Category: VISUALS

Moving forward is the best. Progress is progress. Even making mistakes is progressing, as long as you are learning and not repeating. In order to progress, one must move forward. The best way forward is through – but how you move forward is of context, concept, and perception. Obstacles reveal themselves but can be avoided, out smarted and beaten through forward thinking, forward planning and forward direction.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins

We can’t always see what is in front of us. We may know where we want to be going, but how, when and even the where can change as we progress through our daily lives. The only answer is to keep moving forward.

What separates a person from achieving their goals and not achieving their goals is staying focused and being persistent in following through.

Like I said, progress is progress. Big or small. Stop beating yourself up. You are a work in progress; which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once.

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. – Plato

The only challenge I have for you today is to ask yourself. Are you progress forward? Making big or small progress? If not what are you doing about it?

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Your time is now. Today. Not tomorrow, as tomorrow that is yet to come. Make today a promising, productive and active day by taking the steps, the actions and necessary movements towards the greater you.

Maybe you have no idea what it is you wish to pursue? Well, do I have news for you?

The way to take advantage of that is to find something to get good at, and then get good at it. As good as you can.

You can do this today:

1. Pick something, anything, that interests you.
2. Find the easiest next step, and get moving on it.
3. Find joy in that step.
4. Find someone to share it with. Better yet, find someone you have to turn it in to, like a boss or colleague or client or friend who will hold you accountable.
5. Find the next easy step, and enjoy that as well.

This day will never happen again. Make the most of it. – Unknown

It’s normal to worry about the future, but probably the best antidote is to learn to shift your focus to what’s right in front of you, right now. Do what you can do now – that being to take action today. If that means planning for tomorrow, for the steps to be taken then so be it – but don’t sit and worry about the future if you cannot even move forward today.

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You know what. You have what it takes to make those heart driven dreams come true. Strip back and take away the mediocrity that society makes you out to be. See that you are distinguished, superior, incomparable, exceptional and unmatched. In this reality, you can be whatever it is you want to be. What reality do you ask? Your reality. Don’t create a life dictated and designed by the society which suggests you need to do X to get Y – but create a life where your heart drives your dreams, your dreams drive your journey and your journey takes you to places above and beyond what you originally imagined.

Most people simply accept the status quo and never even question if there could be an alternative to working hard your whole life to retire at age 60:

Life doesn’t have to be so hard. It really doesn’t. Most people,  have spent too much time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, a resignation to 9-to-5 drudgery in exchange for (sometimes) relaxing weekends and the occasional keep-it-short-or-get-fired vacation.

People don’t want to be millionaires — they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers, and exotic travel often enter the picture. Perhaps rubbing cocoa butter on your belly in a hammock while you listen to waves rhythmically lapping against the deck of your thatched-roof bungalow? Sounds nice.

$1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows. The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?
– Tim Ferris | On Lifestyle Design

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs of Apple

I can not put enough emphasis on how important it is to identify and follow your dreams from an early age. Think of it like compound interest. The longer it is invested in, the longer it has to grow and the richer it will become of value.

What are your dreams? Identify, define and take action. 

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Will you take flight? Will you dare to dream? Will you dare to see the world changed? Don’t make the excuses of not being strong enough, patient enough or PASSIONATE enough. Because we all have the ability to change the world. I strive for a better version of me every day and I do this on the journey to see my dreams come true.

Be happy. You choose what you think about. The way you think. Life is too short to focus your time and attention on negative thoughts.

Ernest Nightengale said, “You become what you think about most of the time.”

Be positive. Today encourage another, bring a new light of positivity to the day and share it with someone.

My challenge for you today is to identify 3 notable actions/steps you can take to be 3 steps closer to your dreams. Whether it will be for today or this week. I dare you to do it as a priority this week.

Think of all the people who are up there living in the air of success. Do you think they got there by not chasing their dreams?

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I have a simple question for you today. Are you in pursuit of your life long happiness? Your dream? Your passion? Your heart? The very thing that ignites the hit of adrenaline through your veins when you are doing it?

Do you have hunger in your heart? A yearning that keeps pulling you forward in the direction of your dreams?

