“Reading is a way to expand your mind, open your eyes, and fill up your heart.”
Oprah Winfrey
As kids, we’re taught to read for fun. As
teens, we’re taught to read for answers. In college, we pay extra for notes –
and barely read those. Along the way, we forget how important reading is for our
minds and our progress in life.
Reading allows you to strengthen your mind’s
ability to focus and interpret words. It allows you to see life and new
experiences from a different perspective. Reading gives you information that
can be used to spark conversation at home, with friends, and even in the
workplace. It’s a power tool, and while young millennials spend an hour
scrolling through posts that don’t teach them anything, the wealthy are reading
for hours a day to grow their minds and their pockets.
Don’t believe me? Google how often Oprah
Winfrey, Warren Buffett, or Barack Obama read! These are wealthy, successful
individuals who constantly urge young adults to expand their mind in order to
make a difference in our own lives and the lives of others.
Try this: challenge yourself to pick up any
book, or listen to an audiobook, of your interest and give yourself a deadline
to have read it by. Hold yourself accountable by telling a friend, writing it
in your journal, making it your screensaver – you get it. I guarantee you’ll
have not only learned something new, you’ll feel accomplished in achieving your
goal.
Quit holding yourself back – It doesn’t work
unless you try!
I’m always working to be a better version of
myself and hope my tips can help you on your journey. I’d love to hear back
from you – comment below!
“Pessimism is an excuse for not trying, and a guarantee to a personal failure.”
Bill Clinton
I’ll get straight to the point – your
outlook on life is the deciding factor of your life’s trajectory.
There’s a spectrum of outlooks, from overly optimistic to dangerously
pessimistic. Pessimism, or the tendency to only see the worst in life, will
fill your mind with negative thoughts that prohibit you from developing
aspirations and maximizing on your potential. The problem is that most people
who are pessimistic falsely interpret this outlook as being realistic – it is
not.
Realism is defined as the attitude or practice
of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it
accordingly. Whether you’re a realistic or unrealistic person is not the same
thing as whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic because you can accept a
situation for what it is and still have a negative outlook on what caused the
situation and thus how to handle it “accordingly”.
Let’s say you arrive at work and your manager
randomly asks to speak with you. As a pessimist, your initial thoughts might be
that you’re in trouble because you assume they wouldn’t want to speak with you
otherwise. By allowing these negative thoughts to fester, you’ve unconsciously gone
into your meeting nervous, insecure, or even angry (which is probably a defense
mechanism for your vulnerability). This perspective snowballs into negative
thoughts, negative attitudes, and ultimately negative perceptions of who you
actually are.
Quit holding yourself back. It’s possible to
be a realistic person with an optimistic perspective on life so that you can
motivate yourself to work towards your goals no matter the hurdles you face.
And if this article doesn’t really apply to you, share it with a friend who
could use the wake-up call!
I’m always working to be a better version of
myself and hope my tips can help you on your journey. I’d love to hear back
from you – comment below!
” You only struggle because you’re ready to grow but aren’t willing to let go.”
Drew Gerald
We’re human. Things happen; we make mistakes. And granted, in the moment these mistakes can have an impact on your daily life or affect those around you in a negative way. But, the beautiful thing about mistakes is that, whether we realize it or not, they help us grow as individuals. Mistakes are lessons learned on our life journey as we work to continuously discover who we are and what our passionis. But what do you do when your mistake overwhelms you and consumes your vision of life’s bigger picture? What do you do when you are so stuck in your past, you can’t appreciate your present or envision your future?
We’re all guilty of doing it – living in the past. What we fail to realize is that by living in the past you’re creating a mentally-weak habit and letting valuable time slip away. As young individuals, we need to maximize on the time we have in order to make a positive difference in our own lives and those around us. To do that, it’s critical to learn how to appreciate the present while working towards the future. If you find yourself stuck in a cycle of relaying everything to your past, here are some tips to help:
Make clearly defined long-term goals (and keep them accessible) – having clearly-defined goals that you can refer to at any given moment keeps life in perspective for you. Take this situation for example; I’ve set a goal to lose ten pounds in 3 months by following a diet and working out. I keep this goal with me in my journal or on my phone so I can see it whenever I want. One day I’m out with friends and decide I want a burger and milkshake even though it’s not my cheat day and not a part of my diet. Well if I have my long-term goal easily accessible and at the forefront of my mind, this “mistake” doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. After all, I’m referring to my goal on a regular basis to track my progress and so I’m holding myself accountable, I know how much time I have left to achieve my goal, and I can envision my future. But if I set this goal without clearly defining it and keep it in my drawer at home, this meal might give me the false impression that there’s no coming back from this “mistake” and I should give up altogether.
Talk it out with your
support system – We can be our own worst enemy when it comes to being there
for ourselves. I know first-hand about giving great advice to my friends and
not myself. That’s why it’s so
important you have that person, or that group of friends, that you can go to
whenever something you can’t shake off has happened. More times than not, your
support system will be able to keep you level-headed and help you see that
whatever is holding you back is really not worth it.
One last tip: Don’t allow your past to hinder your future. Shift your perspective to one that is grateful for the present and working towards the future. If you’ve made a mistake, want to avoid moving forward, and grow from the experience – try writing down your mistake, what you would in the same situation moving forward, and what you learned about yourself from the experience. You’d be surprised at how building self-awareness allows you grow as a person.
I’m always working to be a better version of myself &
hope my tips can help you on your journey. I’d love to hear back from you on your
thoughts/ journey – comment below!
POTENCIA 