When you look at your life, is your lifestyle one of true enjoyment, solely maintenance, or survivable chaos?

I recently mentioned about the need to “plan for life,” especially when life’s responsibilities appear to be squeezing your dreams out of the picture and life becomes solely a process of maintenance.  However, I have been reminded how easy it is for people to believe their lifestyles are intended to be chaotic to be fulfilling.

My spouse has done business in the past with a couple whose lives are in a constant state of chaos — by choice. The one person’s personality lends to feeling that this state of chaos is necessary for a fulfilling life. Both of them, being in a religious environment, either consciously or subconsciously believe that this state of “chaos” is a matter of religious sacrifice or higher calling. Working in religious fields, I’ve seen this concept too often in religious people, and unknowingly lived by that philosophy myself in my 20’s and 30’s. The effects of this barely tolerable lifestyle are already becoming visible in their kids and in poor business decisions, as time for restful meditation is lacking.

If your lifestyle is not one of true enjoyment, the mental perspective needs to be engrained that a healthy, restful way of life is intended by design and necessary for fulfillment.

Jesus expressed God’s design for your life in Matthew 11:28-30, Message translation.

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Several points are interesting in this translation. First, the religious concept of living in a chaotic state of overwork as being somehow spiritual is a false religious concept that will burn you out. Second, living the way God intends for you, a healthy lifestyle with rest and freedom, will enable you to “recover your life,” true life.

Similar thoughts are expressed effectively in the Amplified translation.

Come to Me all you who are…overburdened and I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls…Learn of Me…and you will find rest, relief, ease, refreshment, recreation and blessed quiet…For My yoke is wholesome, useful, good — not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant.

Notice God’s plan of lifestyle is not one that is overburdened. We must remove such religious misconceptions from our minds. His way of healthy lifestyles includes refreshment, recreation, and is not pressing, but wholesome, comfortable, and pleasant.

If your life is one of solely maintenance or what you believed to be “constructive chaos,” it is time to restructure and reorganize. Go back and re-read the Planning for Life post if you have not and make a healthy lifestyle plan. Or, if you made a life plan and you now realize that you created one that is chaotic, take some time this week to re-evaluate and restructure it with refreshment, recreation, wholesomeness, comfort so that you can “recover your life.”

How much does guilt and self rejection hold you back from what is most important to you in life?

Do guilty feelings keep you from confidence, happiness, and success? Feelings of guilt or self rejection will usually hold you back from most of what you desire out of life unless you choose to change those mindsets and bring restoration to your confidence and self esteem.

I have been enjoying a book by Brennan Manning called, Abba’s Child; it was a recent gift from a friend. In the beginning of the book, he discusses his own path to overcoming shame and self rejection. He is aware that his own past experiences are so common in the human experience that many people will benefit from the results of his journey to self acceptance and value.

One of the main behaviors that cause a person to live with guilt and self rejection is the habit of projecting his or her feelings of self onto God.

The emotional weight is great when one feels shame or self disapproval of past choices, decisions, or just the person that you are. How much greater is that weight when one convinces himself that his Heavenly Father, his Creator, the most phenomenal being in the universe thinks all the same negative, condemning thoughts about him? Yet, this is a typical thought pattern in the human experience, though we are usually unaware that this is what we are doing.

Usually included in these projected thoughts is the idea that life’s good and bad times signal God’s approval or rejection.

As Manning says, it is easy to feel loved by God when life is going well, all your support systems are in place, and hence, your self acceptance is good; however, when dreams are shattered or failures take place, your guilt and self rejection are often projected onto God. In your mind, He appears “fickle and unpredictable.” When something good takes place, you feel that you have His love and approval. When a bad event happens, you think it is a sign of His disapproval and rejection of you as a person worth being loved. (1)

Manning has a beautiful, rather tongue-in-cheek statement about projecting one’s own self image onto God’s view of you:

We cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely…God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us, just as we are, not in spite of our sins and faults, but with them. Though God does not condone evil, He does not withhold His love because there is evil in us.” (2)

Choosing to come out of hiding in your spiritual relationship opens the doors to endless possibilities in spiritual intimacy.