If you have you will know. As you can’t stop thinking about your life is different, nor will you stop working towards what you believe in.

By knowing this and chasing this – you are now on a wild adventure. Every day brings its own set of challenges and surprises. You could not feel more alive if you tried. You are chasing down your dreams, living with passion and changing your life.

Although this sounds incredibly glamorous, it can also be intimidating.

Each day, you are facing your fears head-on and have to work hard to keep moving forward. Your commitment is continually being tested, but your strength and character shine through as you keep doing what you love.

In doing so – each day or more than you would like, your self-belief is being put to the test. You second guess yourself. Like the time when you go on a run and you start to get sore, you start to slow down, you start to lose momentum. Well, you have a choice. You can suck it up, push on and make a record of it. Or, you can give in, make an excuse and then most likely regret it later.

Following your heart is not easy, but just like that old cliché says, it’s definitely worth it.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

Following your heart is a calling that can’t be ignored. Remember this for the people in your life who question your sanity and your reason: You do not owe them an explanation.

Follow your heart. It’s the best call you will ever answer.

I ask and encourage you, what calls can you hear coming from your heart? Will you choose to ignore it, or will you do something about it?

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What is your purpose? Have you found it? Well, do you know that feeling when you get into a groove with a good song and you just feel in sync and like you are the rhythm king?

Rhythm is what creates our vibe, our routine, and groove. Sometimes without even realizing it, it influences our mood, our attitude and enables us to almost be on point all the time. Well, this is what a good lifestyle. routine and way of life create.

Once we find the rhythm, we can start to bridge that gap between who we are and whom we could be. There are 5 ways (some call them secrets) that you can adopt to help find your true passion and purpose.

Be True To Yourself

“The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.” — Henry David Thoreau

If you don’t take the time to make your own choices, people will make them for you. There might be plenty of people giving you advice about how to live your life, what decisions to make, what roads to avoid or to tackle; and, while all of that advice should be taken into consideration, keeping your self-awareness through life’s lessons is what will guide you to taking the truest path for you. This might require strength to fight opposing opinions to what you know is right for you and your abilities.

It’s okay to miss the mark, as long as you keep moving toward it. Ask advice of others, but for every big decision you make, ask yourself if it can take you where you want to go.

Leave No Regrets

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

If we can learn to look past fear, we’ll see that the bigger risk is not what will happen if we act, but what won’t happen if we don’t. What’s the bigger risk?

Dare yourself to look fear in the eye, accept its presence and find out what’s standing in its shadow.

Be Of Love

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — The Dalai Lama

We can look at love in two ways: an emotion or a choice.

To become love or to be of love means to let that emotion drive our decisions. When we are confronted with obstacles, injustice or hate, we have a choice to respond with love.

Judge Life Less & Enjoy It More

A cancer patient was once asked, “What’s it like to know that you’re dying?” He replied, “What’s it like pretending that you’re not?”

No matter what we face – we are all going in the same direction at a rate we struggle to really realize. What we can identify and capture is how many opportunities we have in the process and how much we can enjoy the moments we are given.

When we’re caught in the stress of which life comes, we can’t forget to rejuvenate the soul by feeding it. We can’t feel guilty when we take time for ourselves.

When you have a bad relationship with yourself, chances are, your relationships with others won’t be that great, either. The relationships we build are what make life most worthwhile.

Love yourself, so you can love others like you would want to be loved.

Give More & Take Less

“Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as I can before handing it on to future generations.” — George Bernard Shaw

Imagine yourself at 70 – life is coming to its later days and you are sitting relaxing and reflecting on your life. By this time you are probably tired. 

But are you a good tired, or a bad tire. Are you full of exhaustion and pain? Or are you exhausted from having lived a life worthy of praise?

We will get out of this life exactly what we put into it.

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Life is full of change. Change which is driven by choice and change that is driven by circumstances. Controlled vs. uncontrolled.

Change: that which keeps the world moving. Without change there is nothing — there is no death, no birth, no progress. Change is that which allows for the existence of life and that which allows for the possibility of success. However, change is also that which allows for destruction and failure.

Change can be a powerful tool or your worst enemy depending on whether or not you are able to utilize it properly.

