Celebrate Your Life!

Celebrate Your Life

The sun had not risen when she woke up. As her feet slid inside her slippers she mentally groaned to herself: ‘There has got to be more than this.’

By the time she had showered, done her hair, and dressed the sky was ablaze with colors ranging from the dark blue of the night to a radiant gold. Royal purple, pink, red, orange – all so vibrant they almost hurt her eyes to look at them as the sun’s rays touched the clouds high overhead.

‘Pretty…’ she thought as she looked at it and thought of the day ahead of her, ‘I just wish I had time to enjoy it with everything I have to do today.’

Does this sound familiar? You can see the beauty in the world around you but you just can’t seem to allow yourself the freedom to truly drink it in and enjoy it.

If this strikes a note of familiarity with you I say that it is time that you refocused your vision and began empowering yourself to not just enjoy, but celebrate your life.

Before we go on we need to go over some basics:
1. Your life is changing every day but how much of that change is what you want?
2. You have the choice to either wait for change or create it in the way you desire.
3. If you don’t take any action, most likely, your life will be changed but not in the way you want.

Do you truly want to go on living with a sense of dread at the dawn of each new day or do you want to look at that morning sky in amazement and jubilation?

Changing so that you can wake up every day excited about what it will be can be as simple as that: refocus how you look at and deal with yourself. The world will fall into place very easily after that.

To fully change your life is rarely an overnight thing. For some people, it may seem to take years to achieve the fully empowered and enriched life they are striving for. For others, this process may take a lot shorter time.

But, wherever you are and however long it will take to attain the life you choose, you can begin to experience and enjoy some very real and visible transformational moments in as short as… today! Right now, in fact!

The steps you take today can last you the rest of your life and will enrich your life while empowering you to see and live the life you want and deserve.

Most of what I have for you today are small steps in your journey forward, but when you put them together they can create big and lasting change.

Ok, let’s get started with a few ways/things you can easily do to change your life in the next 7 days.

1. Change the words you use and how you use them

Your attitude and mindset hold the largest control over your life and any change that you are going to make in it so that’s where we will start. One of the most effective ways to change your life is to remove certain words and phrases from your vocabulary and to replace them with others that are more positive, uplifting, and empowering of you.

And yes, I know that it may take a little time and practice to remove the negative phrases and words you’ve gotten so used to. But once you start using new words and phrases that are more positive, more powerful, and empowering, you’ll be surprised at how differently you look at the world around you.

Your entire life changes without you having to change everything. You may wake up to a day of rain and smile at how calm and peaceful the rain is.

Do you currently use any of these phrases:
“Oh God…” when you are not praying.
“Another day, another dollar.”
“Same ****, different day.”
“Same old, same old.”
“Why bother?”
“Pretty good.”
“Just let me through this…”
“Kids these days.”
“I can’t.”
“I don’t know.”
The list can go on…

Let me ask you: when it is your turn in line in a checkout line and the cashier asks how you are doing (and yes, we know that they ask everyone – and we wonder if they really care), instead of muttering a bland “Ok”, tell them that you are doing “Excellent!” You don’t have to be boisterous about it, but you will instantly notice a change in them. You will also be talking to your own self-conscience and telling yourself that ‘Yes, you are doing excellent today.’

This is also another aspect of the words you use: What we say reveals our inner-self.
How do you describe yourself – in a positive way? Using positive words? Or do you put yourself down? Do you remind people of your faults and failings? Or do you focus on your good points?

If someone compliments you, what is your reaction? My point is that self-deprecation may work for David Letterman, but when others hear you lowering yourself – they begin to see you in that light.

Trouble is – pretty soon, you start seeing yourself in those negative ways too.

You may ask why I have placed so much emphasis on the words you use – it’s because they have meaning. Those meanings take root in you and begin to grow; telling you that you are not worthy, you can’t do this or that – all the while holding you prisoner when you should be enjoying the freedom of your life.

2. Take stock of the blessings in your life

Once you start counting them – you’ll be surprised at the number of them that you have.

We have generally been brought up not to think of all that we have and can be thankful for. Instead, we let ourselves get caught up and forget to reflect on how fortunate we are.

So, what experiences are you glad you have had – not just the good, but also the bad? Those have both inspired you and motivated you in some ways to help shape who you are now.
What do you consider yourself fortunate to have – the love of your family, your health, enough food, the house you live in, your freedom to worship … I knew a man who for some years was bedridden with debilitating back pain. When he would go for a doctor’s visit he would always leave thankful that ‘he wasn’t as bad off as someone’ of the other people there.

Then there are the things/issues/problems that you are thankful you don’t have – hopefully you are not battling an illness, struggling with an unbearable indebtedness or some other calamity in your life. If you are, my heart goes out to you, if you aren’t – this is something to be thankful you are not struggling with.

3. Go to bed tonight planning to wake up claiming tomorrow as your best day ever!

Then do this EVERY night! Think about that as you lay there settling in. In the morning, each and every morning, before you get out of bed, be joyful that you woke up and get to celebrate your life another day.

Your entire life can be positively changed by a single day. And all that one day needs to start is one good morning.

4. So you think you are bad or just not very good at something…

The temptation to not allow golfing as an answer is so very great right now because, as any golfer will tell you; there are only a few who are good at the game of golf – everyone else… well, they are good at stretching the truth a bit. Everything else is on the table, though: writing, painting, singing, you name whatever it is that you don’t think you are very good at…

Have you really given yourself the time to make a serious attempt at it? I will say that if you would, you might very well find new talent for yourself.

5. What’s on your bucket list?

What are the things you would like to do before you die? Is there something on your bucket list that you can do in the next week? You might surprise yourself with the answer to that one. A woman who had it on her bucket list to take a ride in one of those big eighteen-wheelers got to drive one when she made a simple request of a truck driver one day. This is the beginning of the celebration you call your life – it’s time to start with the noisemaker and a sparkler!

6. What is your life’s purpose?

It is an age-old question: why are we here? What role do we have and how are we to play it? This is not an easy task; with focus and a bit of work, it can be accomplished in the coming week.

There is a vast myriad of resources out there to help you with this but think of this: where do you go when you daydream? That’s your passion. What would you like to have engraved on your headstone? What makes you feel down deep inside like you have done something worthwhile and lasting, that makes a difference in your life, the lives of those around you, and the world as a whole?

7. Realize that change is constantly happening

Here is where we have come full circle: your life does not standstill. With each day it changes, you can empower yourself to control that change.  And even if it seems like you continually go through the same routine over and over again, no two days of your life are ever the same. When you realize this, even those days of struggle (and they will still come your way) will become bearable. Why? Because you know that “good new days” are just a new morning away.