Manning brings to the forefront 2 demonstrations of God’s own desire that failure and guilt not keep a person from a loving relationship with Him. One illustration is that of the father character in the Parable of the Prodigal Son; he ran to welcome home the son who returned after ruining his life. Jesus told the parable to illustrate God’s own view and subsequent actions toward us of redemptive love. The other example is historical. In the fall of mankind, Adam and Eve were hiding in shame and guilt from their daily time of loving relationship and conversation with Father God. God, even knowing their failures, came seeking Adam and Eve to continue a loving relationship with them. (3) Manning paraphrases the thoughts of God to end our self hatred:

Acknowledge and accept who I want to be for you: a Savior of boundless compassion, infinite patience, unbearable forgiveness, and love that keeps no score of wrongs. Quit projecting onto Me your own feelings about yourself. At this moment your life is a bruised reed and I will not crush it, a smoldering wick and I will not quench it. You are in a safe place. (3)

Releasing yourself from the need of perfectionism results in a blissful state of safety with self and God.

Like many religious people, Manning says he proclaimed God’s unconditional love for years, convicted in his head but never convinced in his heart. He only felt safe in his relationship with God when he saw himself as successful in being generous, noble, loving—perfect! Once he chose to end the negative projections onto God and release the need for perfectionism, Manning was able to internalize and finally feel God’s unrelenting love. Here is a great quote on his new sense of safety:

To feel safe is to…feel liked and accepted, not having to hide anymore and distract myself with books, television, movies, ice cream, shallow conversation…no need to impress. Unself-conscious, calm, unafraid, loved, valued. (4)

Rather than carrying guilt, one can strive to echo the apostle Paul’s feelings in 2 Cor.12:9, “I shall be very happy to make my weak nesses my special boast so thaqt the power of Christ may stay over me.”

Manning’s conclusion is that a “sense of safety with God results in a sense of safety with self,” with all your noble points and failures, strengths and weaknesses. Knowing you exist in a safe loving relationship with Father God, the most phenomenal being in the universe, realize there are now no limits to confidence, happiness, dreams, and success you can achieve!

Synopsis of concepts are from Brennan Manning’s “Abba’s Child,” ISBN-13: 978-1-57683-334-6
1. pg.21,pg.19
2. pp.19-20
3. pg.22
4. pg.27

Each of us desires a long, abundant life with our loved ones. Yet, do your daily decisions work for or against that desire?

These past 2 months have been one of those seasons of life that come to all of us. Tomorrow is a funeral for a friend that died suddenly and unexpectedly. Another friend has been in ICU for weeks. The first person had lived a life that was very abusive to his physical health for years, having just made a change in the recent past. The other friend has lived the more typical unhealthy life of too many sodas and mostly processed foods. She has had many health issues that have drastically affected her family and friends for the whole past year and has now been in ICU for a good part of 2 months and still has life-threatening issues going on. Both should have had a good 20 to 30 more years of living an abundant life, loving life and loving family, but the choice of poor daily health habits stole the precious gift of long abundant life not only from them, but from their friends and families.

We need to be reminded of how essential the little daily choices regarding health-food, sleep, exercise-are truly the ultimate decision for a long life.

Every day that you get up, you make seemingly insignificant choices regarding what you eat, whether or not you skip exercise, how you deal with stress, if you get enough sleep. These decisions come so frequently that one usually makes them almost without thinking. Each little decision not to do what is beneficial to your physical health is, in actuality, a decision of whether or not to embrace a long abundant life, with time to live life, enjoying and loving your family and friends, and giving them the gift of that time to love you and enjoy your presence on this earth. Isn’t that what each of us want? Yet it seems so easy to choose otherwise. There is a quote worth remembering,

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Ps. 90:12

Being aware of your daily health choices is an aspect of wisdom. This quote is a prayer to God asking for the ability to be wise in making choices that affect the number of one’s days on this earth, to value each day with its gift of life enough to be wise in how those days are used and how not to unnecessarily shorten them.

Life events such as funerals are moments that cause one to re-evaluate how wisely he or she is living life.

