From Abraham Lincoln ~ “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday “
To Thich Nhat Hanh ~ “ Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion. ”
The ‘wisdom of the ages’ message is clear – as each day unfolds before us, we are blessed to have another day.
Gone: 24 days – 341 remaining this year. Each moment within each day is an opportunity. To acknowledge our humanity. To be kind to ourselves & others.
Only by striving day by day can we realize the full potential of our limitless capability capacity – to learn, grow, achieve, appreciate & be grateful.
“Ultimately, each person chooses whether he comes out of the tumbler crushed or polished.” Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
We all find ourselves in overwhelm or the paralysis of feeling stuck at some point. The saving lifeline is in having clarity with focus on our priorities. Determining what is most important is foundational. A priority focused mindset anchors that & becomes as a ballast to what matters most to us! A priority focused mindset help in homing in on the important goals & the strategic steps to propel us forward beyond overwhelm or paralysis. Having meaningful goals generates intrinsic motivation. Priority goals require the support of solid plans & structures helping to sustain our focus. Making the important central in our schedules help us honor the decisions made to achieve them, anchoring our commitments, guiding us beyond the demands, whirlwind and overwhelm from everything else going on in life.
Success in life, whether abundant or lacking, tends to correlate with the consistency of of our choices and decisions. The ones many we make, the ones we avoid, and the ones we are ignorant about. Life is indeed full of them. Our personal and professional growth & success balances on our grasp of our identified priorities & the level of confidence we have regarding how and where we habitually choose to focus our attention with the actions we take.
A priority focused mindset serves as a compass for executing on these priority goals. It is a guiding system & an inherent process for transcending obstacles, challenges, and circumstances. It provides a forward focus for planning, anticipating, perceiving & responding differently when the disruptions of change or the unexpected happen. That mindset is shaped with internal motivation, to keep progressing towards the goals that matter most for progressive growth into our realm of power and confidence to succeed. Especially when the inevitable challenges, obstacles or adversity materialize.
The journey towards our best self is in how we manage the challenges & obstacles. We actualize our potential through experience, using all our skills, talents, and capabilities to keep stretching into our progressive best. A priority focused mindset is formed with continual and deep engagement with the belief in our vision & our potential best self to regularly propel us through the short & long distance, focused forward towards what matters most.
“Success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one’s origins and one’s final achievement…” Michael Korda
“I have a dream…” Martin Luther King Jr turned vision & dream into a goal, turning resolve into a revolution beyond what the status quo was in our country. He demonstrated patience with the understanding that big changes are never an overnight achievement. His enduring legacy empowers & motivate us to keep striving & working on what matters. As we pay tribute to his lifetime of dedication for what he started – we also recognize that much yet remains needing to be changed.
Taking that inspiration to a personal level, our own dream begins with a vision. When that dream is formulated into a goal it can progresses in real life, with metrics and benchmark targets to keep us moving forward, orienting us in the right direction toward that vision.
‘Soaring from our vision into real life’
Goals are powerful motivators when they reflect the power of our values, deep convictions, and desires. Our activities become choices that transform us, the way we live and impact the communities that shape our world and beyond. Life goals help us improve specific aspects about ourselves, as well as specific areas in our personal and/or professional life. The pursuit of our goals helps us score internal points, building confidence and self-trust. Goals are about following through on objectives, tasks and the specifics we identified that need to be done to bridge the gap from where we stand in the present, to a future where our aspirations materialize.
Effective goals keep us stretching and reaching towards the vision of not only what we seek, but more importantly the why we want our life to move in a particular direction. We each have a dream waiting to be fulfilled and when put into action that cherished dream can be the catalyst for the change we seek. To invest our creative energy, and resources, fueled with passion and the tenacity of deep commitment, in pursuit of our dreams for meaningful success. That collectively creates a cascade of positive change not only in our world, but in the world at large.
Have you identified what and why you are committed to achieve daily, each month, every quarter, and the remainder of this year? To develop and set goals with strategies & a process to implement them infuses vitality in your daily routine for momentum launching this brand new year and seeing it through to culmination of unparalleled achievement and success in everything that matters most!
The foundation for achieving success is in aligning how you spend your time on the daily choices that either support or subvert your dedicated focus on your highest priorities. Research has shown that multitasking is not the best choice for progress on your desired goals. Here are four productivity tips to help you overcome that distraction based fallacy of multitasking, so you can actually accomplish more, while boosting your brainpower and wellbeing with greater focus on those priorities.
Set specific times to check incoming e-mail, and turn off the tempting distraction of notifications (yes, including all social media).
Identify your 3 top priorities to anchor the day’s work flow. Include a starting and projected finish time. Begin on the #1 key task until it is done, before tackling the next item or anything else.
Keep a ‘to-do tracker/reminder’ in way of notepad on your desk or an app on your pc to jot down and release any distractions from non-related thoughts, ideas or obligations that pop up. Writing them down keeps them from running around in your head, so you can maintain focus on the task at hand.
Take breaks at regular intervals. Research studies have proven that getting up, stretching or walking around for a few minutes, rehydrating or having a healthy snack refreshes and improves productivity. Repeat every 60-90 minutes.
Like any new habit, the more you incorporate ways to sustain focus as part of your routine, the easier it will become, to be more productive, progressing toward your highest priority goals, with much less effort.
“Within each of us are heights yet to be scaled, goals to be achieved – beyond our fears, beyond the status quo.” Didi L. Barbour
Why allow the Explorer & Seeker within to lure you into uncharted territories? Because to venture beyond the routine, is to delight and flourish with new pleasures, discoveries, and experiences in new worlds that beckon! It’s been advised that on our deathbed, the top regrets will not be for failing while stretching our boundaries, the biggest laments will be for what we failed to attempt.
Where will Your Life Compass take you? If you dare let it, it will lead to the discovery of your True North.
Freedom is an equal opportunity privilege afforded to all, to pursue dreams – of happiness, lifestyle, and success with options, and choices. It is truly is a sad day when we realize that the only person, thing or circumstance holding us back is our own limited self-concept based on the past instead of owning the personal power of our accomplishment of who we have evolved into!
‘Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow’s joy is possible – only if today makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the receding one.” André Gide
We all reach a point in time and life where we’ve earned our Stars and Stripes! Time to celebrate not only the national holiday with gratitude to all who have served and those currently serving our country, but, to acknowledge our own efforts, experiences and contributions to this one life we have. Time to write, sign, and set off some fireworks declaring our personal Declaration of Independence – from whatever imposes limitation on who we are, to pursue who we want to be, to become everything we are capable of being! Happy Declaration of Actualizing Our Potential! Happy Fourth of July!
Powerful quotes to ponder wisdom of the ages:
