Evolving Life

Do you know what’s one of the great things in life is? It’s that at any point in life, you can choose a different path. You can choose to change anything about your life that you don’t like, or that you feel is holding you back from achieving the things in life that you want.

In this episode, I want to explore random acts of kindness by first sharing a personal story. Then I’m going to talk about why you would want to start random acts of kindness. Next, I’m going to share suggestions on how you can proactively be kind. Finally, I’m also going to talk about how not to get it wrong because the last thing you ever want to do is make someone feel as if you pity them. Because most of the time, people in need are not looking for a handout, but a hand up. And as sporadic as your act of kindness may be, and if it’s not done anonymously, it’s easy to make someone in need feel less than they are already feeling.

As we become the adults we are, our lives reshape because of the ebbs and flows that happen throughout our lives. Those same events that we sometime consider burdensome or insurmountable are the opportunities that define us. As we expand, we grow and become stronger than we ever thought possible. 

So let me restate, you are a work in progress. 

In this episode, I want to empower you to believe in you. I want to empower you to see the good in the bad, and know that it’s only a page in the book of your life. I want to help anyone who feels as if life is hard, who often says “I am tired”, or “I am sick and tired.” Or even “I will never succeed,” start believing and saying, “I can do this.”

This episode is all about empowerment. About sharing with you how to get beyond the mind space that’s keeping you from trying, from realizing that your time will come. You just have to keep going.

Are you following your passion?

By passion I mean doing what you love and loving what you do. Or perhaps a better description would be doing that thing you are excited about, that doesn’t feel tiring, and certainly doesn’t feel like a job.

I wish I can say many of us follow our passion. The reality is, many are not making a living doing the kind of work that when they wake up in the morning, they are excited to start their day because they can’t wait to do that next best thing that exciting for their day, week, and year.

In fact, a study done in 2017, shows that only 13% of the US workforce are passionate about their job.

What would happen if you challenge yourself and push beyond your comfort zone? It certainly would feel uncomfortable. Any time you reaching beyond what’s comfortable It’s never easy, but it is an effort worth making because it’s one way you can live your life optimally. When you strive to do more, you can gain a better understanding of your limitations. You can also awaken that internal part of you that’s willing to grow and expand.

So I am asking you Evolvers, are you challenging yourself? Are you pushing yourself to move even a little beyond your comfort zone? Let’s explore why you should and how to get comfortable with sometimes being uncomfortable in some areas of your life.

I love this quote: “Are you green and growing or ripe and rotten?” It’s the perfect metaphor for being stagnant and it’s such an easy trap to fall into. We go through life wanting to see the things we want to accomplish become a reality, but fall short because of you fall in a rut and you’re not sure how to get out of it.

In this episode, we are going to address what stagnation is and its effect. Then we are going to identify how to get out of it. Why would you want to deal with this condition? Because it’s possible, it’s keeping you from living optimally. every day.

In order to identify stagnation and if you are experiencing it, you first need a definitive idea of what it is.

The principle behind this rule which I’m going to tell you more about in a moment is that 80% of the results you achieve are from 20% of your efforts.

Think about that for a minute. You work hard on a project. Let's say that the project is starting a business. According to the 80-20 rule, only 20% of your effort was viable. Only 20% of working hours and hours, days and days on your business, was productive enough to produce results.

When I heard about the 80-20 rule, it intrigued me. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if I was actually wasting my time, which, to some degree, we all do.

But, I really wanted to know if I am only getting 20% results from my effort.

In episode 12, I shared a quote I loved by Aristotle. We are what we repeatedly do is a part of the quote. That’s what I think about these success habits I’m about to share. If you pick the ones that make sense in your life and adapt them and make them become a part of your life. In time, they will become subconscious acts that will, without a doubt, help you achieve the things you want.

Ask yourself and answer three questions as you listen to the success habits

• Is it right for me?
• How can I adapt to it and make it my own?
• Will It make a difference?

You are going to ask yourself these questions not because I said so, but because of one simple fact. We are all solitary. We have a life that is uniquely our own. With self-development, there is no one size fits all. It’s about what you know and using that knowledge to create and implement a plan that works for you.

Our Inner critic is like what kryptonite is to superman.

