Sunday 28 March 2021

Live Beyond Your Fears.


 

                 Live beyond your fears.

When it comes to fear, the only thing to fear about fear, is fear itself.

Once you've done the thing you fear most, you'll probably be surprised at how easy it was to overcome.

If you’re really struggling in fear, you can turn to God for help, courage and guidance and you will receive it, for He will aid you when you call to Him. It’s a promise of His, in the bible. 

Interestingly; the first written words Adam of the bible spoke, were; “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid,” so even way back then, fear had a hold.

Successful people are not exempt from fear, as we tend to think. Successful people are used to overriding the fear they feel. 

Fear can be false and it can all be in your mind. Successful people know this and they have cues, which they employ to supersede the feelings of fear.

Fear is part of human nature. It's what keeps us from danger, but fear can and does, get blown out of proportion.

Fear can be a destructive force in your life, if you allow it to stop you from living life to its fullest. It can also be your saving grace, stopping you from attempting something dangerous. Putting the dangers aside, from reckless behaviour, we can look at other kinds of fear. 

There are many things we can be fearful over; finances, relationships, parenting, health, death, career, even personal goals can cause us to feel fear.

Fear takes us captive, and weakens our resolve. 

When we're fearful, we're less likely to take on new challenges. Challenge is the key to living a fulfilled life, and when fear stops us, we aren’t living up to our greatest potential.

It’s been said 'fear not' is written 366 times in the bible, one for each day of the year, including a leap year. That shows you how big fear was, even way back into the early written history of man.

Fear brings about more fear. It's like a cancer that grows and spreads. Fear can start in one area of your life and then you pick up another fear along the way and so on, until you're afraid to try any new thing whether easy or hard and you can even become fearful of things you once enjoyed.

Fear exaggerates issues and makes them appear larger and more menacing, than they really are. Fear causes you to doubt your ability and makes you feel stupid, even though you know you aren’t.

Fear causes lack of action on our part, as we contend to stay within our comfort zone and try to eliminate the stress fear could bring to our life. 

Staying in fear, without looking to resolve it, causes stagnation, paralyses in our decision making and doubt in our own abilities.

Being afraid wastes energy, energy which could be put to better, more positive uses. 

With fear, the problem won't go away, until you face your fear. Fear is unlikely to leave of its own accord. It puts you in a prison of your own making and often you feel defeated, before you even begin, once fear is cemented in place.

To break the hold of fear, purposely chose to move into the unknown, regardless of the fear you're feeling. 

Fear disheartens and sickens, ages and depresses, if it has a hold on our life.  The opposite of fear is faith which inspires, strengthens and heals and that’s the direction you want to head.

Action is the only way you can escape fear. Have faith in yourself and step into your fear filled moments, with as much courage as you can muster (even fear filled faith, is better then letting fear win in your life).

Each fear you overcome stretches you. Once you’ve overcome fear in one area, it brings more strength and resolve to overcome fear in the next area. 

Fear has no benefit. Again, we’re not talking about protective fear in dangerous situations, but irrational fear; fear from the effects of doing normal, every-day, run of the mill stuff.

Fear has no upside, it just pushes you in the wrong direction, saps your energy and immobilizes you.

You feel smaller than you actually are, when you allow fear to run your life and you sell yourself short when you accept fear. However, if you step out and overcome, you can beat fear and go on to do many wonderful and fascinating things with your life.

When you succumb to your fears, you’re beaten before you even start and it’s up to you to do what it takes to overcome fear. 

I heard it said once; as a parent it’s up to you to instil confidence in your child. As an adult, it’s up to you to instil confidence in yourself. So, no excuses - roll up your sleeves and do the work, to overcome the fear in your life.

Borrow and buy books on the topic. Listen to you tube and learn how others overcame their fears. Take back your life and live beyond your fears.  

Saturday 20 March 2021

Success; Short and Sweet

 
You don’t have to be young to have a dream, or try something new. You can be young, or old, a child, a parent, or grandparent. To have a dream, begins at any age and there’s no time like the present, to start.

Many of us live in one of the greatest times in history, where there is no barrier to living the life of your dreams. No barrier according to age, nor gender, nor to the colour of your skin. 

The dream you hold in your heart, can be brought into reality, through discipline and hard work, but it all starts with a thought and a word. Just as God said in the bible: “Let there be light”; and there was light, (Genesis 1:3) so too do we need to speak our dream into the atmosphere. 

I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you take a look at all those living the life of their dreams, living with passion and joy, you’ll see they speak affirmations, have vision boards hanging on their walls and talk about the power of positive thinking. 

Just as God had the thought, then spoke that thought into being, we too have to start with our thoughts. The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our life and your thoughts are just the start of bringing your dream into fruition. Like a seed planted in springtime, summer will see a harvest, if you water and nurture and don’t quit.

