Don't Let your Mind Win

 Your Mind Plays Tricks on You

    The battle between you and your mind is what determines if you will succeed or fail at your goals. When people say the only thing that is standing in your way is you, I use to think that they were full of, well you know what. I would reply to them and list a number of excuses as to why I couldn't do something, what I didn't know then is that is just your mind playing tricks on you. Whenever you get the urge to do something you might be really excited to start out. For example lets say that you want to go to the gym in the morning, so you start off really eager and go through days in a row. Then you start to get lazy, you'd rather be in bed than at the gym, so your mind starts to list excuses on why you shouldn't go to the gym. If you listen to these tricks that the mind is playing on you then you'll stay in your bed and not accomplishing your goal, but you won't feel bad about it because you "needed to sleep in." Your mind justifying your actions is what is holding you back, not because you are incapable of going to the gym in the morning, but because you fell for those evil tricks that your mind is so good at playing.

#1 Defense Against Your Mind

    Falling for the tricks the mind plays is extremely common among a lot of different people, but the best defense you can have against your mind is simply asking yourself one question. If I loved myself would I stay in bed?, If I loved myself would I skip something that could make me better? The key to overcoming your mind is asking yourself that question and always choosing love over fear like I said in the vow I shared in one of my earlier blogs. If you truly loved yourself, if you truly wanted to accomplish this goal would it be worth the risk you take by sleeping in and letting your mind win? You have control over your mind, and the more you go to the gym the less you want to sleep in, because your mind starts to compare how the gym makes your body feel compared to sleeping in. This questions can be asked in every scenario, it's not just meant for the gym. For examples say that you need to start writing more, but your mind starts to convince you that you should watch TV more. This is when you need to close your eyes and ask yourself If I loved myself would I willingly choose entertainment over creativity? There will be days where the mind wins, like I said I chose TV over writing my blog yesterday. I enjoyed it for the night, but woke up feeling guilty because helping my audience live better lives means more to me than getting a few laughs from a television series. 

Your Mind Can Win Once, But NEVER twice

    It is perfectly fine if you fall victim to the games that your mind plays on you, but you should never give in two times in a row. When you are trying to develop a good routine and break a bad one your mind will want to stick to what it is use to so naturally you will give in. This is a normal part of the process, something I didn't understand when I first started making changes. It is okay to let the mind win every once in awhile, but you start to play a dangerous game if you let your mind win more than once. Your body will start to think that you are back on the routine that you are trying to change and your mind will fight even harder to stay in that comfortable place familiarity. In order to break this shell you have to remain consistent for 66 days. You will go through phases along the way and at each phase you will fail at least once. This is your mind testing you, trying to get you to quit. Don't let it! Wake up the next day with a chip on your shoulder and look yourself in the mirror and say "You won yesterday, but you will never beat me twice in a row." Not only will you gain confidence to keep working towards your goal, but you will gain a respect of yourself for keeping your word. Remember it is okay to fail once, in fact it's natural, but don't let it happen more than that. 

Next Blog, Wednesday 02 March

    I appreciate every single one of you for following me on this journey. Once I get back from this deployment and settled I promise the content will grow even more. If you have anything you want me to share on my next blog please reach out. I hope that you were able to mind something interesting in my blog to apply in your life. I would love to hear back from you, so please feel free to email me at lawton4.cl@gmail.com. It was a pleasure talking to you today until next time 😁

Communicate Don't Insinuate

 Importance of Communication

    Hey there everybody! Welcome back to another one of my blogs, I hope my previous blogs have had some impact on your life. This blog is going to be dedicated to communicating your situation so other are not insinuating the worse. Communication is the difference between clear and concise orders in a job, or the difference in a night filled of arguments in a relationship. The way you communicate plays a major role in how the person you are talking perceives the conversation. If you are clear and concise with how you explain yourself the other person you are communicating with will have a better understanding of the message that you are trying to get across. However on the contrary, if you are not clear with how the message the other person may become confused and lead to them insinuating the worst from your conversation.

