Awareness and Honesty

This is the last week of our Summer Accountability Group.  I have decided to make it the first of a four part series to continue to help us reach our goals. A huge thank you to those of you that reached out during the group this summer and participated. As with all things, the more we put into something, the more we will get out of it. I was inspired and learned so much from many of you that I talked with during this summer group. This was my first time for a group like this and I would love to hear feedback to help for next time.

Moving forward, I have found there are some things in life I am better at working on, and other areas of my life have been a constant struggle. I am sure you have struggles too, possibly completely different from mine, or maybe some of the same. We have a variety of reasons, or excuses, we could offer as to why we are struggling and not reaching our goals.

For today, I want to offer a few steps I have found, and that I am constantly working on, to help me push past several of these challenges lately. This is daily work. As I have said before, you have to accept that every day you are going to get up and do the daily work for what you are wanting. This is true for your health, dreams, goals, financial health, relationships, and more.

For me, I realized I had to be honest with myself and become completely AWARE as to what I wanted and what I wasn’t doing to go after it. Since I sold my fitness studio 5 years ago (unbelievable its been 5 years), I have several journals, spirals and post-its, that have many of my ideas, dreams, goals written in them. I continue to write down ideas and projects that get me excited. I wasn’t bringing any of my ideas to life. Amazingly, it took awhile, but a few of the ideas I did finally finish. I realized I could do it, but it was ME becoming aware of what was holding me back. Of course it was me, and I knew I could change it, once I knew what it was.

First, is AWARENESS. What is it you want and what is holding you back? What is your story? We all have a story, or several stories, that has shaken us a bit, or a lot, in life. Did we bounce back from it, or does it still have a hold on us? You know, it is up to us, to break that hold and move on from it. Here is one of my stories, that took me a while to bounce back from, but I learned so much about myself from this, and came out a bit different and much better on the other side. You notice I said one. Most of us have more than one.

What is your story? What is holding you back? Are you wanting to feel better and stronger, but struggling to get there?

Maybe you feel that you won’t succeed, so you don’t even try….change this thought today.

Are you not getting the support you want from your spouse? Tell them.

Is is too much work to change? Very common. How bad do you want it?

Do you still not know where to start? Reach out to me. If you have thought about reaching out to me all summer and haven’t, PLEASE send me a message. I will help you get started. I truly do love helping people….you just have to want to help yourself too. I can’t do your work for you. 😉

These are all too common with taking care of ourselves.

Today, I want you to write down up to 3 goals or dreams that you have. I also want you to write down what you think is holding you back. This might be one challenge, or several challenges.

Once I really took time to think about it, I knew what was holding me back. My own confidence, and belief in myself, and what other people thought, which holds most of us back. Secondly, I just wasn’t taking action and doing what I needed to do every day.

First, my confidence and belief in myself. This takes time, strength, and work every day. I find that this comes from my health, and taking care of my whole self, and every day personal development. Every day I read, or listen to, positive, encouraging messages from people I admire. This helps keep my mind strong, healthy and confident. Our mind is such a huge part of our health, how we feel and reaching our goals. If you are constantly putting yourself down, blaming others and complaining, you will probably stay right where you are. You have to take negative thoughts and stories you are creating and change them. Most thoughts are made by us, so tell the negative ones good-bye, and fill yourself with positive, good stories. If you are going to make up a story, make up a positive, hopeful, exciting possibility.

There are still many days I wake up and feel a bit less, and out of balance. These days, as part of my awareness, I take time to notice where I am lacking and not nurturing a part of my whole self. See Week 10 or our summer group for all the areas we need to nurture to feel our best. I become aware of what area I have been neglecting, and this is where I need to work that day on filling up. Also, if I read, listen to or watch something encouraging and positive, it does wonders for how I am feeling.

What is really amazing, is once my confidence and belief in myself is stronger, usually I don’t think or care too much at all about what other people think. My dreams and goals and my life are so much bigger than someone else’s opinion of me.

So for today, become truly HONEST with yourself, and become AWARE of what YOU want and what is holding you back.

Enjoy today and make it a great week!