Knowledge is the key to unlocking your dreams and just as wisdom is gained through reading the word of God, as it says in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principle thing; therefor get wisdom”, so too is wisdom gained, when we read how others achieved their dreams. 

If working at the mundane is all you want out of life, so be it. However, if you want to live a life of passion, joy and of great rewards, my book called “Success; Short and Sweet,” will help you towards achieving those great rewards. 

Like many people, I was doing everything I could to make life work. It just wasn’t happening. I was broke, unhealthy and lived in a lower end neighbourhood, until I found the answer, the key if you will, that opens the door to living a successful life. 

I’d like to share with you, how I did it. How I went from broke, depressed and suicidal, to living the life of my dreams, becoming an author and photojournalist. I wake up every morning and where I was once living a life of dread, now I wonder every day…what great things will happen to me today?

Life is such a contrast now, to where I was a number of years ago. At the time I didn’t know if what I was doing would work. I didn’t personally know anyone who followed the principles of positive thinking and I was just living in hope. Now, years later, I can honestly say; it does work. It worked for me and as long as you don’t quit, it will work for you too. 

Age, gender, skin colour or any other so-called detriment, is no barrier to achieving your dream, in these times. There’s a saying which goes: those who think they can and those who think they can’t; they’re both right. So, back yourself. Give yourself permission to have a dream and do what it takes to make it happen. 

Experience comes with age. As a mature person, you’ll have lots of skills to draw from. Follow the steps in this book and become the success you’ve always dreamed of becoming.

With youth, there may be lots to learn, but you have a mind, so go for it. Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean you can’t find a way.

Quit playing the ‘poor me’ card and get up off the couch. You can be a victim, or a victor. The choice is yours. All you need to do, is start with one simple step. Buy the book today; Success, Short and Sweet! It’s available on Amazon.com and is inexpensive.

My name is Alexandra Grose and I’ve gone from lack, depression and suicidal, to living the life of my dreams. You too, can live the life of your dreams, if you follow the instructions written in Success; Short and Sweet. 

I challenge you to give it a go and prove it for yourself.  

What can it hurt, just to read one little book? 
Click on the link below, to purchase your copy of: Success; Short and Sweet.
 
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08QF4K472/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_6TQT6478ATRQK01ZF82J



Saturday 13 March 2021

Emotion or Progress...you can't have both.


 
Emotion or progress…you can’t have both.

When you’re emotionally connected to something, sometimes hanging on to it, stops your progress. 

Let’s say for example, you want to jog 10 k’s. You might do it for a while, but then one day you push yourself too far and the next day, 
you’ve lost your drive. The emotion you’re feeling; that’s it’s too hard, too time consuming, or too painful, stops you from training that day. 

If you really want to jog 10 k’s, you have to set emotion aside. Set aside those negative feelings and concentrate on the desired outcome. Only then will you push past the emotion and make progress. 

Your ability to communicate, determines how successful you become. The better you are at communicating with others, the easier it is to change jobs, make sales, meet new connections. 

How you communicate to yourself, also determines your outcome in life, be it positive, or negative. A constant barrage of mental rehashing past mistakes, or criticizing yourself, puts a negative spin on everything you do and you’re less likely to try new things, when you’re in that state.

We all work towards what’s important in our lives. To raise your level of happiness and joy, you have to raise your thinking. If your thinking doesn’t allow your dream to be actualized, you’ll never see your dream unfold. 

Raise your thinking so that you can achieve what you set out to do. Build a self confidence that can’t be shaken. If you have no self-confidence, start small and build on the little things, until you feel you can tackle the larger goals you set for yourself. 

Have a plan in place. A plan will keep you focussed and on track. Your plan should include mental strategies, for the days you don’t feel you’ll get through. It should also include time for meditating on how you wish to see your successful days unfold. Journal as you go and one day, you can look back and see the progress you’ve made.

Journaling also shows us where we’re going wrong. It reminds us of what we’re doing right and what we do right, we need to replicate. 

Live life expecting good thigs to happen. Many of us are just muddling along, hoping to get life right. However, you may have heard the phrase; those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

We need goals to take us where we want to go in life. Humans are incentive based. This means without incentive; we won’t make progress. Having a written plan for your life and taking action on it, gives you a 90% chance of succeeding. I like those odds. Oddly enough though, I’ve heard it said 99% of people don’t have a written plan. That’s a lot of people, planning to fail.

So write up a plan and place it where you’ll see it every day and work on it every single day, until it becomes routine. Just like driving a car, which is difficult when we first start, but eventually we find it automatic and effortless. Once you’ve driven for a while, you don’t need to think about driving. Driving just happens. 

