Your Thoughts Shape Your Reality

 

Life is a continuous process of lessons, some are learned easily and others through suffering, mistake, or error. Here are some old, yet very relevant life lessons and continuers that will help guide you and inspire you along the way:

Accept Change
Life is ever-changing. Anytime you resist or fight change, it leads to suffering. Anytime you grow or change, you are going to feel some level of discomfort, Get used to it! Feelings are temporary, but growth is a process. This is often the hardest concept to grasp, that everything changes over time; friend relationships, jobs, and as we know, the only thing constant is change in ourselves. No matter how much we wish to hold on to how it "was," acceptance opens so many more doors for possibilities in life and leads us closer to what is next.

Why Do People Resist Change?
• Fear of the unknown or fear of uncertainty
• Comfort in the familiar
• Attachment to how things "should be"

How Can Someone Flow with Change?
✔ Honor rigid expectations – There is often few things more delusional than thinking life is a straight line; flexibility is power!
✔ Have faith in the process – Often times change can feel uncomfortable; however, many times if we really "trust" the process it leads to potential opportunities for growth.
✔ Be mindful of that which you can control – You can control how you choose to hold yourself mentally, how you choose to act upon it and how you choose to respond back.

✔ Even endings and closure can be new beginnings – In the end when we close a door, it makes the space for something new. They say never go back to the past, unless it's to spot the future!

Failure is a Teacher
There is no such thing as failure in life—only experiences; unless you do not choose to learn from it. When you have an experience that you define as ineffectiveness, failure is a teacher. Each failure often leads to building mental toughness, wisdom, and resiliency; also, after each experience you now have the courage to try again. You have not failed at something; you now know that does not work! In which now, you are one more step closer to realizing what does and why it does!

Why Do We Need Failure?
• Shows Weakness → It shows you where you need to focus on for personal development.
• Build Resilience → Each comeback makes you tougher than you were before.
• Humility → Keeps your ego in check and allows you to learn in order to grow.
• Success Redefined → Shows you what really matters and is important to you.

Kindness always wins
At the end of the day, it's how you treat others that determines your character and is worth a lot more than kindness can offer back into the world. Be consistent in small acts of kindness. You never know if it is the smallest of acts make the most difference in someone's day or even their lives (including your own!).

Why Kindness is Important:
• It costs nothing but means everything – A smile. Being patient a little longer now and again. A listening heart, whatever it is; it can change someone's day.
• It will always boomerang back – The energy you give off is often returned.
• It Creatively Builds Relationships – People may forget what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
• It is quiet revolution – Kindness in a cruel world is a radical act of hope.

How To Practice Kindness daily:
✔ Listening deeply – Maybe the best way to be kind is not providing answers but simply being present.
✔ Assume the best – Do you give individuals the benefit of the doubt?
✔ Small gestures matter – Writing a note, requesting a favor for someone else, holding the door open, etc.
✔ Being Kind to Yourself – You will have nothing to pour out of your cup if it's empty.

 

Release Control
wasting energy on things we’re not able to control simply doesn’t make sense. Focus on the things you can control, and release the things you can’t. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
What Are you Holding Onto?
• Mental Energy Wasted – Nothing is resolved by worrying or being anxious for things out of your control.
• Will Let Better Opportunities Pass – If you hold onto “how it should be” you won’t see “how it could be.”
• Joy Theft – You can create peace you want in your life by focusing on how you respond to the outcome, NOT the uncontrollable.
Ways to Let Go of Control
✔ Ask Yourself, “Is This Mine To Fix?” – If it isn’t, then start to redirect what you could invest your energy into!
✔ Acceptance – Some things are just that. If you keep fighting it, you will keep suffering.
✔ Create a Circle of Influence – Like money, invest energy into doing things that move the needle! There is no shortage of people or things that will and can take your ENERGY!
✔ Trust the Process – Trust the process that is your life, as it unfolds as it meant to in your life, even if you can’t see it yet.

 Time is Your Most Valuable Resource
You can make more money, you cannot make more time so spend it wisely and it things, and people that matter to you. You will never get the today back! Spend it on things that light you up! Time is Your Most Valuable Resource, Invest Wisely, and generate big change. Small Steps Equal Big Change
The slow and stead wins the race every time, persistence is better than intensity, consistent progress is achieved through consistent movement.
Why is Time Beyond Price?
• Non-Renewable – money can be replenished, once spent, it is gone forever!
• The Great Equalizer – all people are dealt 24 hours per day, what they do with it is what counts!
• It Determines Your Legacy – not how much money you made, or what jobs and accomplishments you had, but how you spent your days!
How to Honor Your Time
✔ Audit Your Day – What are your time and energy vampires? Get Rid Them! (mindless scrolling, negative people, doing things you don’t want to do - so many more options to consider)
✔ Relationships Are > Things – People (your relationships) always win in the end, memories last and materialism doesn’t!
✔ “No Guilt” – Treat it like it is the finite treasure it is and you should attend to it with care!
✔ Live Deliberately! – Ask yourself, “Will this matter in 5 years?”