Never Insinuate, Ask for Clarification

     Insinuation is one of the worse habits that you can have as an individual who is trying to communicate with someone. Insinuating leads your brain to come up with the worse possible outcomes and have you spiraling out of control until you get a handle on it. For example, if you tell your spouse you went out with friends and you're going to be out late tonight your spouse may assume that you are out with friends that she doesn't know, or doesn't trust. This failure to clearly communicate can lead your spouse to assuming that you are cheating on them. From there it will only go downhill, nothing good  is going to come out of this scenario, you are going to become annoyed that she assumes that, and she is going to start to feel anxious and compare herself to every girl you talk to. There is no winning, besides it's not a competition in a relationship you want the other person to be able to trust and feel comfortable with you just as much as you want to trust and feel comfortable with them. Those feelings could be prevented if you would have clearly communicated who you were going out with and what you were doing, on the other hand it could have been prevented if they would have asked for clarification without assumption. the only that insinuation leads to is devastation on both ends.

Communication

    The easiest way to communicate is to remain honest and don't leave holes in your conversation to where the person you are talking to can fill those holes with assumptions. You want to be as clear as you can while leaving the discussion as simple as you possibly can to avoid confusion. If someone doesn't understand what you are saying then they can easily begin to insinuate the worse case scenario. For example if your boss ask you if you completed the project that was due yesterday, but your response is not fully. Your boss will start to assume that you haven't started the project, but in reality you are just waiting on a few references to get back to you to have the project fully completed. Instead of leaving your answer to vague statement you could say, the project is not finished I have completed all the steps, but am waiting on a response from (insert name here) once I receive the response the project will be completed. This answer will be more fulfilling to your boss than if you just said the project wasn't complete, it will show them that you are diligently working on completing the project. The way you converse shows a lot about you as a person, you never want to be the person that nobody wants to have a discussion, or conversation with because you don't communicate clearly. Communication can be the difference between getting fired and finally receiving that promotion that you have desired.

Next Blog Sunday 27 FEB

    I appreciate everyone that took the time to read another one of my blogs, communication plays a huge factor in loving yourself. If everyone sees as someone that is well spoken then they are going to go out of their way to communicate with you. This in return will boost your confidence and ultimately help you see yourself as the best version of who you can be. I will be writing another poem to share with you on next Sunday Fun day's blog.  I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog and as always your feedback is encouraged. Until next time 😁

Ownership=Leadership

 Introduction

    Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog dedicated to helping you find ways to grow the love that you have for yourself. Today we will be discussing the importance of owning your mistakes and taking responsibility of your actions. I will also go over why it is crucial to take responsibility if you want to fully love yourself. 

Admit When You Are in the Wrong!

    The first step in taking ownership of your actions is analyzing where you are in the wrong. You can make a mistake and not be aware of what you did wrong. This can lead to arguments at home or the work place, but in order for you to practice owning your mistakes you have to be willing to view the situation from an outside prospective. I have a recent example of this from work this week, I had started a new job as I said in my previous blog, but this new job works closely with my old job. We had a scenario where I needed something from my old job and when they didn't deliver what was needed I found myself getting upset putting blame on them instead of taking ownership of the role I played for this failure to take place. I decided that I would review the situation and try to find what I could control to prevent this from happening again. While doing my review I realized that my previous work section didn't know how to do this because I failed to teach them before I left, so the whole situation started with my inability to share my knowledge of the certain procedures needed to get the mission accomplished. After coming to this realization I proceeded to make a plan of action to ensure that this stoppage of the mission doesn't happen again which is the next step in taking ownership of my mistakes.

    Develop a Plan!

    The next step is to develop a plan to fix your mistake, this could go for work or your personal life. For example of the personal life if I had forgotten to take the trash out and it upset my spouse I would change my routine to accommodate my responsibility of taking out the trash. Developing a plan isn't only for big mistakes but small ones as well, at the end of the day as long as I continue to make progress in improving I am building that love for myself. By committing to developing a plan it makes others view you in a different light as well. Now people seeing that you are willing to make changes not just to help yourself, but to improve, even the little things, in others life as well. Let's continue with my work example, the plan that I developed to ensure the mistake doesn't happen again was to conduct a thorough training over all the knowledge I had in the section and to answer any questions that the individuals replacing me may have. This helped build trust between our two sections and makes work flow a lot smoother than if I would have just put blame on someone else. The final step in taking ownership is very simple you need to own your mistakes.