I, myself, this week was again brought to a point of evaluating how fleeting and how fragile the precious gift of life is, and which daily choices I and my family need to change to so that valuable time together living an abundant life is not lost. What does it take to remind you that your little daily health choices are, in effect, the overriding decision of whether or not you want to live a long abundant life with family and friends? Do you really want to deprive yourself of long life with those daily, thoughtless choices? Do you really want to deprive your loved ones of long life with you-your spouse, children, and grandchildren?

After decades of being a great, effective leader of millions of people, knowing he was about to die, Moses spoke to the Jewish nation about the things that were most important to their lives, guidelines for daily living so that they would live long, prosperous lives with their loved ones. The events in my own life brought these words back to mind. I want to share them as a challenge with you:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Deut. 30:15,19

Recently I was doing a study on Ephesians 3:20, one of my favorite verses,

“Now to God Who, by consequence of the action of His power that is at work within you, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that you dares ask or think, infinitely beyond your highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. (Amp)

The main phrase in the Greek is more accurately translated “superabundantly above the greatest abundance.”  Let your mind try to fully fathom that concept.  Whatever your need, whatever your desire, God’s power in you is able to do in supernatural levels of abundance beyond the best you can imagine for an answer!

Adams Clarke Commentary explains it well-

We can go beyond the limits of all human descriptions; we can imagine more than even God has specified in His word; and can feel no bounds to our imagination of good: and after all, God is able to do more for us than we can ask or think; His ability here is so necessarily connected with His willingness, that the one indisputably implies the other; for, of what consequence would it be to tell the Church of God that He had power to do so and so, if there were not implied an assurance that He will do what His power can?

Stated more simply, God would not bother to tell you that His power in you can do supernatural levels of abundant provision, intervention, revelation, wisdom, etc., beyond what you can possibly imagine unless He meant that He was willing to do exactly that in whatever area of your life you desire and/or need to be revolutionized.  He is challenging you to ask and believe for exactly that!  

Realizing this, we usually ask and believe far below the power and willingness of the power of God.  William Burkitt says, ”O! how narrow, short, and poor are our prayers, compared with the power of God!”

 Now come back to my original question to you. 

What do you need God to revolutionize in your life now?  What do you desire Him to transform now?  Imagine the highest you can imagine, then by faith realize that God’s power within you is able to do that; He’s told you to dream, believe, and ask it because He delights to give you infinitely beyond it!

Table of contents for Aging Gracefully

1. Easy Choices for a Longer, Happier Life Pt.1
2. Easy Choices for a Longer, Happier Life Pt.2

There is no need to succumb to the typical ailments of aging and, especially, feel its affects early on as you can make easy lifestyle changes to creat an extended, healthier life!

(This is Part 2 of a two-part post.  In Part 1, we covered an example of how simple lifestyle changes affect your quality of life, as well as 8 tips on anti-aging.  To read Part 1, use the series link on Aging Gracefully above. Today we will continue with more simple lifstyle tips to increase longevity and quality of life.)

The online organization, Anti Aging Guide 2009, has a graph showing which lifestyle changes add the most years to your life! Here’s a sampling. Use the link in the footnotes to see the full chart.

Note: If you make all the types of changes shown in their chart (not all listed here) and begin in your 20’s, you can add 60-80 years to your life. If you start at 45-50, you can still gain 30-40 years. (A)

1. Periodic fasting and calorie restriction can add 40-50 years.

2. Good nutrition can add 15-25 years.

3. Quality of life – prosperity, relaxation, regular vocations – can add 15-25 years.

4. Regular exercise can add 10-20 years. (A)

The organization, My Health Span, has a list of over 80 Lifestyle Anti Aging Factors, some of which are often unheard of. It is well worth using the link to read the whole list. Here are 13:

1. Calm, but alert temperament

2. Short commute to work

3. Walk 2 miles a day

4. Eat red meat once a week or less

5. Use sunscreen

6. Have a pet

7. Have a regular daily routine

8. Work no more than 40 hours a week

9. Take a yearly vacation of at least 6 days

10. Set new goals and look for new challenges

11. Expect good things to happen

12. Not constantly critical of yourself or others

13. Avoid regretting sacrifices made in life (B)

(A) Online Anti Aging Guide 2009 graph of Proven Methods for Life Extension Full List
(B) My Health Span’s list of over 80 Lifestyle Anti Aging Factors

Table of contents for Aging Gracefully

1. Easy Choices for a Longer, Happier Life Pt.1
2. Easy Choices for a Longer, Happier Life Pt.2

Anti aging is a hot topic as more people realize that you do have the option not to succumb to all the typical ailments of aging and, especially, not to feel the affects of aging as early.