Self-Love is Internal
External validation is so exhausting. True confidence lays in the acceptance and knowing of your value without the need for someone else’s approval: I am enough-not because I did something but because I am something, what are your practices of reconnecting with self-worth?
What is Wrong with External Validation?
• Fluctuating – Its like building a sand house - as quick as it can be constructed, it can be wiped out just as fast as with intention, thoughts or actions of others.
• Exhausting – In the race for approval, you could literally run a race without a finishing line!
• You Change You- shrink or mold to whatever works for them.
Ways to Develop a Worth while Sense of Self
✔ Self-Definition - You define what has value in your life NOT society, social media, or perfect strangers.
✔ There is No such thing as Perfection – Worth is not a means of being perfect or what it represents; it is JUST being.
✔ Outcome Detachable - Who you are is not tied to your win, likes, or need for validation!!
✔ Compassion – How would you talk to someone if you loved them deeply?

 

Gratitude Shifts Your Perspective
No matter how difficult things feel, there is always something for which to be grateful. Gratitude switches your attention from lack to abundance.
Gratitude Increases Happiness
When you focus on what you have (rather than lack thereof), it changes your perspective on the world.

Why Gratitude Works
• Rewires Your Brain – Regularly expressing gratitude, builds neural pathways to find light vs. shadows.
• Transforms Scarcity to Abundance – What we focus on grows - gratitude provides us with the clear view of what we already have.
• Grounds Your Awareness in the Present – Worry is only possible in the future; gratitude divides your awareness into the present.
How to Train it (even when life hurts)
✔ The Daily 3: each evening, identify three specific things your grateful for (e.g. "the sun on my face at 3pm").
✔ Reframe frustrations: "This is hard, but I appreciate what it is teaching me."
✔ Savor the little joys: a warm cup, a text from a friend, a deep breath – the micro-moments add up.
✔ Pay it forward: tell someone why you are grateful for them; it doubles the value.

Health is Wealth - true wealth
Success means very little without physical and mental health. Starting with sleep, movement, and - most importantly - peace of mind. Would you put cheap fuel into a luxury car? Don't do it to yourself.
Health is Wealth - the base layer of everything
Why health is first
• Silent Currency - energy, clarity and resilience fuel every other pursuit.
• Preventative not Reactive - small, daily choices compound over time to create a lifestyle of vitality (or decline).
• Non-negotiable - no need or amount of money, fame nor achievement gives you back a broken body or mind.

How to invest in it daily
✔ Move your body like you love it (walk stretch, dance) not to punish it, but to celebrate it.
✔ Protect your sleep - this is the foundation of your mental health, immune function and creativity.
✔ Feed your brain - junk food, doom scrolling and toxic thought processes are gutting, equally.
✔ Manage your stress - chronic stress ages you faster than the passage of time, breath. slow down. say no.

Not everyone is going to like you (And that’s totally fine)
You cannot please everyone. Stay true to yourself; the right people will love the authentic version of you. Pretending to be someone else requires a lot of energy and you could be loving yourself. Everyone, the right people included, loves you for who you are.

Why this makes you free
• Inevitable fact - even the sun has haters, don't take it personally.
• Energy leakage - people pleasing is a leaky bucket, it'll never be full.
• Magnetic authenticity - people will be attracted to you, not a show.
How to embrace it
✔ Define your own "success" metrics - success is being proud of who you are, not how popular you are.
✔ See the gift in rejection - it makes space for what is genuine.
✔ Facts are not opinions - what others think of you is their story, not yours.
✔ Rock your weirdness - fitting in is over-rated; belonging to you is everything.

Life is Short - Live Boldly Much of the regret people feel is from taking risks they didn't take. More love, more travel, more experiences, more dreams, and no waiting for someday.

The Present Moment is All We Have Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery. You only have the present moment to live fully. Why Boldness Matters • "Someday" Doesn't Exist: The perfect time is never going to come. You only know you have now. • Deathbed Clarity: No one wishes they had played it safer, or not said what they wanted when they had the chance. • Energy Multiplier: Action produces motivation, NOT the reverse. How to Stop Waiting ✔ Do the Scary Thing First: Fear diminishes when you take a step toward it. ✔ Love Out Loud: Say it, show it - don't think others know. ✔ Travel While You Are "Not Ready": The world is the best teacher - Google is not! ✔ Burn the "Good Enough" Timeline: You are not behind; you are on the right path for you.