Own Your Mistakes

    As simple as it may sounds the last step is to own your mistakes, but take these words for granted this last step maybe the hardest for most people to understand. When you are approached by your friends, leadership, or your spouse about a mistake that was made you need to do a combination of the first two steps. First you admit your mistake to them, it will be hard to accept responsibility for something that you don't feel that you are at fault for, but by taking a minute to review your situation from an outside prospective and figuring out things that you could have done better this step will be a lot easier for you. After you admitted your faults in the mistake you need to present the plan that you developed to them, this will show them that you are taking this situation seriously and are ready to fix the problem to ensure it does not happen again. When you do this you will have taken full ownership of your mistake and have shown them that you are not only looking out for yourself, but are willing to accept the consequences of the actions of others as well. This is a quality that you will find within many great leaders, the ability to take responsibility, not only for your actions, but the actions of others as well. If you practice these steps and are able to take full ownership the love and respect that you have for yourself will continue to rise and lead you a very successful future in whatever you maybe pursuing.

Next Blog Wednesday 23 FEB

    Thank you for reading my blog! I know this journey is going to be a long one, but I want to say I appreciate everyone for taking the time to read my posts. Please feel free to reach out via social media (facebook: Chris Lawton Instagram: Chris.Lawton4) or email (lawton4.cl@gmail.com) with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have. I look forward sharing another Post to you on Wednesday! Until next time 😁

 

Sunday Funday! (sorry for the absence!)

 I'm Back!

    I want to apologize for missing Wednesdays post, I was unexpectedly moved to a new section in work to replace someone who needed to leave early for a family emergency. The person that I am replacing is a great mentor, and friend to me, so I am wishing him and his family nothing but the best. This new job has a lot of moving parts in it, so there's a lot of things that I have had to learn to become proficient in such a short amount of time. Again I apologize though because you all deserve to me to release content on time, I promise to do better this week.

    Today's Sunday Fun day is going to be a going over a few quotes that stuck out to me this past week. All credit goes out to my mom, as she's been sending me quotes to use. I love you mom! I know you'll be reading this later, thank you for the support it means a lot to me!

Quotes

These first two quotes go together very well and actually covers one of the topics we've covered in previous posts. Remember the only way you can improve is by focusing on the present moment and letting go of the past. 

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new"

    If you keep focusing your attention on changing who you were in the past you will continue to miss opportunities to build a better future. When you focus your attention on controlling what you can control you will pave a road to a more successful future.

"The life in front of you is way more important than the life behind you"

    As I said these quotes go together very well, because when you focus on the life behind you it will only hold you back in that same position. The only thing I will add to this quote is try not to worry about the life front of you more than just setting goals. You need to have your full attention on the life that's right in front of you. Cherishing moments with friends and family while also focusing on how you can make yourself better to achieve those future goals that you have set.

    

    This last quote is all about finding something positive in your day. Some days will be harder than others, but your ability to pick out the good is training your mind to see the best in people and yourself. I struggle with this sometimes and focus too much on the negative things I did or didn't do instead of finding that one thing that I was thankful for today.

"Look for something positive in each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder"

Next Blog Monday 21 Feb

    Thank you again for taking the time to read my blog and again I apologize for missing Wednesdays blog. I am back though and more than excited to share my thoughts and feelings with you all. As always your opinions matter! If you have suggestions you want to share, or if you have some feedback you want to give me I am all ears. You can email me at lawton4.cl@gmail.com, or message me on facebook/instagram. My facebook name in Chris Lawton, and my Instagram name is Chris.lawton4. I look forward to talking to you all again on my next blog. Until next time 😁

Happy Valentines Day!