My grandfather decided to make major changes to his health when he turned the age of 39. I am not sure what all food related changes he made, but I know he stopped drinking alcohol, cut back to one cup of coffee a day, and began taking supplements and power walking a mile a day. He enjoyed incredibly good health throughout his senior years. He had a brief bout of severe arthritis in his early 70’s but through research on supplements and faithful prayer it soon disappeared completely. He still had none of the typical old age illnesses, rarely even a cold, when he passed away at the age of 89. On the other hand, I have known people who eat the typical American diet of almost no fruits, vegetables, or water and never exercise. They have already had diseases common to old age in their late 30’s, 40’s, or 50’s.

Many of the lifestyle changes to create a extended, healthier life are easy to make!

I wanted to include abbreviated lists from a couple of different organizations on anti aging. Each website has vast amounts of information to surf through, so please make use of their links to click through and read more ways to have a long, satisfying life.

These 8 tips are from Simply Anti Aging’s pages on health and nutrition. Many more tips on their site.

1. Laugh More. Recent research has shown that laughter really does help us in managing stress. Adopting a humorous view of life’s difficulties can take the edge off everyday stressful situations. Laughter stops the release of damaging stress hormones into the body. (A)

2. Improve Cardio Fitness with Dance. Combining cardio exercise fitness with dancing is a great way to keep fit over 40. (A)

3. Swim Your Way to Core Strength. You need to improve core strength through exercise as you get older to firm up abdominal flab, build flexibility, and prevent back problems. Swimming offers you both aerobic exercise — flooding your brain with oxygen and raising your pulse rate – and greatly improves core strength. (A)

4. Get Antioxidants by Eating Raw. Raw foods are one of the keys to a great anti aging diet. Its shown great benefits on some of the worst modern diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer. (B)

5. Eat Ketchup, Tomato paste, Tomato sauce. Tomatoes contain more lycopene than any other food and protects against many cancers including: digestive tract, colon, prostate, and lungs. (B)

6. Transfat Triples Your Risk of Heart Disease. Monunsaturated and polyunsaturated are the “good” fats. We also need to keep our saturated fat as low as possible. Trans fat is simply hydrogenated fat – a man made fat for longer shelf life. Even tiny amounts of hydrogenated fat clog up your arteries, putting you at much greater risk of heart disease or stroke. (B)

7. Juicing Delays Brain Aging. One of the worst aspects of aging for many people is the possibility of dementia, memory loss or even Alzheimer’s ruining the quality of life. Studies have focused on diet protecting our brain cells from oxidative stress. 2006 study on mice showed the group of senior mice given apple juice were fully protected from oxidative stress. Not only that but the “seniors” who consumed the human equivalent of 2-3 cups of apple juice – around 2-4 apples per day – had significantly higher levels of “mental acuity”. A 10 year study using 1,800 Seattle seniors (humans) showed those who drank fresh fruit or vegetable juice three or more times per week were 76 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who only drank the juice once a week. (B)

8. Have You Inherited Your Stress Response? Children of stressed parents learn the tendency to get stressed out to life’s challenges…Since stress accelerates the aging process, so learn to manage stress more positively. (A)

(This is Part 1 of a 2 part post. In Part 2 we will cover excerpts from “Proven Methods for Life Extention” and “Lifestyle Anti-aging Factors.”

A) Find many more great tips at Simply Anti Aging’s Health page
(B) Find many more great tips at Simply Anti Aging’s Nutrition page

Do you consider yourself an optimist? If not, it’s time to join this noteworthy group!  Even if you consider yourself fairly optimistic, one always has room to improve on his or her optimism. Or, if you are pretty sure that being optimistic has not yet become a way of life for you, now is the time to change.

Admired People throughout history have been known for their optimism.

They inspire us with it.  We admire them for it.  It is time to join their ranks! In going through my personal file of famous quotes, I came across some that I had gathered from emails sent to me which I wanted to share with you. Benefit from the wisdom of these influential, optimistic people!

