Vida Guide to Successful Living

"Discipline is doing what needs to be done, even if you don't want to do it"  I have had this quote in my Vision Journal (by the way, this is a great exercise similar to a Vision Board from Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles), and every time I see it, which is pretty often, I get re-inspired. I get inspired to not give up on my dreams and goals and just as importantly to re-commit every day if I have to, to my own self-discipline. I feel, on a gut level, that it is my self-discipline that will ultimately lead the way to making my dreams and goals a reality. Like most people and despite all the personal growth work I've done, I sometimes do get disillusioned and doubt creeps in, especially with respect to achieving my "big vision" goals. There are different techniques I use to stop focusing and putting energy on thoughts that don't serve me such as "You should be farther along then you are...will it ever happen?...why does it feel lik...

Don't count the number of times you have been knocked down, get attached to the number of times you get up" -Lisa Nichols I realized not too long ago that my pride has been broken for years. It broke for the first time at the end of 2013 when my husband and I failed at our first business attempt and ended up filing for bankruptcy. It finally shattered to pieces when my son, Andrew took his life in May of 2018. A Google search on pride defines it as " a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired".  Before 2013, I would say I had a pretty healthy sense of pride for what I had accomplished in my life, for having worked hard, treated people well and doing what I felt were the "right things" for my life. I had been dedicated to the service of others since age 18 through my choice of career (social ...

"All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and so gorgeous at the end." Robin Sharma Thanksgiving weekend 2019, I finally bought Robin Sharma's book The 5am Club. I had the book on my reading list for about a year. I had heard Robin Sharma on a YouTube video and had been inspired to recommit to getting up at 5am. Although, I am not a morning person by nature and in fact, I am more of a night owl, I have gone through two periods in my life where getting up at 5 am has made a significant and positive difference in my life and I just knew that buying and reading the book would help motivate me to get up at 5 am consistently, not sporadically as I have been doing for the past few years.  In 2003 I gained over 40 pounds during my pregnancy. A year after my son was born I resolved to lose the weight I had gained. I had a 7 am to 3:30 pm schedule at the time, that meant I had to get up at 4:30 am every morning to work out before work. In less than a year I lost the we...

"Your new life is going to cost you your old one." Brianna Wiest The other day, I happened to look through one of my older journals, in fact it was the first journal I had ever started, pretty late in life, just some years back (2014). It was a journal a friend gave me as a birthday gift and I occasionally enjoy looking through it and being re-inspired by the ideas, quotes, thoughts, and reflections that are in it. When I flipped to the page where I had cut and pasted the quote above and re-read it, I felt such a deep knowing it was almost physical. It felt as if someone or something had "stabbed" my heart with the truth. It was in no way an unpleasant feeling and I wish I could find another word instead of "stabbed" but that's what it felt like. It's probably why people say "hit in the gut with the truth" or "your gut feeling". Your gut being your intuition, the part of you that knows the truth for you. Not the tru...

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change." Jim Rohn 2020 is upon us and I don't know if I have ever looked so forward to the start of a New Year. 2020 is going to be by far, the best year of my life! I remember saying those same words to myself at the start of 2018. And yet, 2018 was by far the worst year of my life on so many levels....such is life and the ch-ch-changes that come upon us. In 2018, I think I was  uttering the words in an attempt to convince myself, which is OK. I believe and have used the "fake it til you make it" philosophy of life. Now though, as I enter 2020 there is a completely different sense of confidence and joy in my heart, it is a knowing not an attempt to convince. I also now know that I can withstand and deal with both wanted and unwanted changes as well as life's curve balls and blindsides thanks to the constant devotion to my own personal development as well and my reignited desire to contribute to o...

“If you can learn how to use your mind, anything is possible” Wim Hof Our perception(s) and our reaction(s) to anything and everything in life is the only thing we have any control of. This Thanksgiving weekend 2019, I have been reminded constantly of this very key lesson of life. It all started with my son (soon to be 16) not wanting to travel with his boring Mom to San Francisco for our annual post-Thanksgiving camping trip. I don’t think I’m boring at all but I figured that’s how he probably feels about me right now at this age. That’s my perception mind you, he hasn’t actually told me this is how he feels. He was excited about the trip until neither his girlfriend or friend’s could make it. I was a bit hurt Thanksgiving evening and had a good cry about it and thought about enticing him with a shopping spree but then I said to myself “it’s OK if he doesn’t want to go”. I was pretty proud of myself for not letting his decision make me too upset, start blaming him or his Dad or f...

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone" Neale Donald Walsch  Below is an excerpt (in bold) from Chapter 3 of my book: "You have balls the size of melons" this is what my friend and quasi-business mentor told me shortly after we met in 2014. I knew myself to be a pretty confident person and particularly a confident and independent woman but I had never been told that before. It always makes me laugh when I remember her telling me this, so I thought it would be fitting to title this chapter on confidence with her phrase and praise. It is essential to develop confidence so that we can change the world and ourselves. OK, I know some of you might be thinking "I don't want to change the world and I definitely don't want to be told I have balls the size of melons", well, maybe guys do? I do think however that we all secretly wish to make a lasting contribution or difference in this world. Or at the very least, to know that our lives have purpo...