 Love ❤

    Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope that you all experience love in some shape or form today. While demonstrating our love for others makes us feel special we must not forget to take a part of the day to love ourselves. Whether that is going for a run, or treating yourself to your favorite type of snack (mine is gummy bears) we must be willing to dedicate time to ourselves, so we are able to fall completely in love with who we are. When we don't fall in love with the only person who is guaranteed to be there with us the rest of our lives then we start to rely on other peoples love to keep us happy. I know that I have made this mistake countless of times through the span of my current four year relationship, but it wasn't until I made my vow to always love myself that our relationship started to improve. I would go months at a time hating who I was, I had become a lazy in all aspects of my life I never went to the gym, so I hated how my body looked, I never read, so I was upset about my lack of knowledge, I never spent quality time with my partner, so I wasn't happy with our relationship. The trend with this type of behavior is you develop a victim mindset and instead of practicing extreme ownership by taking responsibilities of your actions you try to blame everyone else for the situations in your life. For example when I wasn't "happy" with my relationship I would find excuses to justify why I wasn't happy instead of trying to find a way to become happy. That's why I made this blog though, so if you're reading this and can relate to anything that I said, or gave an example of then you need to go back and read my previous blogs. You'll soon begin to realize how much power loving yourself has in your life, because when you love yourself you don't want to jeopardize your happiness by making poor choices. Then by making better choices your quality of life starts to rise and so does your love for yourself. To summarize this section of the blog, before you can love someone else fully you have to be willing to dedicate at least one hour every single day to loving yourself first, especially on Valentines Day. I promise you that when you do dedicate that time yourself you'll be able to love those close to you deeper than you can ever imagine.

How I spent my Self-Love hour on Valentines Day!

      I spent my hour on Valentines Day today doing what I enjoy the most on my days off. I woke up and watched the Super Bowl, congratulations to Matthew Stafford and the Rams by the way how about that half time show though. I didn't count that as my hour dedicated to loving myself though, after the Superbowl was over I treated myself to a hot spiced chai latte while I read a book to help me keep progressing through life. My suggest if you choose to treat yourself for your hour of self-love then I believe you should treat yourself while your accomplishing one of your tasks for the day you will receive a feeling of fulfillment which will go a long way to you having a great day.

Time to Love Others

    After you finish loving your self you will be ready to transfer your love to others on this special day. Do something for the people that you are celebrating this holiday with. When you do it make sure that you put a lot of thought into it and make sure that are doing your act to see these people happy, don't do something that you know you would like and expect that person to automatically enjoy what you are doing. This day needs to be dedicated to them, you need to show that person that you are always thinking of them not just on Valentines Day. 

How I have shown my Love on V-Day! 

    Since I am currently deployed I am going to use a past example of a Valentines Day that I will never forget. A few years ago we were living in a small two bedroom apartment, we didn't have lot of money, but I know that my partner loved little things like, rose pedals and bath bombs from bath and body works. So I got a little of money saved up bought her flowers, a necklace, and a few smell good bath bombs, but I saved the rose pedals for dinner. After we got done exchanging gifts, later on that night when our boy went to bed, we only had one son at the time, we got dressed up in our nicest clothes. I was wearing a white dress shirt with a tie and dress pants. While she was wearing a navy blue dress, she looked so beautiful, and the necklace that I had gotten her from Kay's Jewelers. While she was getting dressed and her make up on I spread the rose pedals across our table laid out some plates and silverware and began to cook her dinner. We didn't have the money for a babysitter, but we still managed to enjoy a lot of quality time together that night drinking drinking wine and laughing at how bad my spaghetti tasted. It's memories like this that you will hold on to for a life time, these are the moments you need to cherish.

Teaching my Boys Love and Respect

    This Valentines Day is harder than most because it's my first time away from both of my boys together, but it is my responsibility as a father to teach them how to fully love themselves and how to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are. My boys are my world, they are what drive me through the day, whenever I feel lazy or unmotivated they are what inspiring me to keep grinding. I want to first say that if I was home I would have them take mom on a lunch date, teaching them all the proper manners and ways to treat a lady. I will tell them to never speak ill of someone, and to love all. I want their mother's and I relationship to demonstrate love and what is acceptable, I'm not perfect and have made mistakes in my past those are lessons that have made me a better person. I want to pass down every once of knowledge that I have to these boys, so they can avoid having to learn things the hard way like I had too. I know that if I can teach them everything I'm preaching on my blog then they will be set up for success. The lessons I a sharing with you all will be the same discussions that I will have with my boys when they get older. Like my vow says I made a promise to do everything out of love and that goes for this blog, that's why I care so much that you are learning something and are able to take it to your own life and apply it. I want you all to succeed like I have.

