Live out your passion!

Here's a wonderfully detailed guide to living your dream:

Live Your Passion

I have read a quote recently but now I cannot remember where about - everyone having a purpose here on earth, maybe yours is watching television.
How concerned are you with living your purpose? Is this something important to you?
I've recently had a conversation with a friend about the reasons behind wanting to accomplish your dreams and he said it's all about proving a point, proving it to yourself that you can do it. I don't think it's this, it's all about meaning and feeling like you are doing something meaningful. Living out your passions. I have always admired and looked up to people who have managed from nothing to make a living out of their passion. What can be better than that?

Wayne Dyer: "Don't die with your music still in you."

Postponing happiness

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin–real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” – Alfred D’Souza

One of my favorite recurring topics is putting off our happiness. I love reading about this because it motivates me to live in the present and stop thinking that everything will be all right when a certain something happens, when I achieve something or when one particular problem passes.

I think the key is to be able to find the time and balance to deal with the problems and then leave them behind, then pick them up again and relax again. Kind of a challenge, but maybe it comes down to a decision only. This is my time to deal with it, and this is the time to relax and add joy to the day. But now I have started talking about worrying, when I really wanted to talk about putting off going in the direction of your dreams and waiting for the time to be just right. Before you know it, you may be in for a lifetime of waiting!

Step out of yourself

In certain situations it helps to try to step out of your life and look at the situation you are in from an outside perspective. Often we feel stuck and cannot find a solution for a situation we personalise too much. It helps to imagine you are an outsider and you view yourself as an observer. This attitude can also help when you are dealing with a difficult situation or you are being criticised.

DBT therapy is explained here in more details. When you are in the middle of a situation, instead of personalising it totally, imagine you are an observer viewing the issue from outside, without judgement.

truth, not force

love love love this:

http://www.urbanmonk.net/135/love-sorrow-and-attachment/ :

"Love and Improvement

Recently I was reading another blog on personal development. It was a long, complicated post on reconciling the conflict between self-acceptance and self-improvement. And that issue has been raised in many other places before – “How can you love and accept yourself exactly as you are and still want to improve yourself?”

My question is: How can you not?

Have you ever seen a man who is in love with his car? He spends hours polishing it, waxing it, tinkering with the engine. Have you ever seen a woman and her infant? Does she leave it alone, simply because it is perfect as it is? No. The baby is perfect to her and yet she wants the best for it. She cuddles it, kisses it, feeds it, and plans for its future. Where is the conflict?

And, I beg you, think of the opposite. How many self-improvement projects stem from a lack of self-acceptance and self-love? How many of us meditate, work out, volunteer at a charity, go looking for a lover, drive ourselves to earn more – to fill a deep sense of “not enough”?

First, know Love. And from there, let everything else flow."

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Geneen Roth: "Truth, not force, does the work "

don't write yourself off

Watch what say to and about yourself. As Louise Hay says:

'Begin to listen to what you say. Don't say anything that you don't want to become true for you.'

I have recently caught myself saying to someone else how I cannot see myself doing this or that. 'I can't see myself driving.' But then I remembered that for all the years of my life I have said that I cannot see myself work. We can go through amazing transformations of character and bring about miraculous changes. At this point there's one thing I am sure of which I certainly hope remains the same. As for anything else, anything may happen.

Question your set beliefs about yourself, such as: I am this way, I cannot change, I have always been like this, cannot be helped/ and be mindful about negative self-talk. It doesn't help you. Plus it's not true but it can turn into your reality if you believe it.

first impressions don't work

It's amazing to me how many times it has happened to me that I have completely changed my mind about someone after getting to know them. I am not one to judge and form an opinion quickly when I meet someone for the first time.
I also take it with a grain of salt every time I hear someone say what a great judge of character they are and they can tell so much about a person at first sight. First impressions are a dead wrong giveaway in my opinion. I don't believe they work.
I am glad that I've had tons of weak first impressions turn into pleasant surprises. Careful about trusting your gut at first sight.

brilliantly put

Louise L. Hay's You Can Heal Your Life

" We are meant to be different. When we accept this, then there is no competition and no comparison. Try try to be like another is to shrivel our soul.

We have come to this planet to express who we are."

what would you do?

The other day I answered the question: What would you do if you only had one more day to live. And I realised I wasn't doing one of the things I would so love to do. So now, it's up to me to find a way to incorporate it into my life.

What about you?

how people inspire

I love getting advice from people or listening to what they have to say while out in town, waiting for the tram for example. Sometimes the most mundane and simple thing said comes just at the right time.

I also love running into aquaintances and having inspiring unexpected conversations. The other day I ran into an old aquaintance who started telling me about all the projects she is involved in and I realised that since our last encounter she has literally changed her life around, nothing is the same. I admired her zest and positivity and the conversation was very uplifting even though it was hot and I was tired and felt drained before it. I walked away knowing I will remember the talk for a long time to come.

Appearance vs Reality

It hurts that I had to miss Appearance vs Reality in the club yesterday. I would have loved to talk about how I am beginning to believe that is no such thing as reality, everything is appearance. There are facts, but no ultimate truths and with our attitude to the facts we make our own reality.

It is how we perceive and judge the appearance that will become our reality, which we can change.

What would make your life worth living?

I few years ago I had an interesting conversation with someone who asked me a memorable question. So, what would make your life worth living? Can you answer it?

sometimes

Sometimes you think that something is very important to you and that you really need it but when it's taken away, you realise it wasn't so important after all.
You can deal better than you thought you would.

and sometimes you build your whole world around these things.....attachment...attachment.....

where goes your power? Do you give your power away?

Playing your cards right

I often think of how someone else would have dealt with my cards if they were me.