Sir Edmund Hillary was asked this question on goals. It may not appear to directly be on optimism, but I see part of his point being that your satisfaction is obviously in how you choose to view your achievements.

Question: “How does one know whether or not a project is worthy of his or her consideration?” Sir Edmund’s answer: “If you only do what others have already done, you will only feel what others have already felt. However, if you choose to achieve something that no one has ever done, then you will have a satisfaction that no one else has ever had.” (1)

Helen Keller on optimism dictating one’s goals or actions:

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. (2)

J. Gustav White on life being what you make of it:

One man gets nothing but discord out of a piano; another gets harmony. No one finds fault with the piano. Life is like that. (2)

Wilfred Yoder on being optimistic in the midst of extreme physical pain from arthritis:

Question: “How can you say you’re fine when you’re in so much pain” Yoder’s response: “How I feel has very little to do with how I am. You see, the part of me that hurts is just a shell, not the real me, and the real me is fine!” (2)

Tamara Eberlin on optimism and achievement:

Positive thinking is a lot more than blind faith, and its power over people’s lives is awesome. Optimists fare better than pessimists in almost every aspect of life, often achieving more, and enjoying greater social success. Optimistic people are also less susceptible to depression and physical ills. (2)

Winston Churchill on difficulties versus opportunities:

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. (2)

Thomas Edison on disaster, after losing his manufacturing facilities and much of the records of his work due to fire at the age of 67:

There is value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Now we can start anew. (2)

Maria Robinson on overcoming the past:

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. (3)

John Heywood on adversity:

If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be. (3)

1. The Most Important Quote of 2007, Second Billion Network Ezine, January 2008

2. David Arnold, January 08 Newsletter. (These quotes were part of a selection gathered by Mr. Arnold. This is a newsletter that showed up in my email box without being requested. I could not find an online link for you to view the whole article.)

3. ThinkExist.com  on Optimism

Busyness of life demands a well-thought out plan to achieve your life goals.

During the past year, I found myself pulled in numerous directions by unavoidable responsibilities, such as adding new parts to one of our businesses, another family member in the household, attending to needs of aging relatives. The use of my time was not always a matter of choice. When this year began, I realized that I needed to refocus with a new, clear cut “life plan” if I was going to achieve my own goals instead of just maintaining in the face of these new responsibilities. Calling to memory last year’s posts on Dawna Markova’s book, I knew I needed to make sure I was “living on purpose” and daily creating the environment needed to live out those purposes. (If you missed those 2 posts, use the links here. Living with Purpose and Living Your Purpose and Creating Your Purposeful Life Environment) In the same way, it is essential for each of you to make a clear cut life plan now, early in the year, to ensure that you stay on a progressive track with all of your goals.

Why Bother?

Because a clear cut life plan is a form of taking control of your life! Someone said to me the other day something along the lines of “Why bother? I know what I want.” Here is the reason — without a detailed plan for your life, the stresses of life distract you. Your focus gets pulled to the issues taking place. Your energies get poured into putting out fires. A detailed life plan in writing which you can skim over every morning keeps you focused on what you need to do the present day, week, and month to accomplish your goals for the year. Secondly, as with the Law of Attraction, making yourself see or “visualize” those goals every morning creates a vital alertness in your mind to any options/opportunities that come up in a day are helpful in achieving those goals.

A Sample Plan

Here is a sample of the categories I used to make my life plan. Yours may vary but you can see that the multiple categories help me make thorough progress in all the various aspects of my life. The details under each of my categories are not listed for privacy purposes, but generally I have about a dozen goals under each category:

Business Goals (This included projected statistics as well as desired projects)

Personal Growth

Spiritual Growth

Household Goals

Charitable Goals

I encourage you to go ahead this week and make a life plan. Life goes by too fast to wait! Don’t let another year slip by and your goals be lost in the midst of life’s busyness. With a life plan, you can stay focused, become alert to daily opportunities, and make your dreams realities!

Attracting the favor you need and desire in your life this year is contingent upon believing you will receive it.

