I read this article by Angel Chernoff and thought it was worth sharing….<\/p>\n
When you quit doing the wrong things, you make more room for the things that make you happy. So starting today\u2026<\/p>\n
1. Quit procrastinating on your goals.<\/p>\n
Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it. Action and change are often resisted when they\u2019re needed most. Get a hold of yourself and have discipline. Putting something off instantly makes it harder and scarier. What we don\u2019t start today won\u2019t be finished by tomorrow. And there\u2019s nothing more stressful than the perpetual lingering of an unfinished task.<\/p>\n
The secret to getting ahead is simply getting started. Starting, all by itself, is usually sufficient to build enough momentum to keep the ball rolling. So forget about the finish line and just concentrate on taking your first step. Say to yourself, \u201cI choose to start this task with a small, imperfect step.\u201d All those small steps will add up and you\u2019ll actually get to see changes fairly quickly. Read Getting Things Done.<\/p>\n
2. Quit blaming others and making excuses.<\/p>\n
Stop blaming others for what you have or don\u2019t have, or for what you feel or don\u2019t feel. When you blame others for what you\u2019re going through, you deny responsibility and perpetuate the problem. Stop giving your power away and start taking responsibility for your life. Blaming is just another sorry excuse, and making excuses is the first step towards failure; you and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions.<\/p>\n
3. Quit trying to avoid change.<\/p>\n
If nothing ever changed there would be no sunrise the next morning. Most of us are comfortable where we are even though the whole universe is constantly changing around us. Learning to accept this is vital to our happiness and general success. Because only when we change, do we grow, and begin to see a world we never knew was possible.<\/p>\n
And don\u2019t forget, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That\u2019s the one thing you can count on. So embrace it, and realize that change happens for a reason. It won\u2019t always be easy or obvious at first, but in the end it will be worth it.<\/p>\n
4. Quit trying to control the uncontrollable.<\/p>\n
If you try to control everything, and then worry about the things you can\u2019t control, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of frustration and misery.<\/p>\n
Some forces are out of your control, but you can control how you react to things. Everyone\u2019s life has positive and negative aspects \u2013 whether you\u2019re happy or not depends greatly on which aspects you focus on. The best thing you can do is to let go of what you can\u2019t control, and invest your energy in the things you can \u2013 like your attitude.<\/p>\n
5. Quit talking down to yourself.<\/p>\n
Nothing will bring you down quicker than berating yourself. The mind is a superb instrument if used right, but when used incorrectly, it becomes very destructive. Be aware of your mental self-talk. We all talk silently to ourselves in our heads, but we aren\u2019t always conscious of what we\u2019re saying or how it\u2019s affecting us.<\/p>\n
As Henry Ford once stated, \u201cWhether you think you can, or you think you can\u2019t, you\u2019re right.\u201d One of the major causes of why we fail is due to self-doubt and negative self-talk. The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive ones, over time you will change the trajectory of your life. Read The How of Happiness.<\/p>\n
6. Quit criticizing others.<\/p>\n
The negativity you bleed out toward others will gradually cripple your own happiness. When you truly feel comfortable with your own imperfections, you won\u2019t feel threatened or offended by the imperfections you see in other people.<\/p>\n
So stop worrying about the flaws you see in everyone else, and focus on yourself. Let the constant growth and improvement in your own life keep you so busy that you have no time left to criticize others.<\/p>\n
7. Quit running from your problems and fears.<\/p>\n
Trust me, if everyone threw their problems in a pile for you to see, you would grab yours back. Tackle your problems and fears swiftly, don\u2019t run away from them. The best solution is to face them head on no matter how powerful they may seem.<\/p>\n
Fears, in particularly, stop you from taking chances and making decisions. They keep you confined to just the small space where you feel completely comfortable. But your life\u2019s story is simply the culmination of many small, unique experiences, many of which require you to stretch your comfort zone. Letting your fears and worries control you is not \u2018living,\u2019 it\u2019s merely existing.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: Either you own your problems and fears, or they will ultimately own you.<\/p>\n
8. Quit living in another time and place.<\/p>\n
Some people spend their entire lives trying to live in another time and place. They lament about what has been, what they could have done, or what might become. However, the past is gone, and the future doesn\u2019t exist. No matter how much time we spend thinking and lamenting about either, it doesn\u2019t change anything.<\/p>\n
One of life\u2019s sharpest paradoxes is that our brightest future hinges on our ability to pay attention to what we\u2019re doing right now, today.<\/p>\n
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment requires active, open, intentional awareness on the present. Don\u2019t fantasize about being on vacation while at work, and don\u2019t worry about the work piling up on your desk when you\u2019re on vacation. Live for now. Notice the beauty unfolding around you.<\/p>\n
9. Quit trying to be someone you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that\u2019s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don\u2019t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love you, and you\u2019ll love yourself more too. The Road Less Traveled.<\/p>\n
10. Quit being ungrateful.<\/p>\n