You want your goals list to flow like driving; happening all the time, without thought, or effort. And you can only do that, when you’ve got it as a routine and are working on it every day. 

Mostly when left to our own devices, we think we aren’t as smart as the next person, but this isn’t true. You’re no less intelligent than other people. If they can do it, you can do it. It just takes dedication, knowledge and practice. 

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to be successful? Doing whatever it takes, also means remaining teachable? Listen and learn, then implement strategies. Application and repetition, are the simple things, which bring about success.

Life is not perfect. As long as you try, you can raise the bar. We all have room to raise the bar. 

The decision to try is made perfect, by being comfortable with wrong decisions. No one gets it right all the time. Expect to make mistakes. We learn how not to do it, when we make mistakes and then we get it right. When you first rode a push bike, you were shaky and probably had a fall or two, but once you ‘got it,’ you never needed to learn to ride again.

Don’t put yourself in a box and accept something less than you are, just because society, or the people around say so. You don’t have to agree with them. You can prove them wrong. You can run to their script for your life, or you can create your own script. 

Decipher what matters and what doesn’t. And focus on what matters. What matters is what will get you to your destination. It’s easy to be side tracked, so keep your plan in front of you, keep your focus and keep working, until you achieve what you set out to achieve. 

And one more thing I’d like to add; If you love it, you’ll persevere and though it may be a lot of hard work and worry, you’ll keep pushing through, but you will eventually succeed. Even if you get it wrong, you’ll love it enough to have another go, ironing out the kinks along the way, until you get it right. 

Embrace life; change it, improve it and make your mark upon it and it will unfold beautifully before you. 


Tuesday 9 March 2021

How to Respond to Crisis.


 
              How to Respond to Crisis.

Sooner or later, crisis is going to hit us. It’s not a matter of if, but when. We’ve all had a taste of it before and we will again, because that’s life. How we respond to crisis, is what makes us, or breaks us. 

Crisis helps us refine our focus and brings us to an understanding of what’s truly important in our life. 

Being challenged in life is inevitable. Being                        defeated is optional.

In times of crisis, we need to step back and look at the big picture, knowing many have been here before and many have moved past it. To move past crisis, we need to ask the right questions and we need to allow ourselves time to grieve, cry, or curl up in a ball. 

During times of crisis, it’s fine to be stoic however, give yourself permission in the quiet times, to understand and process where you are. Work out what you need to help you recover and heal and what you need to do, to advance past this point.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Many of your friends, family and colleagues are only too happy to help and support at this time. 

Come together as a family and renew old relationships, that have been lost due to busy schedules. Oftentimes it’s our family and oldest friends; those who know us best, which are our greatest support.

  Learn how to turn suffering into hope and then pass it on to someone else who needs it.

Remember in life, there’s always others who’ve gone through what you’re going through. Look up on you tube, or read books, on how others overcame their crisis. Learn from those who’ve been through it. Learn what they did, which helped them navigate through the turbid waters.

Sometimes it helps, to sew into others. It takes your mind off the issue at hand and you feel more useful and productive, than if you stay home and wallow in self-pity. Self-pity doesn’t help anything, least of all the healing process.

By all means, have a pity party, if you feel you need it, but give yourself a time limit and then get on with the act of living. And don’t expect, once the crisis is over, that you’re done with it. 

From time to time, feelings of rage, loss and depression may come to the fore. Expect it, allow for it and have some coping mechanisms in place, to help you deal with it, when those feelings arise.

Asking the right questions, isn’t about sitting at the pity party table saying woe is me, but in asking; what’s the next step? What can I do from here? Who do I need to see/speak to? What is the best thing for me, to move past this point and get on with my life?

Don’t take on additional responsibilities at this time. If at all possible, maintain your routine, but try to reduce your responsibilities and lighten your load. This will free up some time, so you can roll up your sleeves and get to work, by empowering yourself with knowledge and the confidence you need to move forward. 

  Today’s struggle is tomorrow’s strength. 

Also, it’s not selfish to do what you want, particularly now. Give yourself permission to be a little selfish, if that’s what you feel you need. Take a little time for yourself. Watch a movie, read a book, have a bubble bath.

Ideally, we want to thrive, in the face of loss. We want to stand strong and with resolve. Being well armed in what we need, will aid in doing that. It might even bring an air of excitement, knowing change is coming.  

With crisis, it does end and we do eventually move past it, although it doesn’t feel like in the moment. It may not feel like it at the time, but one day you’ll be on the other side of it and all the stronger as a person, for it.  

One day, you’ll see the foggy clouds of depression and loss disappear and the sun will rise and shine brightly in your life again. And one day, you’ll be able to help another, who’s going through the same crisis. It’s at this point you’ll know, you’ve made it though and you’ll see; your time of crisis, wasn’t the end of the world.