There is no such thing as making the right choice.  Now I will admit that there are a handful of things that probably do ultimately have a right choice, but I believe that most of the “tough” decisions don’t have a right answer.  A co-worker and friend once told me, after I had to make a pretty tough choice about a pet I once had, that you need to make the best decision with the information you have available to you at the time.  I don’t think that it makes the act of making the decision and easier, but it definitely helps you move forward.

Don’t make your decisions based on what other people are doing or have done.  You can ask them for advice, pro’s and con’s, etc but you need to validate that those conditions fit into your lifestyle.  What may appear as a positive for them, may actually be a negative thing for you.  Even though you may have the same overlying strengths as another individual, your underlying strengths may be different so how you two achieve the same goal will look entirely different.

I like math so here’s a simple way to further describe what I am talking about

1 + 4 = 5

2+3 = 5

Both combinations got to the same destination.  Neither one is more correct or easier than the other one.  Two paths, same destination.

One thing I would like you to take away from this is to stop comparing yourself to others.  You are both on your own journeys.  Neither one is right or wrong so own your life.  Make your own decisions and be the boss of your life.

 

And remember you are unique…just like everyone else.

Your situation in life is 100% your choice.  We may not choose the events that happen to us, but we are in complete control of how we react to them.  We also seem to tend to think that negative thoughts or emotions are a bad thing.  I would totally disagree with this.  If something bad happens to you, i.e. a co-worker pisses you off at work it’s totally ok to be mad at them.  It is not ok to punch them in the face; that tends to be frowned upon.  If you lose a loved one, it’s ok to be sad.  You can’t however blame them for living in a depressed state the rest of your life.

You will also always have problems in your life.  Somewhere along the way I think as a society we developed this fake illusion that one day we are going to wake up happy and all of our problems will have just disappeared.  If you really think about it solving one problem always creates another one.  For example if you don’t have enough money (problem) you have to work harder to obtain more (different problem); you are out of shape and want to lose weight (problem) you have to start exercising and eating healthy (different problem).

Your life is a choice of the problems you want to have.  I choose to live an active healthy lifestyle.  This results in waking up early to exercise, which I can tell you is something I rarely want to do.  It’s not that I don’t want to exercise, but when my alarm goes off at 430 each morning I’d rather just roll over and go back to bed.  I also choose to eat relatively healthy.  This often means I pass up things like pizza and burgers for a salad.  The problem with choosing salads is that no matter how much you dress them up almost 100% of the time that piece of pizza tastes better.  While I don’t see my choices necessarily affect me in the moment, over the course of days or weeks I have more energy and generally feel better.  I am choosing to essentially suffer now so I don’t suffer later.  This is a concept that seems totally lost to many but that is a whole different topic.

Today I am choosing to get over myself and start to create the life in which the “problems” I have are ones I am choosing for myself.

These words really hit home with me today.  I used to watch people on TV or Facebook that seemed to be out there living and enjoying life while I was stuck at home or work basically hating life.  I’ve even seen a quote floating around on Facebook that says something about not understanding how people go on these great summer adventures while they go to work.  You know what their secret is….they make it happen.  I am a firm believer in the law of attraction and working your ass off.  If you want something bad enough you need to feel and believe that it will happen, then you actually need to get off your ass and go do something about it.  Be specific enough about what you want, but flexible enough to let the universe take over and guide you in the right direction.

Some people may think it’s a coincidence (or not even notice) but I was listening to two different personal development things today and it was amazing that both of them said this same thing. For so long I’ve been searching and waiting for something that “fits” and today was like a wakeup call. You can’t sit back and wait for your life to happen you need to go out and create it. Every day I workout and eat relatively healthy because I am working on being the healthiest version of me that I can be. SO instead of sitting around waiting for my dream life to come find me I am going to go create it.

The next step is to get specific about what I am looking for.  You don’t just walk into a car dealership and say “I want a car” and the best one for you magically appears in front of you.  It’s funny how when you say it like you see how crazy a vague dream or goal really is.  I can’t just say I want to make more money or be rich.  I could find $10 today and that fulfills the dream of making more money.  Get specific folks!

The next step for me is revamping my vision board to get more specific about what I want and also to take some time each day to look at it and really imagine what it feels like to have those things.  I am off to create my dream life, what are you doing?

 

 

I totally lost it earlier this week.  I blame most of it on stress at work and a little bit on pregnancy hormones.

It all started when I fell out of bed in the morning.  We have a pretty tall bed and my belly is getting big.  My daughter had crawled into bed with us an hour or so before so I was trying to sneak out and in all my pregnant glory didn’t get my feet underneath me and hit my hand (and head) on the night stand.  After that I decided I probably just should get up.  I started my workout and I am not really sure what triggered it, but I started crying.  I think it was some combination of falling and having to pause my workout to let the dogs back inside, which turned into a mini project because their paws were muddy.

I cried while getting ready that morning and on the way to work.  I almost held it together at work and was able to hide it from almost everyone all day.  Unfortunately, I forgot my Shakeology at home so I ended up sneaking out to grab Subway.  I cried in the car before finally getting it together enough to go inside.  After hours of frustrating phone calls and a pretty big (and successful) meeting I lost it again in the car ride to pick up my daughter.

I feel like so often I preach about staying strong and moving forward, but on that day I felt like a hypocrite.  How was I supposed to encourage others when I couldn’t keep it together myself?  I did end up giving myself a little bit of a break that day.  I got up the next morning and went through my same routine.  My workout went better; the whole morning went better.  Even though the workday was still pretty stressful I made it through the day just fine.

I thought that being strong meant being able to keep it together, maybe not all the time, but definitely most of the time.  I’ve had bad moments before and even some rough days, but I had always been able to shake them off.  This time it was different, but I think the most important thing I took away is that I didn’t stay there.  I continue to surround myself with people that encourage and motivate others because even the strongest of us need some extra help sometimes.

I started reading the Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod (again) and this time instead of just listening about all of the things I should be doing I am actually going to do them.  I am not going to go into the details because you need to just go read the book for yourself, but the first and easiest thing I did was move my alarm across the room.  It’s amazing how much easier it is to stay away in the morning once you are already out of bed.  One of the things he talks about is exercising in the morning….already do that so I’m off to a great start.  The next thing I am working on is visualization and I am going to explain mine now.

My goal is to one day wake up in my beach house, either with the sunrise or before, open windows; living out my dream life.  My dream life includes working remotely no more than a few hours a day helping people with their goals and dreams.  I know, I know, this sounds like something everyone says.  The difference is this isn’t just something I say or think, this is something I feel.

If you haven’t already heard, mindset is everything.  Every morning I visualize myself waking up in my beach house, being totally relaxed and living life on my own terms.  I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work and I need to get over my excuses, but the time is going to pass anyway 🙂