“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”
— Maria Edgeworth, O Magazine, April 2004

Think back over the last week. How many moments were significant enough that you will remember them right now, or in a week, or in a month, a year, or even five years from now? Most of the time we are so busy surviving life that we let each moment slip by relatively unnoticed. In this rushed pace of living we also tend to take the people in our lives for granted, forget why we are really doing what we are doing, and don’t even sacrifice a moment of time to be thankful for all that we have right now, right here in front of us.

Time is a precious gift. Start living every moment in a more conscious light and you will begin to see how ordinary moments in your life are truly extraordinary. When you discover a particular moment in time that you want to treasure for years to come, stop and truly take it in. Allow yourself to stay in the experience, even just mentally, for a little longer than usual to notice what is so special about the moment. Soon you will be well on your way to building a mountain of wonderful memories of all the special moments in your life.

“There is no stress in the world, only people thinking stressful thoughts and then acting on them.”
— Dr. Wayne Dyer

Misery is not supposed to be the norm of life. Take out the stress and drama in your life and you will see that it is actually all good and can even be fun. Joy and love is what you are truly all about. It is the natural state of your being. Allow yourself to be the true you and see what a difference it will make everyday in every aspect of your life.

It doesn’t matter what you are doing — work, school, daily chores — have fun with it by adding a smile or laugh. Spread the joy of life around you to others who have forgotten that life is supposed to be fun. See even the most mundane of tasks for what for what it is — a stepping stone on your journey to the greatest life for you.

“Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he’ll never move.” — Paulo Coelho

Indecision, procrastination, creative block, laziness; it doesn’t matter what you want to call it, it all amounts to the same thing — nothing gets accomplished. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I understand fully what it’s all about. I’ve been there before plenty of times myself. I have used many excuses — some more legitimate than others — for not moving forward.

But there comes a moment when you have to realize and tell yourself (because for some reason it usually doesn’t work when someone else tells you) that if you just keep waiting for that something to happen, or that idea to come, or hey what about maybe just winning a lottery instead, you will never actually move forward in your life.

As simple and yet as difficult as it may seem, the best course of action when you come to inaction is ACTION. As you move along your path you will either stumble upon the missing pieces or they will find you along the way. The main thing is you are always improving if you keep moving forward because there is always something to learn along the way.

“When we feel great about who we are, we radiate an undeniable magnetic energy that attracts to us all the things we desire.”
—Debbie Ford, The Best Year of Your LIfe

Having high self-esteem is probably the most important requirement in achieving success, obtaining what you want in life, and simply living the best life you could possibly live. Too often we are lead to believe that we can feel good or better by obtaining things outside ourselves — money, status, respect from others. This often means we neglect and minimize the importance of how we feel inside.

As long as we continue to feel shame, judgment, doubt about who we are, happiness and success will not find their ways to us as we run around trying to fill the void with things outside ourselves. When we have the courage to love and respect who we are, both perfect and imperfect, we automatically feel deserving enough to have it all.

“The most powerful thing you can do to change the world is to change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people, reality, to something more positive… and begin to act accordingly.”
— Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization

You’ve heard it before, and you will hear it again, and again — you have the power to change the world starting with you. As Wayne Dyer points out, “There is no stress in the world, only people thinking stressful thoughts and then acting on them.” This is a powerful concept, but even more powerful is the reality that you don’t need to live in that stressful world.

Start changing your own beliefs and thoughts to something more positive and act on those thoughts. Right there, at that very moment, the world just changed.

“I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

As difficult as it may be to listen only to your inner self, allowing yourself to be guided by others opinions of you, either good or bad, will leave you feeling like you are the rope in a game of tug-o-war.

Follow your heart and you will never go astray for it will always be true to you.

“Live simply so that others may simply live.”
— Gandhi

When he said to “live simply” did he mean live a life of poverty, give up your worldly goods, etc.? I don’t believe so. But these days it seems to become harder and harder to get our minds around how to live simply. What I think it means is to live a life that doesn’t overwhelm you. If you find that your life is so complicated and busy that you don’t even know who you truly are anymore, it might be an indication that your life needs simplification.

Simplification might also mean learning to say “no” to some of the requests that are placed on you. We are taught to give and and help others, and that is all very good and true. But if you have nothing left of yourself or no time left to give to yourself, how can you keep giving to others?

Slow down, step back, examine your days and your routines. How much of it do you really feel is necessary to keep on the schedule? When you give yourself the gift of simplifying your life, you will actually be giving others the gift of a more complete (and mentally sane) you.

“You can address your angelic request directly to God or to your angels. Either way, heaven instantly responds to your message and sends angels to guide, love, and heal you.”
— Doreen Virtue, Divine Guidance

I have often been pleasantly surprised with the different methods of receiving advice for some issue plaguing me. I could be in line at the store and someone will say something interesting that just happens to apply to my situation. Or I will be chatting with some acquaintances and they will voice their opinion on a topic without being asked specifically. My angels, I am discovering, are all around me whenever I need them. They seem to whisper just the right things to people to guide me on my way.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for that next stranger that happens to give you some worthy advice. You never know, they may just be your angel in disguise.

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
— Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

When you say what you fear out loud, you will often find how ridiculous, or inaccurate, or inappropriate it is for your life. I had a talk a while back with my husband about one of the fears holding me back from making some simple phone calls. I had to call some people that I didn’t know in order to set up an interview time with them. In my mind I knew that this was no big deal for me to do. I have definitely done more challenging tasks or assignments. So what was holding me back? Why was I so afraid to just make these calls? I had been procrastinating for over two weeks now, coming up with excuse after excuse as to why I should put it off until the next day.

Well, with a little self-probing I realized that it wasn’t making the phone calls that was posing the problem, but making the phone calls with my husband within earshot. I was fearing his judgment or criticism of me and my ability to call up strangers to book an interview. No wait, take it a step further, I was afraid he would think that I am not as competent as I always lead him to believe. I wanted to make the calls when he wasn’t around, so that if I said something “stupid”, he wouldn’t know about it and couldn’t criticize me. So really, I was fearing being criticized by someone who I really respect and value their opinion. (more…)

“There’s an infinite amount of work. The big question is what do I have to do today, this week, this month, this quarter?” — Christine Comaford-Lynch

We have all most likely done it more than once in our life. We decide to sacrifice lunch with a friend or figure it’s not that important to get that sleep you so desperately needed. Or what about the classic, “Sure I can do that” when you already have a full agenda… and that new task isn’t even in line with your personal goals.

What would you gain with those choices? There will always be more work tomorrow. This doesn’t mean you should slack off. It is all about real life balance though. And what “real life” balance means, is that things don’t have to be perfect. There may have to be a slight lean on your table when one leg tends to take more attention than the other three at times. It means that you shift and adjust.

But you need to remember that it is supposed to be about joy. It’s supposed to lead you to your happiness. And if somewhere along the road that you find yourself now traveling you realize that you are no longer heading in the right direction, you need to make some real life changes.

And remember, it’s ok to say “no thanks”. It’s ok to say “Hey, this isn’t what I want to be doing now”. “This is not taking me to my joy, my goal, my passion.” Breathe, and get back on track — YOUR track.