Next Blog Wednesday 16 February 2022

    Thank you everyone for reading another blog. I hope you were able to gain knowledge out of this lesson and enjoyed the story that I shared with you. Your feedback is encouraged, but if you don't want to comment you can send me a message on Instagram at chris.lawton4 and I promise to message you back! I really enjoyed writing today and I can't wait to do it again. Until Next time 😁

Sunday Fun Day 😋

 My Journey

If you’ve been reading from the beginning you understand that my journey hasn’t been easy. I haven’t fully opened up to you all on every obstacle that I have had to overcome, but I can assure you that every time I’ve made it over that bump in the road I’ve came out stronger than before. Some challenges were more difficult than others, however the fact of the matter is that I’m grateful for every lesson that I have learned from my experiences in life. The poems I’m going to share with you are a brief story of me taking this journey and finding a reason to keep going. I hope you enjoy them and as always you’re feedback is highly encouraged. Until next time 😊

Poems

Journey

Feelings take ahold of me. As It grips tighter I can’t breathe.

Overwhelming fear rushes its way through to me.

I can’t stand up and I begin to lose my ability to see.

I lose focus and stumble through the obstacles that life placed in my way.

I’m just trying to make it through another day.

I continue to walk though, disregarding my past that’s begging me to stay.

My walk begins to turn to a run, my destination is unknown.

A light begins to show I think its the sun, I go towards it, now i wont have to be alone. 

I created a distance from the person who I use to be.

My purpose starts to unravel, everything become so clear to me. 

I did it, I completed my journey that seemed to be never ending.

What’s life without a new beginning, I will be the best man I can be, battle the fear and hold on to the ones I hold dear.

Life for me is no longer scary, cause my destination is finally clear.

Paddle 

Is this a dream? Coasting through life like I’m floating down a stream.

Reality isn’t always as it seems, stay true to yourself, you’ll be okay. There’s no other way.

When the water rushes down and you feel you might drown.

Just close your eyes don’t make a sound, let the light turn everything around.

The water will evaporate around you, the light will shine down and surround you.

When you return to your feet look up and smile. You made it through yet another one of life’s trials.

Promise to make one change though? This time don’t just coast down life’s stream. Take paddle and steer towards to all your dreams

.

Don't Take Anything Personally

 You Can't Control What Others Say, Why Worry About it?

    

    Before I get started I want to apologize ahead of time if this blog doesn't feel as sincere as my previous ones. I am currently sick and just trying to make it through the next day so I can feel better. Hopefully in a few days I will have a clear mind to present my best content possible. This lesson is all about not letting things bother you that would have in the past. I strongly recommend reading "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz, this book helped me understand that I can't control anybodies transgressions against me, and the only thing that I am in control of is how I let those actions affect me. For example, if someone lies to you there are a lot of different ways that you can react. Most will choose the reaction from the feeling that they recognize inside of them, whether that feeling is betrayal, or anger their reaction is fueled by that emotion. What we fail to understand is that emotion is nothing but an emotional poison, like Don describes in his book, and we have the power to decide if we want to carrier that with us for the rest of our life or not. At the end of the day we cannot control what someone says, or does to us, but we can control our reaction. There is no point to focus on the hurt that others have cost us and the only way to truly be happy is by sharing the love that we have for ourselves with others. I don't know if you believe in God and Jesus Christ, but this story is the perfect demonstration of the message that I am trying to get through to you. When Jesus had died for our sins, he begged his father to forgive us, because we were unaware of the consequences of our actions. This ultimate sacrifice led to the the evolution of the many different types of Christian religions that we know today. It was Jesus's power to forgive and his understanding that we are taught from an early age to think and react the way that we do. 

Why Do We Care About What Others Think?

