Tag: conscious decision

  • Decide First: How to Adopt New Habits and Develop a Positive Attitude

    Decide First: How to Adopt New Habits and Develop a Positive Attitude

    Trust your instincts, and make judgements on what your heart tells you. The heart will not betray you.” ― David Gemmell

    Quora Question: How can you change your habits and thought process that control your daily life and wellbeing?

    I think when you finally get tired of the drama that’s in your life and you make the decision to change, even if it is just one small thing, that is when life itself will change for you. Change begins with the decision to change. It could be as simple as wanting to drink more water and less sodas or alcohol.  One small change can shift the trajectory of your path.

    Pay attention to things that cause an irritation in you.  Ask yourself, “what’s in my control?”  If there is something you can do to reduce or eliminate the irritation, then do it. Change begins the moment you decide you want to change.

    Let me give you an example:

    A couple of years ago, I used to be big on scrolling through Facebook and other social sites, but I started noticing how I would feel once I got off. It wasn’t leaving me with positive feelings. I asked myself, “what’s in my control?”  That’s when I realized I could choose to do something else with my time like read books rather than scroll social media sites.  I could go for a walk or write in my journal when I felt the urge to grab for my phone. When I pondered what else I could do with time I usually allotted for scrolling social media, that is when I saw other activities that were more in alignment with achieving my desired goals.

    So here are a few suggestions I would like to offer anyone looking to change their habits and thought process:

    1. Pay attention to your emotions and your feelings.  They are like signals from your soul that let you know if you are heading in the right direction or indicators that you might want to make a U-turn.
    2. Make the decision to make one small change.  It is that one small change that can and will change the trajectory of your path.  
    3. Trust the process and watch it unfold.  Learn to become friends with your body, mind, and spirit.  I call them the “Three Chairmen”.  Once I learned to listen and pay attention to what was coming up from within, I know get a better sense of when I am on the right path or when I need to pivot. 
    4. Stay open to possibilities.  There will be things that you will pick up on your mental radar that you may have never noticed before. It is like your brain goes to work looking for opportunities to help you achieve your desired goals.
    5. Keep a journal. Record your progress.  As we grow and change, you can always look back through your journal entries to see how far you have come. By paying attention, simple change in your habits, behaviors and thoughts are more recognizable.
    6. Find an accountability partner. Connect with others and share your insight with others. Help to hold each other accountable for your goals. 
    7. Have grace with yourself.  We didn’t develop these habits and thought processes in just one day and that means we can’t change them in just one day either.  

    The truth is that we are always changing whether we realize it or not.  By paying attention and recording our process, we can see the process and watch it unfold.

    Quote Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/decision-making

    Thank you for taking time out to read this post. I would love to learn more about who you are and what you do. Feel free to connect with me through a Meetup group.

    1. Confident Strides Women’s Empowerment Network https://bit.ly/CSWENMeetup
    2. Confident Strides Personal Development Network Group https://bit.ly/CSPDNMeetup
    3. Confident Strides Women’s Professional Network https://bit.ly/CSWPNMeetup
    4. Confident Strides Entrepreneurs Network https://bit.ly/CSENMeetup

    To connect with me: https:///confidentstrides

  • Does a Penny Still Have Value? Yes. So Pick them up off the Ground

    Does a Penny Still Have Value? Yes. So Pick them up off the Ground


    “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” ― Marie Curie

    Quora Question: When you see a coin on the ground, do you pick it up or leave it there?

    While I was on my morning run this morning, I saw a penny laying on the ground and I initially ran over it without picking it up. I usually pick up pennies and I don’t worry about if it is face up or not. I don’t believe in the superstition about heads or tails.  I had a nagging feeling to turn around and pick it up and that is what I did.

    I didn’t always stop to pick up pennies until I relieved it’s a form of currency no matter what.  I have heard some people say that the penny is worthless.  I don’t believe that’s necessarily true. There are 100 pennies in one dollar and 100,000 pennies in 1,000 dollars.  The key is to remember that each penny adds up to something. It always comes down to your perception of what equates to value.

    Here is another way to look at this…

    Over the past few years, I have come to believe that each one of us has a message, a gift, or an experience to share with the world.  Our ideas are the sparks that lead us on the path of discovery.  If you believe you have nothing to offer, you have no desire to explore what’s hidden deep down inside of you.  If you do believe you have something of value to offer, we put in effort to discover what it is.  We look for ways to share that message or story once we find it.  Some of create businesses.  Some of us write books or publish blogs. Some of us hop on podcasts or other social media channels because we want our messages and ideas out there in the world. 

    So where am I going with this… 

    Our ideas are the pennies that add value to the collective whole. Think about YouTube, if there was only one channel on the whole platform, it wouldn’t be one of the most searched platforms for entertainment or educational tools. It wouldn’t be considered “YouTube University” for sure!  YouTube doesn’t add content, it manages the content that we provide and makes a nice profit from it.  The ideas of the individuals who upload to the platform is what makes YouTube valuable!  In other words, there are more than 100,000,000,000 ideas (pennies) that help pull in the 1.8 billion subscribers of YouTube.  

    Every penny has a value, just as every person matters and we all add to the collective whole.  When we can see the value in each of our experiences, we will stop leaving the pennies on the ground, and or ideas un-explored.  Each of our experiences in life provide ideas and lessons that the world can use.  These ideas and beliefs help shape who you are and when we stop, collect them, and add them up, we may just realize how valuable we are because of them.

    Quote Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag?utf8=✓&id=ideas

    Thank you for taking time out to read this post. I would love to learn more about who you are and what you do. Feel free to connect with me through a Meetup group.

    1. Confident Strides Women’s Empowerment Network https://bit.ly/CSWENMeetup
    2. Confident Strides Personal Development Network Group https://bit.ly/CSPDNMeetup
    3. Confident Strides Women’s Professional Network https://bit.ly/CSWPNMeetup
    4. Confident Strides Entrepreneurs Network https://bit.ly/CSENMeetup

    To connect with me: https:///confidentstrides

  • Get Off the Bench

    Get Off the Bench

    Athlete-Bench-STACK

    Are you actively participating in your life or are you just spectating? Actively participating is working to create your life by making conscious choices. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and complain about the hand that life deals. It takes courage and action to get up off the bench to participate. Life will not be easier but it can be richer. Keep this in mind, it takes getting into the game in order to have a chance at winning. A 50/50 percent chance is a much better set of odds than 100% of nothing.

    Photo credit: click here

  • The Choice is Yours

    The Choice is Yours

    florida_sunrise_099There will come a time on your personal journey, that if you actually start to like the person you are becoming, you will make the conscious decision to eliminate all that no longer serves you. Those things are the distractions that block all the goodness that life offers up like the beautiful sunrises or breathtaking sunsets. Life gets more enjoyable and you start to enjoy who you are and the gifts that you discover within you. Life was meant to be enjoyed not endured.

    Photo credit: click here.