“Knowing is not enough, we must apply; Willing is not enough, we must do.” Goethe
No matter how much you know, if you don’t apply self-improvement principles to your life, they get you nowhere. So today, lets stop our never-ending quest for new information, and look at these 10 things you already know that can change your life.
1. Practice Kindness. Be kind to yourself and to others. Don’t judge, be mean, hurt or bully. Practice the course of kindness. When you feel a mean thought come up in your mind (whether it is toward someone else or toward yourself), work to curb it. Always be kind in your actions. Kindness can perform miracles.
2. The present moment is all you have. The past is gone, the future hasn’t arrived. Being mindful in THIS moment is the only way to bring peace into your life. This one is hard for me to implement because (like most of you) I suffer from wanting to plan my future and from the emotional attachment that goes along with it. Breathe. Meditate. Let go. Keep at it. . .
3. Listen to Yourself. Your GPS is programmed directly toward bliss, but you’ll only get there if you follow it. It’s easy to get sidetracked. We say yes when we mean no, we are afraid, we think ourselves silly – and so we ignore it. Tune into your intuition and your inner voice. Applying this one small change will have a quantam effect on your life!
4. Do Your Best. I remember this one best from the Four Agreements. Do your best in whatever you do. Apply yourself, learn, grow. Give everything what you’ve got to give. (Hint: If you’ve listened to yourself, this one becomes easier, because you’ll find yourself increasingly in situations you’ve said YES to.)
5. Believe in Yourself. If you believe, you will be able to do whatever you want to do in life. If you believe, you’ll be unaffected by anyone who tells you that you can’t. If you believe, you’ll be less afraid and better able to stay true to yourself and what you’re really after.
6. Be Positive. We all spend so much ENERGY avoiding negative feelings. One of the best ways to do this is to conciously work on staying positive. A positive attitude is it’s own reward, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Your positive attitude will make others want to be around you, and will send all kinds of good vibes your way. Whether you explain it in terms of Law Of Attraction principles, or if you have a more earth-bound philosophy, it doesn’t matter. You will see that a sunny outlook attracts more sunshine into your life.
7. Chill. Just relax. It’s going to be ok. Relaxing is great for your health and great for your mind. You can think more clearly, your blood pressure goes down, and you can let go of whatever was bugging you. So find a healthy way to relax.
8. Set Your Intentions. Spend time planning your life. Plan your near-term goals. Create a bucket list. DECIDE what you want, or your life will just happen to you without your input, leaving you feeling like you’re barely out of the gate when the race is nearly done. Set your intentions and then make a plan for achieving them.
9. Remember: You Are Awesome. I mean this literally. Being the mom of two kids, I constantly marvel at how their little bodies just knew how to form (two eyes, one mouth, a tongue, eyelashes). Perfection. Every being really is an awesome creation. So stop feeling so unlovable, unworthy, and powerless. It’s just not so.
10. Don’t Be Afraid. Really, what could possibly go wrong? If you know that you can handle anything that could happen (and you can), that failure is part of the process, that pain is part of the lesson, then you can work to let go of fear. Fear stinks. It’s a terrible feeling to hold onto, but its effects in our lives may be even worse. Because of fear, we lose our potential to do whatever we are here to do, and we never get to share the gifts we are here to share.
None of these 10 things are new to you. But focus on them. Practice. Learn more about each one. Do what you need to do to implement them in your life. I promise that through practice, and not just the endless pursuit of NEW and MORE and BETTER information your life will begin to shift.
The answers might be right here.
What do you think? What things do we already know but we need to DO?
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