     When we were young at heart we grew up listening to judgments about ourselves, and others. Where did we get that information? We received our ability to judge others first from our parents and that lead eventually into schools, and now it's a problem that we face in society today. Everyone's natural ability is to judge another person, but what do we gain from this? In my personal beliefs we gain a sense of self gratification that does nothing but compare yourself to someone else. This type of thinking only prevents us from being our very best self. This type of thinking makes us believe that we aren't doings so bad at life because at least we aren't "that guy". It's not our fault that we think this way thought, it was how we were taught to view the world. This mindset has been engraved into our brains since the days we were born. It's not only this mindset that prevents us from being our very best self, but the pain that you may feel throughout your life. It may be easier to develop a victim mindset and justify your thoughts of life working against you. Whatever the situation might be the only way that we can be happy with ourselves is understanding that we cannot take anything seriously. It doesn't matter if someone slaps you in the face, you have to be willing to understand that it's not there fault they made that action, it's their lack of knowledge that provokes that type of behavior. That is why I have always been big on forgiveness, because no matter what happens to you in life in order to be fully happy you have to be willing to forgive others.

Forgiveness is Key!

    Once you understand that forgiveness is the only way to be happy, you have to put that understanding into action. I know I have said this in my previous Blogs, but you need to start by forgiving yourself for everything that you have put yourself through. When you have forgiven yourself you'll finally be able to move one to not letting what others do affect you. Even if a violent act was directed to you, if you gain control of your emotions you will always be happy. Emotional Poisons are nothing but something that wants to get in your way to prevent us from being happy. The only way that we can release those emotional poisons is not taking anything personally. People act the way they do, based mostly on how they were raised and the struggles of their own life and as long as you are staying to true to yourself then you will always be able to love yourself. At the end of the day if you stay true to this practice of not taking anything personally, you'll find yourself loving every aspect of your life. You don't have control of other everyone's action, but you can control if you want to be happy. 

Conclusion/Next Blog

    Thank you for everyone that took the time to read my blog. I hope that you were able to find this information that I provided with you useful. I will be posting another Poem on Sunday, and a blog to follow on Valentines day Monday February 13th and 14th. Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism in the blog below. Until next time 😁

APPRECIATE LIFE!

 Love Yourself, Avoid Toxicity!

    

    The world today is full of nothing, but negative and toxic people. At least that what you believe when you invest too much time into the news, or social media. I know that before I began this journey for self love that my mindset was the same way. When you love yourself fully you start to see the world through eyes filled with love and not corrupted by fear. You are no longer afraid of what other people think, or considered with societies opinion of you because you know in your heart that everything you do is out of love. Through the power of self love and commitment you are able to escape the malignant point of that the world today try's to cast over you. When I first committed to loving myself I struggled to get past the thought process that life was happening against me that I was always the victim of yet another one of life's doing. Once you lose this "victim" mindset and realize that you have control over your own story then you can officially stop taking life for granted. It is a commonly known fact that you cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can control your reactions to those situations that life puts you in. After you gain control of your life again you will finally be able to change your point of view on life. You will go from seeing the world as negative and nasty, to seeing the world as beautiful and uplifting. This outlook on life will make you appreciate the little things.

Appreciate The Little Things.

  

    I challenge you to try and look at life differently, just as my poem in my last blog says our time is sure to pass and when it does are you going to be happy with how you lived your life? Before you try to appreciate anything in life you first must understand that death is inevitable. There will come a point where everyone will die and we will be remembered by those close to us for the good we brought into their life. This is why it is incredibly important that while we are on earth we are spreading love and not drowning people with fear. Take a minute, and write down everything you want to accomplish before you die then do something on that list because you never know when your time will come. It's time that you stop putting off making changes. "Until Tomorrow" is what we tell ourselves, but we're playing a dangerous game, tomorrow is never promised, but death is guaranteed. We need to use this time that we have on this earth wisely, and take time out of your day and show life our appreciation for another opportunity to achieve our goals. I show my appreciation of life by sitting outside, listening to the bird sing, feeling the breeze hit my skin while the warmth of the sun radiates through me. I meditate outside taking deep inhales of the air that I am blessed to be able to breathe and exhaling all the negative feelings I have built up. I show my appreciation by loving everyone, no matter if they have hurt me. If you read my previous blogs you know how much forgiveness means to me. I focus my time on love and not fear, I focus my days on being positive about any situation that rise. I suggest that you find something that you love about the world and indulge in it, if you love cooking, cook something you never have before, or if you love flowers go smell one, memorize the scent and write down how that made you feel. The more appreciation we show towards life the happier we will become because of our ability to manifest dreams.