I mean, I am born with certain potentials and my belief system will then determine how I deal with my cards. How I make my potentials work.

We have recently had the 'Reinvent yourself' meeting at the club, what a great topic suggestion it was. Do you know what your talents and potentials are? Do you try to fulfil them?

This topic is very dear to me, also on another level, where make-up is concerned. Make-up can work wonders on a face, accentuating the positive and downplaying the negative, it can literally transform a face! I find this very interesting.

We are all born with certain talents, and it's up to us how we play them.

a game to play is ask your friends to brainstorm what job they think would suit you, it's entertaining and useful at the same time. I got Judge from a friend. :)

Looking back

One of my biggest motivators is thinking of myself on my deathbed being very old, with most of my life behind me and looking back. I imagine how pleased I am going to be with myself about how I lived my life. I find that this is what truly motivates me to change things.

I absolutely dread being angry with myself for not living my life the way I wanted to. For not fulfilling at least some of my potential. Letting my talents and passions go to waste... Or for listening to the negative voice that dissuaded me from going for what I really wanted.

It is my big fear that fear and lack of trust in myself will stop me. I often ask myself, what if I am good enough once I start, but I let fear get in the way.

I know I don't want to be old and look back and be angry with myself for not trying to work with my voices and defy everything I have learned to be true.

What if it's just fear and lack of self-confidence that stop me from living it out?

Change

If you have known yourself to be a certain way or lacking a certain quality, it doesn't mean that what you have known is the ultimate TRUTH.

Change is so possible, don't believe the voice that tells you you cannot do it, because it has never worked before or you are just not cut out for it.

not enough time?

Sometimes the fear and the panic over what is going to happen and how you are going to handle it is bigger than the actual issue. Lately I panic over being overwhelmed by having so much to do. Finding time for everything and scheduling time for one issue, then the next etc. But when things actually start happening, I notice they flow better than I imagined.

Panicking happens when I imagine all sorts of scenarios and negative thoughts mingle in my mind that seem out of control at the given time. They are not caused by the actual external situation. It's all about your thoughts and thoughts can be changed.

What determines your success is not the actual given situation but how you react to it. And that can be improved! Don't give so much power to the actual situation! Give yourself the power! Have more faith in how your are going to handle it, develop a strategy, working with your thoughts.


A good affirmation is: " I have time for everything I need to do." It's only in my mind that I don't have enough time.

What are your rechargers?

I will have a few recurring topics in this blog, one of them observing the changes that occur since I started working for the first time recently.

So what I have observed is that I have become very conscious of how I spend my spare time. This wasn't an issue before since all I had was spare time basically. So the lack of structure does lead to some lack of consciousness....

The question is, and I have drawn up my own list, what are your rechargers? What activities do you turn to in your free time that replenish you, that make you happy? Do you try to make a conscious effort to include these in your days on a regular basis?

how a negative experience can turn into a positive one with time

The death of my dog last year is a great example of how a (seemingly) bad experience can turn into a positive one. It was a bad experience indeed when it happened, but over the course it has turned into a positive thing, because it opened ways for me that would not have opened or I would not have noticed or taken the chances if Aprilia was still around.

I didn't get to mourn her for a very long time, truly I was just happy she got to live and be part of my life, I think we both did our best to make each other happy, and that's what matters. I thanked her just before she left me for the joy and love she gave me.

But I am not sure I will love quite like that again. And I'm not sure I will have a dog again. Which brings me to another subject. Ever since I got Aprilia, I was certain I would always have a dog in my life, that after Aprilia's passing I would get another dog, there wasn't a doubt in my mind, and somehow my passion for dogs has died out a little with Aprilia gone. Dogs don't move me like they used to and the idea of owning one doesn't excite me now. How we change, how what we think we know for certain can change unexpectedly.

my important people

It's interesting that there are many people who have touched my life in a significant way and have become important people in my life, not necessarily close friends or family, or not even necessarily someone I'm in close contact with. Who are the important people in your life who have made a mark? What about people in the past who have helped you in a major way to whom you will always be grateful?

perfectionism can truly be the enemy

and keep you from actually doing things. But I won't give perfectionism any more power. It's much more important to actually do what I want to, than to do it well. Or to do it just the way it's supposed to be in my mind.
Here are some readings that have really helped me on this:

http://www.sarkjournal.com/2010/03/doing-more-things-badly.html

and

"One last note, to anyone making changes: you will fail. I don’t say that to discourage you, but to release you from the fear of failure …because if you already know it will happen, then there’s no pressure to avoid it. Failure is an inevitable part of change, and in fact it should be celebrated — without failure, we’d learn nothing. Fail, fail often, and learn. Then you’ll be better equipped for the next attempt. Find joy in every attempt, in every victory, in every failure, and the change will be a reward in itself.
‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ ~Samuel Beckett"

http://zenhabits.net/elements-of-change/

awareness and gratefulness

How many times a day do you stop and look around yourself with awareness and gratefulness for the things you have, the people you have in your life and everything you get to experience? Do you appreciate the warm water that you get to shower with? Are you grateful for the plate you get to eat food from? Can you imagine not having these things in your life? Do you think it's natural and a given to have them. I think it's important to go through daily routines with mindfulness.

I had this moment

The other day I was in the middle of doing something and I stopped for a moment and realised I felt happy. Right then. It's important to live in the moment with awareness. To live the moment and to stop and feel the happiness. I stretched out my arms and said out loud: I had this moment. I had this moment....

And today I read this quote on a friend's facebook page:
"Don't be sad because it's over, be happy because it happened"

Amazingly powerful quote in my opinion.

Ask yourself

Ask yourself. Who are you doing all this for?