Though the “Law of Attraction” may be a contemporary term, the concept is an ageless one. We have discussed at times in the past the concept of the Law of Attraction, of believing that good will come to you and visualizing it. God Himself, in His covenant with Abraham, asked him to believe for the fulfillment of Abraham’s “impossible” dream for a son when Sarah was over 75 and to visualize the stars in the sky as being his numerous descendents. (See the post Visualizing Your Dreams)

A few months ago, I was doing a word study on the concept of favor, as I was in need of favor during an upcoming business transaction. I was truly amazed at how frequently favor is promised by God and how much it is a part of His covenant with mankind.

I want each of you to believe this year for the favor you both need and desire from your relationships/interactions with God and people.

As you read through the quotes below, visualize the favor spoken of as being yours. Put your name into the quotes. Begin the year believing that you already have the favor of God and will grow in your favor with people, regardless of the circumstance. Continue throughout this year to believe and visualize that you are a person of favor and receive the favor that is yours!

I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. Le 26:9

O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant…Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. Ne 1:11

You will arise and have compassion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. Ps 102:13

Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to him. Da 1:9

God says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, in the day of salvation I helped you.” Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2Co 6:2 [Remember the Hebrew term for salvation includes deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health, and welfare; the Greek term includes rescue, safety (physically or morally), preservation, healing, and soundness.]

…Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Ac 2:47

A good person obtains favor from the LORD. Pr 12:2

You will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Pr 3:4

…Proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor. Isa 61:2

For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. Ps 5:12

He prays to God and finds favor with Him… he is restored by God… Job 33:26

…God’s favor lasts a lifetime. Ps 30:5

The LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold… Ps 84:11

She won the favor of everyone who saw her. Es 2:15

Then he sought the LORD’s favor, and the LORD listened to him, for God saw how severely the king was oppressing them. 2Ki 13:4

The LORD was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor. Ge 39:21

You have said, “I know you by name and you have found favor with Me.” Ex 33:12

And the boy continued to grow… in favor with the LORD and with men. 1Sa 2:26

Take a look at this self-evaluation quote:

Picture your life twenty years from now. Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is and what your future holds?… Does your current lifestyle predict that you will be happy and fulfilled, or disappointed and frustrated? Think about it. What does your bank account look like? How much retirement money have you set aside? How much debt do you owe? What are you doing to improve your health and well-being? How is your family really doing? The answers to these questions may be an indication that a few changes need to be made.(1- see below “8 Steps to Create the Life You Want”)

Were the emotions you experienced from reading these questions positive or negative? Emotions result from the thoughts you’ve been thinking. As a result, those emotions dramatically impact your decisions.

If you are going to improve the quality of your decisions, you must first improve the quality of the words you speak/think about your life.

Controlling the words that you speak and think about your life is a foundational point for improving your life. Much like the Law of Attraction, if you are speaking and thinking negative words about your life, you will attract negative circumstances as well as negative responses from other people because that is what you are resonating from your own person about your life.

How can you expect to have positive, life-changing ideas to accomplish your goals if your words and thoughts are focused on the negative? How will positive, successful people offer you productive opportunities if you are emanating defeat? It is essential to realize here that, even if your present circumstances are actually negative, speaking and thinking about the negative will only keep you there.

You alone are responsible for making changes to your words, thoughts, emotions, and ultimately-your decisions.

Since getting past the negative emotions that presently form your decisions is overcome by speaking and thinking positively about your needs and goals, it is a change that only you can make. Quit blaming others for holding you back. Start taking in positive input from articles or talks given by life coaches or successful business people that you admire. Reading the “8 Steps to Create…” by Creflo Dollar about his approach of taking control of your life by speaking and thinking positively has already greatly influenced myself and my spouse.

Here are some past posts on Controlling Your Thoughts/Words that will be helpful to you in the move to positive words and thoughts:

Take Charge of Your Thoughts, Take Charge of Your Life
Better Thoughts for a Better Life
Making Real Change to Thoughts, Feelings, or Behavior
Practical Ideas for Overcoming Fear

I challenge you to take responsibility now for improving your decisions until there are no negative emotions forming the decisions you make.

There is a famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt regarding taking responsibility for your own decisions. It says,

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.(2)

1. Creflo Dollar, 8 Steps to Create the Life You Want, p. 28
2. Eleanor Roosevelt Quote, QuotationsBook.com http://quotationsbook.com/quote/6544/