Rest In Paradise Papa.

    Talking about the appreciation of life and the understanding of death speaks volumes to me. I recently just lost my grandpa to COVID and other conditions. The loss of my grandfather hit me hard, but my understanding that death is inevitable helped me cope with what would be considered a tragedy to most. The way I looked at the situation is by choosing to celebrate his life and what he meant to my family, instead of grieving over his death. I was able to choose this by knowing that life doesn't work against me and that I am not a victim i have control over my reactions. The point that I am trying to make is that it doesn't matter what life throws at you as long as you love yourself enough to get an understanding of the topics I wrote on above. I know my grandpa is no longer in pain and that he is finally at peace. I want to end this paragraph by speaking directly to my grandpa. "I love you grandpa, and I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to say my goodbyes, but I feel you with me when I wake up. I know that bald eagle I visioned flying and perched on top of the building looking down was you watching me and keeping me safe while I am deployed. Thank you for always loving me and my children, Thank you for your generosity, and most importantly thank you for being you. I'll love you always. I'll see you later."

Next Blog Wednesday February 9th 

    As always, thank you all for reading my blog and I would greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts on how I can improve, or if you want to just leave an encourage word please do so. I would love to hear one thing that you are grateful for though! This topic has been weighing on my heart and mind for awhile now, but one thing I'm that I am extremely grateful for is the unconditional love that I have been lucky enough to receive from my significant other for going on 5 years now. Please tune in on Wednesday for another blog to help you be your best self by putting love for yourself first. Until next time 😁 

Sunday Fun Day!

Sunday Poems

    I decided that I wanted to make Sunday the one day a week where I share with you my favorite poems and quotes throughout the week. I also write poetry and would love to have your feedback on a few of the poems that I have written. The one I am going to share with you today ties into Monday's blog topic of appreciation. Our time on this earth is limited so we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to become better as individuals and if we do we will be able to unite as one. Please enjoy the following poem and as always your feedback is highly encouraged, tell me what you loved about it, or hated about it. Thank you again for taking the time to read another one of my blogs. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend...Until next time 😁    

Time's Limited

I feel a warm tingle in my soul,

This feeling is so powerful.

It motivates me to keep going,

To love all without knowing.

This world would be a better place,

If we learned to love all, no matter the race.

As the sun rises my warmth grows,

The smile on my face starts to show.

This world is magical,

when we stop focusing on what's practical.

I love the birds that chirp,

I'll even love those considered a purp.

You never know what someone is dealing with,

so bless their day with a gift...

Of your smile.

This life is just a trial,

Our time will run out and our heart will stop beating,

When that time focus on all the good you have done,

Did you live a life that you would be comfortable leaving?

Or could you have done more?

Tomorrow is not promised,

Make sure you remain honest.

Live every day like it's your last,

Our time is sure to pass.

YOU NEED TO DO THIS EVERYDAY!

 Setting the Tone

    Good morning everyone, I am so glad that you chose to read another one of my blogs. This blog in particular includes very important steps to make each day start off as a great day. How you spend your morning will set the tone for you, whether you start the day by sleeping until the last minute waking up in a rush to get out the door, or you wake up an hour early and do what the majority of people will never do, dedicate time to yourself. In a previous blog I discussed the importance of commitment, if you truly commit to the daily practices that we are about to go over I can guarantee you will notice a difference on how you view your life. I know from personal experience by committing to these same practices myself as you read in the vow that I share with you on Monday's blog. You see what the majority of people fail to understand is that nothing will change unless you initiate that change. Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." This is why so many people fail to change, they set amazing goals for themselves, but never do anything to make their dreams a reality. The first step in setting your goals in motion is by making little changes at a time, and you should start by practicing the following steps for at the minimum of one hour every morning you wake up.