Not all the puzzle pieces of life will seem to fit together at first, but in time you\u2019ll realize they do, perfectly. So thank the things that didn\u2019t work out, because they just made room for the things that will. And thank the ones who walked away from you, because they just made room for the ones who won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you\u2019re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I read this article by Angel Chernoff and thought it was worth sharing…. When you quit doing the wrong things, you make more room for the things that make you happy. So starting today\u2026 1. Quit procrastinating on your goals. Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it. Action and change are often resisted when they\u2019re needed most. Get a hold of yourself and have discipline. Putting something off instantly makes it harder and scarier. What we don\u2019t start today won\u2019t be finished by tomorrow. And there\u2019s nothing more stressful than the perpetual lingering of an unfinished task. The secret to getting ahead is simply getting started. Starting, all by itself, is usually sufficient to build enough momentum to keep the ball rolling. So forget about the finish line and just concentrate on taking your first step. Say to yourself, \u201cI choose to start this task with a small, imperfect step.\u201d All those small steps will add up and you\u2019ll actually get to see changes fairly quickly. Read Getting Things Done. 2. Quit blaming others and making excuses. Stop blaming others for what you have or don\u2019t have, or for what you feel or don\u2019t feel. When you blame others for what you\u2019re going through, you deny responsibility and perpetuate the problem. Stop giving your power away and start taking responsibility for your life. Blaming is just another sorry excuse, and making excuses is the first step towards failure; you and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions. 3. Quit trying to avoid change. If nothing ever changed there would be no sunrise the next morning. Most of us are comfortable where we are even though the whole universe is constantly changing around us. Learning to accept this is vital to our happiness and general success. Because only when we change, do we grow, and begin to see a world we never knew was possible. And don\u2019t forget, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That\u2019s the one thing you can count on. So embrace it, and realize that change happens for a reason. It won\u2019t always be easy or obvious at first, but in the end it will be worth it. 4. Quit trying to control the uncontrollable. If you try to control everything, and then worry about the things you can\u2019t control, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of frustration and misery. Some forces are out of your control, but you can control how you react to things. Everyone\u2019s life has positive and negative aspects \u2013 whether you\u2019re happy or not depends greatly on which aspects you focus on. The best thing you can do is to let go of what you can\u2019t control, and invest your energy in the things you can \u2013 like your attitude. 5. Quit talking down to yourself. Nothing will bring you down quicker than berating yourself. The mind is a superb instrument if used right, but when used incorrectly, it becomes very destructive. Be aware of your mental self-talk. We all talk silently to ourselves in our heads, but we aren\u2019t always conscious of what we\u2019re saying or how it\u2019s affecting us. As Henry Ford once stated, \u201cWhether you think you can, or you think you can\u2019t, you\u2019re right.\u201d One of the major causes of why we fail is due to self-doubt and negative self-talk. The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive ones, over time you will change the trajectory of your life. Read The How of Happiness. 6. Quit criticizing others. The negativity you bleed out toward others will gradually cripple your own happiness. When you truly feel comfortable with your own imperfections, you won\u2019t feel threatened or offended by the imperfections you see in other people. So stop worrying about the flaws you see in everyone else, and focus on yourself. Let the constant growth and improvement in your own life keep you so busy that you have no time left to criticize others. 7. Quit running from your problems and fears. Trust me, if everyone threw their problems in a pile for you to see, you would grab yours back. Tackle your problems and fears swiftly, don\u2019t run away from them. The best solution is to face them head on no matter how powerful they may seem. Fears, in particularly, stop you from taking chances and making decisions. They keep you confined to just the small space where you feel completely comfortable. But your life\u2019s story is simply the culmination of many small, unique experiences, many of which require you to stretch your comfort zone. Letting your fears and worries control you is not \u2018living,\u2019 it\u2019s merely existing. Bottom line: Either you own your problems and fears, or they will ultimately own you. 8. Quit living in another time and place. Some people spend their entire lives trying to live in another time and place. They lament about what has been, what they could have done, or what might become. However, the past is gone, and the future doesn\u2019t exist. No matter how much time we spend thinking and lamenting about either, it doesn\u2019t change anything. One of life\u2019s sharpest paradoxes is that our brightest future hinges on our ability to pay attention to what we\u2019re doing right now, today. We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment requires active, open, intentional awareness on the present. Don\u2019t fantasize about being on vacation while at work, and don\u2019t worry about the work piling up on your desk when you\u2019re on vacation. Live for now. Notice the beauty unfolding around you. 9. Quit trying to be someone you\u2019re not. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that\u2019s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don\u2019t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love you, and you\u2019ll love yourself more too. The Road Less Traveled. 10. Quit being ungrateful. Not all the puzzle pieces of life will seem to fit together at first, but in time you\u2019ll realize they do, perfectly. So thank the things that didn\u2019t work out, because they just made room for the things that will. And thank the ones who walked away from you, because they just made room for the ones who won\u2019t. No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you\u2019re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9947,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946\/revisions\/9947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elisalou.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}