Gratitude

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity:

It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.

William Faulkner

Gratitude (also known as thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation). It’s a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgement of a benefit that one has received or will receive. Wikipedia.com

Do you show gratitude? Do you show enough gratitude? Studies show that people who are more grateful are happier, less depressed and enjoy life more. They’re more adapt at dealing with difficulties that we all experience in life and they are more likely to seek support from others.  Grateful people also sleep better because they think more positive thoughts before they go to sleep. From now on, catch yourself throughout the day and take a moment to just be grateful. Grateful for the air-conditioned car, grateful that you have a car, grateful for your job, grateful for your colleagues, grateful for your family.

Every time you think thoughts of gratitude, you are releasing positive energy. This is good for your body and soul.

Why Set Goals?

Goals Help You Establish Priorities and Decide What is Truly Important

It is important for us to choose what we are going to spend our valuable time on and be clear on what we are NOT going to spend our time on. It is important to understand that we can’t do everything and being clear on our goals allows us to prioritise and plan how we are going to spend our time.

When we identify and write down our top goals, that allows us to be clear on what is most important to us. It allows us to focus on what really matters most.

Achieving Goals is a Great Way to Spend Your Time

We are all busy. It is almost a competition. Some of us are busy being busy and some of us are busy working towards achieving our goals. It may take weeks, it may take months and it may take years. When you spend your time working towards your goals, you are spending your time on something worthwhile – that is YOU.

A great question to ask yourself regularly is, “Are my actions moving me closer to my goals?”

Goals Give You Direction and a Target

Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the classic Psycho-Cybernetics, said that human beings have a built-in goal seeking “success mechanism” that is part of the subconscious mind. This success mechanism is constantly searching for ways to help us reach our targets and find answers to our problems.

According to Dr Maltz, we work and feel better when our success mechanism is fully engaged and going after clear targets.

More Happiness

You have two chances at happiness all the time. One is how happy you are in the moment. The other is how happy are you with your life. The second is about fulfilment. By spending time achieving your dreams, investing in your life, designing your life, the more you will experience happiness in the moment. The more you drive your purpose and give your best, the more fulfilment you will have.

Goals Propel You Forward

A pattern that comes with working towards goals is that when you set your mind to something, you get excited and work like mad, and then motivation starts to wane. Having goals that you can focus on and visualise helps you better connect yourself with your inner desires and gives you the motivational energy you need to work through periods where your focus inevitably starts to wane.

Goals Help Us Believe In Ourselves

Setting goals for yourself is a way to fuel your ambition. Goal setting isn’t just about creating a plan for your life and holding yourself accountable; it’s also about giving us the inspiration necessary to aim for things we never thought possible.

You may wish to accomplish something that many people dream about, but few people ever actually accomplish. Unless you make it a goal for yourself and work towards achieving it, why would you ever believe that you could accomplish it? Unless you see yourself slowly making progress, your dreams and aspirations are nothing more than vague notions floating around in your imagination.

Goals Tell You What You Truly Want

By asking ourselves what we really want and constantly re-assessing our goals, we gain the benefit of introspection and self-reflection. We can figure out what it is we really want in life -  and then we can go out and do it.

Goals Help Us Live Life To The Fullest

When you take the time to set goals, you ensure that your life is geared towards getting the most out of every moment. There’s so much to do and experience in life, but many of the things we want to achieve and experience won’t be handed to us - we need to work for it.

Setting Goals is a Fundamental Component to Long-Term Success

The basic reason for this is that you can’t get where you are trying to go until you clearly define where that is. Research studies show a direct link between goals and enhanced performance. Goals help you focus and allocate your time and resources efficiently, and they can keep you motivated when you feel like giving up. Setting and achieving goals translates to feelings of success which in turn spurs greater productivity and confidence.

Live Your Best Life

Goals ensure you get the best out of life. Firstly, by becoming a better person, your new-found knowledge and abilities let you experience more out of the same life events compared to the previous you. Think about how your worldview is different now vs. the you 10 years ago. Do you see life with much more clarity, depth and perspective today than you were in the past? What may be a simple daily occurrence in the past holds a lot more meaning to the more highly-evolved you today.

Secondly, time passes in our life, whether we want to or not. Goals with specific measures and deadlines ensure we are maximising our output and experiences during our time here. Goals ensure you are maximising your life for all that it can offer you.

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field  and never score.

Bill Copeland

It’s Time to Kick Some Goals

Think of some things you want to happen in your life. Some amazing, exciting and really imaginative things you want. Write them out now.

Goal 1

Goal 2

Goal 3

Goal 4

Goal 5

Goal 6

Goal 7

Goal 8

Goal 9

Goal 10

You can keep going, of course, if you wish or not even have 10 goals. The number is irrelevant; the goal is what is important.

Now arrange them in order of priority.

Then set a target date.

Now, what is the first step for the first goal?

Great! Now go and do that!

Today Is Unwritten

A wonderful thought to have at this very moment, right where you are, no matter how much of this day has gone or how much of this day is still to happen. Whatever’s left is ... yet unwritten.

Words, ideas, images, experiences and feelings on the pages of your life book have yet to be experienced.

 
It never gets repeated again so hold for just a moment how precious it is that you are alive, you have this moment and that you get to choose a never-again repeated day.

Be Aware Of Your Speech

One of the most amazing facts of life is that our speech determines our direction in life. Not only does it determine our thinking, but it influences so many others that we come into contact with daily.

Words are powerful.

Have you heard the saying, “What you say is what you get”?

To control your words, you must first control your mind. Whatever we sow, we reap. Words are the most powerful thing in the universe.

The words we speak will either hold us in bondage or bring us into success.

Be aware of the words you use and choose wisely; both for your own benefit and those around you.

Is My Dream Possible?

Many of us don’t even spend a lot of time thinking about what we really want from our life.  Some of us who do, may be asking the wrong question.  What question is that?  It is "Is my dream possible?"

Then they look at their life, their abilities and their conditions to determine the answer.

The answers to those questions may be convincing.  You may look at where you live, your age, your bank statement.

However, the world is an interesting place.  The universe is full of endless possibilities.  Many say, by definition, it is unlimited.

When you look at your current life, your current abilities and your current conditions to determine your dream, you squeeze the infinite into a tiny little picture of what you think is possible.

We have to really dream to make our dreams possible.  We have to be a little bit crazy and reach to the improbable and impossible.  Remember, a hundred years ago, flying in a plane was impossible, the telephone was ridiculous, the light bulb, cars, televisions, and computers.  If those inventors looked to the current conditions back then to determine their dreams, we may never have made these leaps.

So start asking a different question - "What would I love?" Then allow yourself to dream without limit.  Write down the ideas that come to you.  Look for the feeling of excitement, nervousness, ridiculous, laughter and let it guide you to living the life of your dreams.

Sometimes You Need Patience for Your Dreams to Come True

I was recently told how Chinese bamboo grows.  Young Chinese bamboo is a slow-growing plant.  When you nurture and look after the bamboo, it grows two inches in the first year.

It then grows two inches in the second year, it grows two inches in the third year and two inches in the fourth year.  Then in the fifth year it grows 80 feet!

When I heard this, it reminded me of our dreams.  At times, it can feel like you are working and working and nothing happens.  Then when you are not expecting it, things change, they take off, your life moves to a whole new level.

It’s important to nurture and look after your dreams.  Every step forward is a step in the right direction.  Keep looking after your dreams.  You never know when they will take off.