Hello everyone!
At the start of this year I decided to write a monthly feature piece on any thoughts or ideas I’m reflecting on at that time. In an effort to be transparent and open about the deepest and most abstract corners of my mind, I will be posting at the end of each month for the entire year in 2017. Comments and questions are warmly welcomed!
Please read and enjoy my first piece below!
January 2017
I recently started reading a book by John C. Maxwell on living life with intention. I have read and enjoyed many of his books on leadership development and personal growth and would recommend picking up at least one of his books to anyone. One paragraph in particular stood out to me one morning while I was at a coffee shop before work. It asked three simple questions:
What do you cry about?
What do you sing about?
What do you dream about?
I stopped for a moment to reflect on my life and think if I truly knew the answers while I tried to connect all of my experiences to uncover a response for myself. I quickly realized I wasn’t going to find a straight forward answer. As I began to consider my past in comparison to my current reality and I began to slowly understand. Taken together, these questions touch on the grander concept of the kind of life each of us potentially want to live. Of course this can be answered in about a hundred million ways and every person will have to figure out how they relate to their own life and what they ultimately mean to them. So how do we attract the things we want in order to live the life we’ve imagined for ourselves?
Let me continue by asking a few more questions…What are all of the things you are doing on a daily basis that you are conscious and aware of? What are the little steps you take each day to be productive (not necessarily “busy”) to become a better you?
If you are having trouble answering these questions I wouldn’t be surprised. Most of us go through our lives on autopilot, bouncing from one thing to the next without a conscious thought. Our lives have seemingly shifted to a never-ending cycle of busyness without productivity and we struggle to nourish our minds and souls with what really matters in life. I believe that if we were all fully aware of each experience we go through and the lessons they teach us, we could begin to see all of these things as necessary to bring us to where we are supposed to be. We could then start to focus less on outcomes or results and more on appreciating life for what it is, exactly where you are right now.
The following ten statements consist of some of the key elements I have personally learned through my life that have helped me understand the laws of attracting what you want in life. I am continually learning and gaining knowledge in different ways and hope that I can expand this list as time goes on. For now, I still work each day to put these ideas into practice. While I can definitely admit I don’t always accomplish this goal, the point is to exude an effort to do so. Over time, applying these pearls of knowledge begin to transform into those small steps you take each day to enhance your personal life or find the path that will lead you to success (however you may define that for yourself). As you become more aware of your own realities and dreams, you may even find yourself coming up with your own ways and ideas to achieve these things for yourself. And I hope that you do.
Here is what I’ve learned so far:
1. Thoughts manifest into things as reality. Change your thoughts and you can change your reality.
2. Be true to your word. Put out into the universe what you want and it will work for you, not against you.
3. Truly believe you deserve all the things you want, because you do.
4. Visualize, feel and act like you already have what you want.
5. Happiness is a choice.
6. Your attitude can make all the difference.
7. It’s not about what happens to you in life it’s how you react to it.
8. Let go of fear (to be vulnerable, to change, to fail).
9. Be grateful for all of the things you currently have.
10. Be patient and trust that things and people come to you at the right time.
-Kirsten
**A side note that relates to this month’s topic; reading books in general should be something to begin pursuing if you don’t already include this habit in your daily routine. Any time I pick up a new book I tell myself to be open to the knowledge it uniquely has to offer. There will be many things you will read that you may disagree with and that’s okay. As long as you can allow yourself to connect and reflect on the things you do agree with, while still being open to the potential that your perspective may very well change; you don’t know what you don’t know and you may find yourself beginning to question everything you previously knew or were taught. Doesn’t seem that pleasant, does it? Why would anyone want to read something that makes them uncomfortable or unsure? The easy thing to do would be to stay in the bubble you’ve created with what you know because it’s comfortable and safe. However, in order to grow as a person and evolve to become better, we have to be willingly to step out of those comfort zones and into a world of uncertainty. For me, reading is one of the things that helps achieve this goal of personal development and attracting the things I want in my life by helping me to realize who I am and what I believe to be the truth.