It can destroy us and make us weak and vulnerable to where we are helpless, feel hopeless and lost.

Our inner-critic is one of the greatest deterrent to having semi-decent self-confidence, or the enthusiasm to choose action over inaction. Or We spend uncountable hours challenging our decisions and indecision; the choice we make and the ones we don’t. We go through a vicious cycle of so much self-doubt, we eventually just give in.

Some say our inner-critic is a survival mechanism. Perhaps that’s true, but I have another perspective. It’s that our inner-critic is about the confidence we don’t have. Consider this question:

Would our Inner-critic be as prevalent in our lives, if we had greater self-confidence?

In this episode, we are going to examine what it is to be resilient, to be that person who doesn’t let obstructions of any kind stand in the way.

Resilience is one of those traits that you need to have on some level if you want to succeed, or simply recover from a setback.

Because here is a truth. It doesn’t matter if you have a great business idea, the right resources to implement the idea. Or even if in every episode of this podcast I share with you tools or resources to make your efforts easier.

If you don’t have certain key characteristics, resilience being one of them, then nothing you want or hope to achieve will happen. 

Have you ever had the experience of a setback?
I’m sure you have, because we all experience it. It doesn’t matter how hard we try, setbacks are a normal part of life. With the setbacks we experience, it’s how we deal with them and overcome them that embodies its relevance in our lives. 

The reality is setbacks can have a negative effect, and learning how to deal with them is crucial to not just our well-being, but to whether we get to achieve the things we want in life.

I have a mantra and a method relating to driving a manual transmission car I want to share for dealing with setbacks. The Mantra is SHIFT. Listen to the episode to learn how driving a manual transmission car relates to dealing with setbacks.

Personal power. Chances are, these two words came into your consciousness because of Tony Robbins and his Personal Power series. From the beginning of this series, he said personal power is the ability to act, the ability to take action and produce results. These are characteristics we all want. To act on the things we want to achieve and to accomplish them.

I don’t think it can get clearer than that how important personal power is to anyone who want to do more and be more with their lives. In fact, if I think deeply about this, the very premise of this podcast is about developing your personal power. How else are you going to live your best life?

With certainty, we know we can’t stop our lives from changing. All we can do is do our best to change in a manner we are happy with. And that’s with control, which happens with the choices we make and the actions we take every day. And that’s the relevance of this episode.

In this episode, we are going to talk about habits. The things we should or can do every day that have a large probability of changing our lives.

Patience, a personality trait some of us have and many of us don’t. Those who have it, knows how to use it to achieve the results they want from life, and those who don’t struggle to understand why they don’t see immediate results with what they are trying to accomplish. 

Everything worth having takes time, and if we can’t be patient with our efforts, then what happens next is we give up or we try a quick-fix approach that never works.

Living your life's purpose isn't about affecting the world, it's about affecting your life. This episode is about defining what life's purpose is to each of us and seven tips for living yours.

In this episode I am going to talk about something that every single one of us deals with - family drama. The thing about family drama is we all have it and deal with it in unique ways because no families are alike, even if we all have the drama and toxicity that sometimes comes with being a part of a unit. I also believe these toxic relationships are so common, yet often not talked about.

In this episode, I am going to talk about this subject by sharing 5 types of family drama and 5 ways to cope with them.

This episode is the 6th and final installment of the series on factors preventing you from achieving what you want in life. In this episode, we are going to recap the last five episodes, answer the question: Are you hungry enough? 

If you are hungry enough, you can overcome roadblocks like the ones mention in this series, learning a new skill, gathering your resources, or simply trying to get beyond feeling stuck.

This is the fifth installment of the six-part series on factors preventing you from achieving what you want from life. In this fifth installment, we are going to explore what happens when you lack the focus you need to get what you want.  

Let’s delve into what may seem like an insignificant issue for many, but in reality can be just as damaging as the other factors mention in this series so far.

In this episode of Evolving Life, the 4th in the series, we are going to explore a trait that exists in 30% of what is considered average people and 80% of those classified as gifted. Perfectionism. 

With this trait, it’s not about achieving excellence, it’s a negative state of being that’s holding you back from reaching your full potential.