Find out what it is that you want to change, figure out what is most important to you and start with what is easiest. Use smaller victories to gain the confidence and momentum to change your life entirely. Most importantly, act. Do not fail to act and do not fail to continue acting.

You can’t always change, change. Sometimes you will know about its threat, but the only way o prepare for it is to accept and move forward regardless, with a work around of course.

If you stop moving, the world stops changing. Creating change is not difficult. It is not rocket-science and it is not out of your reach. You must identify, strategize, and attack. Then, you must keep on attacking until you wear down your habits into submission and create the change you are seeking. More importantly than anything else, do not lose hope and do not give up.

Without action, there is only in action — stagnancy.

Constant change is here to stay. – Unknown

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Life seems to throw us into these moments, these puddles where we are left to decide, left to pull ourselves together and figure out what to do next. Just don’t stop yet. Most of us, at some point or another and maybe more than others, will encounter these moments, these trials and these setbacks. Now in these moments, we tend to look for a light… for a hope. It can take us a while to start looking, usually because we are too busy sitting and moping about how miserable or tough our lives are. Eventually, you find that ray of light, and you hold on to it like the idea of the grass is greener on the other-side and like the idea that a year from now everything will be better. Maybe it will be, maybe it won’t be. What I can tell you is; you can have all the hope in the world… but if you won’t start with being driven and actually start acting on getting to the light and making it that much brighter – you won’t be going anywhere.

By the time you get to the bright light and you find your green grass – don’t stop. Keep going. Keep going as far as you possibly can go. Rise above the past, rise above the now and seek forward and venture beyond what you first expected to be enough. Rise above your expectation of a simple hope and step up to a new level. Once you have found your “hope” and you have made it there and you are living it – grow more. Learn more. Be more. Take what you have and make it known. Share it and make it valued to the people around you.

If you are doing the same thing over and over again – even if you are succeeding, this will simply become the norm. You need to ask yourself, where would you be growing and how would you be rising above the norm, or the basic you.

In economics, there is a fundamental principle known as the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Here’s the short definition: as you get more of something, it becomes less valuable. This isn’t just economic theory, a similar trend happens in real life.

If you have zero money and you make $10,000, then it’s going to be a big deal. But if you have already earned $1 million, then making another $10,000 doesn’t seem as significant.

If you have never won a championship, then that first one is going to be incredible. But if you already have five championship rings, then adding a sixth isn’t going to be as sweet as getting the first.

If you are starting a company, then getting your first customer is an incredible rush. But if you already have 100 paying clients, then adding one more doesn’t provide the same thrill.

So how can you go from finding your light, your hope – getting there and then taking it above and beyond? How can you stay driven? How can you stay happy?

Passion.

Simple really.

Passion is the core of what inspires you every day.

By loving the practice of what you do. It’s only the people who embrace their work as a craft and fall in love with the boredom of doing it day in and day out that stay driven over the long-term.

Richard Branson is already a billionaire. He has already built hundreds of companies. He’s not still doing it because of the money. The money stopped meaning a lot to him a long time ago. He’s doing it because he loves the practice of doing it.

Guess what? This answer is now easy. If you love the practice of what you do, if you love the daily work, then you can be happy before and after you achieve your goals.

When you learn to love the process of what you are doing and not focus so much on the goal, you automatically find happiness while staying driven.

So like I say nearly every other day. Find something you love. Even when you are a mess, in a wreck and going through a rough patch… find that love, that passion, that hope and that light. Fight for it, chase it and embrace it. Once you are there, DO NOT STOP. Keep going and go into the world and ASPIRE FURTHER and INSPIRE OTHERS.

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. – Earl Nightingale

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This is it. This is another day, typical if you make it, but it can be more if you make it that.

I choose more. I choose and want it to be more than just another typical day. The day can be anything you make it. 

An adventure, a challenge, a struggle or a grind, the day will follow your lead. Your attitude, perspective, willpower, and self-control are all part of the day, but more so part of you. How you react, how you choose and how you decide is all going to indicate and dictate the next turn you will make and the next direction you will follow. 

The question to ask yourself is what will you choose. What will you decide and how will you react?

Will you make it a typical day or an extraordinary day?

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

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