that you’re confused, you’ll begin to understand. When you admit that you’re hurting, you’ll begin to heal. When you admit that you care, the things that truly matter will grow stronger.

All you have to do is to start being honest with yourself, with others, and with life.  Life can often be difficult and intimidating, however if you approach it with honesty you will find yourself on the the most reliable and direct route to truly attain whatever you seek.

Any attempt you make to deceive will ultimately end up wasting your precious time. So choose to live the truth of who you are, admit it and it will bring out the best you can be.