Let Your Light Shine

I am a keeper of inspiring words – usually in the form of cards and such like given to me as gifts. And today I happened upon one with the following words by Sam Friend:-

“There is in each of us so much goodness that if we could see it glow, it would light the world.”

Those words got me thinking about the path to enlightenment and the journey to becoming a better person. Often we take for granted the goodness that we have within and seek and seek for more and more.  Which is a good thing, I know, to be constantly learning and bettering ourselves.  And yet if we do not pause for a moment or two and celebrate the goodness that we already have within, let others see that and let our light shine, we lose the everyday opportunity to be the role model and teachers that we truly can be.  Every one of us has the capacity for that.

So take this moment to reflect on your own goodness within and let your light shine for all of those around you so that they too can be inspired.

When The Going Gets Tough Use Your Daily Journal

I am a great fan and advocate for the daily journal as a part of the personal development and self awareness journey. I have cultivated journaling each day as a habit and over time have developed an array of very useful tips for assisting to keep the daily journal interesting and stimulating.  There could be nothing worse for me than to have a habit which is mundane and boring.  And I coach people using the daily journal as a key element to attract and maintain life success.  I am even in development phase for a commercial product around a daily journal.

So it came as a great surprise to me this week to discover that 6 days had passed since I had made an entry in my daily journal and 10 days had passed since I had written about my thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation for life. It happens that I had been feeling a bit low in mood and unmotivated over the last three days and yesterday I decided to explore that in my journal.  I opened up and noticed how many days since I had made an entry.  Well, I thought to myself, be your own coach!!

So I went through my daily habit, entering in my journal what was happening and working through how to move forward, going over my years goals and writing about how I was working towards them, listing my gratitude for what I have right now and what is coming to me in the future. Lo and behold, it worked, got me back on track and I decided on a couple of processes to help me through this low motivation phase.  My mood lifted almost immediately.

For the moment, my daily journal will consist of decisions on the actions that I am taking towards my life goals and I will check back over that each day to see my progress. With that inspiration, I completed 2 of my 3 tasks yesterday and one that was not on the list but the time was right.  Today I am well on the way with the 4 that I committed to for this day.

Learning? Sometimes it helps to just go back to the basics and I know that the daily journal is one of those basic but essential habits.  Oh and just for a bit of fun I had a look back to where I was this time last year.  Happily, much progress has been made and some of my big life decisions are coming to fruition right now.  Attract success – you betcha!!

More Ideas To Make Your Daily Journal Easy

I am, as you know, a devotee of the daily journal habit. Apart from the fact that the development of daily habits is a contributor to happiness (and who does not want happiness?), it is also pretty amazing to read back over your journal at the same time of the year, from time to time, and see the changes that you have made in your life, for yourself and/or they way that you are feeling.  Writing down some of your daily thoughts and ideas can be fulfilling in many other ways as hand writing, which some say it is becoming a lost art, can help you to make sense of what is happening, how you are reacting and why and actions that you can take to make changes where you want them.  And it will definitely help you on your journey to success.

Sure, it can be a confronting process at times as you may start to explore some parts of yourself that you prefer not to face but that is where the real value if this lovely process comes in. You are exploring these things just with yourself!!  No-one else unless you chose to.  And then you can look at them in wonder, at a later date, and laugh about your fears.  Some of the things that I have been afraid of in the past have proven to be just nothing later, because I took charge of them.

How does it get any better than that?

So recently, in my quest for more content to help people to work with their daily journal, I was delighted to read “Your Pocket Life Coach” – seriously recommend that you get this one. Carole Gaskell, Author, outlines some of her ideas for the daily “inspirational” journal.  So test these out and see a previous blog of mine, 10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal,  for even more ideas.

From Carole Gaskell:-

• Use your daily inspirational journal to record your thoughts, insights, intuitive ideas and actions
• Write about things that make you happy, confident, excited
• Record your achievements and what you are committed to doing next
• Note the people you love and why
• Outline your plans for the next day, week, month etc
• Put down what you have learned that day or things that have helped you in your development.

Oh, and have fun!!  And my congratulations to Carole for such a smashing little book.

Inspiration In The Air, Inspiration Everywhere

Seriously, I think that I can smell and feel the inspiration all around me, not to mention with the people I meet, books that I read and music that I listen to. And I think that I know the reason.  I have been focusing on inspiration and am attracting it like crazy.  I love the whole inspiration effect and I love how the Law of Attraction works.

Some months ago I was reading a “Business Bullet” written by Andrew Griffiths and he said that we all need to get a daily fix of inspiration just as be do exercise and good nutrition. Well, I took his words to heart and started to be active about my daily fix.  And here it is, just arriving in my life.  Inspiration in the air, inspiration everywhere.

So here are 5 quick tips on how to get your daily dose of inspiration!!

• Keep your mind, ears and eyes tuned for it; look for it in the people you talk to, the mountains and plains around you, the birds and animals and your own thoughts.
• Read poetry again.  It is just amazing what poets write.
• Stop tuning in to the mainstream media and do something different like read blogs, get self improvement books out of the library, beg or borrow some cd’s and listen while you drive to work.  I just love “Conversations With God” and “Beyond Freedom“.
• Google some of your favourite gurus and read some of their web page or watch some of their YouTube.  Try the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra or Brian Tracy.
• Listen to some different music and step out of your comfort zone there.  Try some music from a different country or cultural group.  I am loving Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu right now; it just touches my soul.

No doubt you will come up with a list of 5 for yourself as well, just do it, because life is so much more exciting when you are getting your daily dose of inspiration!!

10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal

There are a number of factors that contribute to overall happiness and one is the development of habits. The very best and most useful habit is that of  daily journaling.  Back in the day, it used to be called a diary and started with the words “Dear Diary”.  Today, it is used to record one’s self improvement and journey towards enlightenment or that place where one is at their very best.  A daily journal can be a great tool to use on the path to achieve success.

A daily entry to your journal can be a simple account of the events that have had an impact or it can be a complex entry of self-discovery. To help you get started, if you have not already done so, try the following tips:-

1. Record 6 things for which you are grateful, appreciative or thankful that are occurring right now.
2. Record another 6 that are coming to you in the future.
3. Keep a daily list of the prosperity or abundance in your life.  This might be a simple as having a friend shout you a coffee or another driver graciously letting you change lanes.  Keep tabs on them all and let your abundance grow before your eyes.
4. Write about what you have done over the day, action that you have taken towards your life goal.
5. List what you intend to do the next day, week or month and check back later to see how you went.
6. Spend some time writing what you believe are your strengths and weaknesses and then write about how you intend to grow your strengths to outweigh your weaknesses.
7. Record the occasions during the day when you have successfully shifted your feelings from not so good to better by recognising your not so good feelings and changing your thoughts at that time.
8. Work out a set of questions that will help you to challenge yourself around your limiting beliefs.  For example – “What am I doing when I find myself having an argument with my partner?”  “How do I get into the argument in the first place?”  “How can I avoid it?”  This is just an example; you can use anything that you like.  Just make sure that you do not let yourself off the hook.
9. Use your journal to help you to visualise where you intend to be in life, in the next year, next five years, next ten years.  Write in detail about how your life will be, how that will benefit you and the community and why you need to have this life.  Regularly check back to see how you are going on your journey.
10. List the random acts of kindness that you intend to perform in the next 24 hours and then check back each day to see if you did them.

Above all, have fun with this wonderful daily habit.

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