You Are The Star

You are the star of your story.....Just as everyone else is the star of their own individual stories.  The folks around you (family, friends, and frenemies alike) are all just surviving their own lives and insecurities, starring in their own story of their own reality.  Their perception of you is based on their views and issues, so don't let their perception of their reality shape yours....Don't take them personally because what they are projecting is based on their experiences, fears, traumas, etc.  Bottom-line, don't let the projections of others define you as it is not a true reflection of you.  Know that changing damaging habits and personal growth are not an admonishment of who you are, just the accumulation of life's traps that surround us....but once you are aware, you can take the steps to move forward without taking on the negative chatter about who you are ... You are a wonderful creation of God!  Take care of you!!!

Perception

So perception is based on experience.  Individuals can share the same experience and still walk away with a different perception of what happened based upon their life experiences up to that point.  Our experiences shape our perception of reality and each individual walking around has a different perception than anyone else.  Neither is wrong or right…just different.  Judging folks for having a different life history and therefore perception from yours is your loss, since you lose an opportunity every time you shut someone else out of possibly enlightening your scope of understanding yourself.  Even if in listening to someone else’s perception confirms what you already thought, you still will have gleamed a new level of understanding of either life or at the very least yourself and why you do or do not think a certain way about a certain thing.

You've Got This

Day in and day out just trying the best that you can and feeling like you aren't getting very far, and in fact most of the time feeling like you have taken several steps backwards?  Regardless of how you arrived on the road you are currently traveling, what obstacles you have had to overcome or endure, everyone's journey is about how they persevere.  Some persevere with a reverence that deserves awe.  Some persevere just barely.  Some struggle at their attempts to persevere and then just give in and give up and never overcome at all.  Perseverance doesn't come without the elbow grease of work and careful consideration of each choice in front of us.  Flailing doesn't equal failing.  To flail just means you are tasked with something just out of your reach and possibly out of your scope of skills or understanding at that very moment.  But, isn't that how we grow and develop?  If we were born knowing everything and being able to do anything, wouldn't that mitigate success and ultimately happiness?  To those who make life look easy, know it isn't and they have put in a lot of work to make it seem that way.  To those who struggle, know born from struggle is accomplishment and understanding and growth.  Just because we don't possess a skill or understanding in any one moment doesn't preclude us from gaining them.  Think of it this way:  Even mountain climbers have to prepare for the big hikes and even once carefully prepared have to pause at certain points to recoup before moving further up the mountain.  Life is about making the next right decision, then the next best movement forward (or upward), and sometimes it's about pausing and examining the obstacles before us.  Pause, Breathe, and Bootstrap Up because You've Got This!

Examine, Live, & Enjoy

Going through a really rough struggle?  Life can be really hard at times....to the point we just want to chuck it in the f### it bucket and walk away.  Consider this instead of giving up all hope:  You, like a garden, needs to be tilled and overturned.  We are stubborn creatures of habit and circumstances both beyond and very much in our control.  It's easy to get swept up in the everyday and forget to tend to ourselves (mind, body, and soul).  If you have been on auto pilot for awhile or even for always, you become numb to your feelings and numb to your direction in life...the stuff that really matters beyond all the daily tasks of merely "living".  Let's just be clear here, a life worth living isn't one of numbly doing the daily have tos, but rather very much one of conscience examination.  Socrates said it best, "the unexamined life is not worth living."  Examination creates it's own sort of disturbances and pain, but through this process we can become our true selves and experience life fully and with full joy.  So, in considering you as a garden, this process of overturning the hard, bad soil allows for the addition of all the rich nutrient soil that allows for lush, beautiful and productive plants and flowers.  Your garden will be overflowing with life and color because you first took the time to do the hard tilling of examination and feeling, which in the end is far better than a forgotten garden full of weeds and poor soil!

Your Children Are Watching

"Be the person you want your child to be. Children are apprenticed to parents in the business of growing up. They develop their values by observing the way you behave as a person." ~Betsy Brown Braun

Are your habits the habits you would want your children to have? If not, let that be a focus in this new year and see how that changes how you feel or act towards unhealthy temptations. God and family are my priorities and in that so am I a priority to them! I will continue to put myself on the list of things to do and in doing so will teach my children it is important to take care of oneself physically, mentally, and spiritually!!

Live each day as the best total person you can be! Be present in each God given moment! Live out loud and with purpose every opportunity you are given!!!