Exercise! run, jump, lift, Just do something.

    The first thing I do when I wake up at 5 am is grab a handful of gummy bears, they are my motivation to leave my bed in the morning, take my pre-workout and then I'm out the door to the gym to lift for about 45 minutes. Doing this already helps me start my day in a spectacular mood, when I leave the gym and get back I usually have a nice pump going and I feel great about myself. Now you don't have to run, or even workout for that long, as long as your doing enough to get a sweat in. You could go for a long walk, or do an at home HITT workout it doesn't matter what you do as long as your just doing something active. If you need help thinking of ideas, or workouts to fit your personal situation reach out and I will be more than happy to provide you with my feedback, or direct you watch an individual on youtube that could help you more than me. Biggest take away from this paragraph it doesn't matter what you do as long as your doing something.

Clear your mind, let go of yesterday.

    In my second blog post I went over forgiving yourself and letting go of those negative emotions that hold us back. Doing this next step will help your mind be as free as a bird if done correctly. After you finish your active activity for the morning I want you to focus your attention on strengthening your mental muscles. This is the part of your morning that helps clear your mind in preparation for the rest of the day. You can do this one of two ways, either by praying and reaching out the God that you believe in and pouring your heart out to him, or her about anything that is left on your mind from the previous day. Also include in your prayer the stronger attributes that you want to carry without throughout the day, for example, honesty. Another way you can accomplish this is through at least 7 minutes of meditation. I personally find it best to listen to soft melodies when I meditate, so I create a playlist with the same three tunes. While the songs are playing I am focused only on my breathing, positive thoughts on the inhale, and negative thoughts on the exhale releasing any negative emotion I feel arise. This step is essential and helps you get ready for the following step.

Plan Plan Plan!

    After completing the previous step, you will be ready to take on the next step of your morning routine. I take 10 minutes every morning to plan out how I want my day to go. When I finish meditating my mind is already super active and thinking of things that I want to accomplish and ready to set the goals for the day. It doesn't matter if your goals are career based, or they are personal goals what matters is that you write them down. When I write my goals down I feel a sense of motivation to get those tasks done and the best part of finishing a task is the feeling of accomplishment you receive from doing so. Try your best to make your tasks obtainable and reasonable to get done though. For example if your end goal is to write a book, don't say that you want write a book be specific. Instead of writing a book as your task you can put write a chapter, or two pages of my book. This goal is a lot easier to obtain and will give you motivation to keep going once you get it completed. 

The more you know the better!

    The last step in your morning routine is to find something to expand your knowledge about something that you are interested in. A few examples that you can choose from is listening to a podcast about personal development, reading a book about investing, watching a Vlog of someone that you look up to in your career field. This list can go on forever, as long as your dedicating this time to learning more about something you would enjoy doing, or a category of your life that needs improvement. Once you accomplish this you will begin to gain confidence in yourself and abilities. Things will start to become natural to you and this will all thanks to this step, of gaining the knowledge it takes to be ahead of your pears. At this point you are already doing more than the majority of the world.

Conclusion of Daily Practices

     These are the the steps that I practice everyday when I wake up, if you miss a day don't beat yourself up we are all human just make a promise no matter what it is you won't let yourself miss two days in a row. Once you do that your brain starts to justify coasting through life. If you want to be the best, or better than you were then coasting is not an option for you. Besides if you loved yourself would you sleep in?, or would you push yourself through these steps for the amazing rewards that they have to offer. Everyday in life is a chance to be better than you were yesterday, keep making progress and slowly, but surely you will reach the dream life that you have been searching for.

Next Blog, or more blogs?

    It feels amazing that we are completing are second week of blogging together. I am curious though, would you all like me to post more frequently, or are you happy with the current two blogs a week schedule. Let me know in the comments or you can reach me at my email on my profile for your feedback. If I don't receive any feedback my next blog will be Monday February 7th, if you want me to add an additional blog it will be on Friday February 4th. It's always a pleasure to explain the steps that I have taken to turn my life around and I really do hope that you are able to adapt the information that I have been sharing in your own lives. Thank you again for following me and I cannot wait until next time! 😁