Live Your Life on Purpose and Get the Most out of Each Day

2021-06-13 ~ adminlife

Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions? One day bleeds into the next until years have passed, and you’re left wondering where the time went. Having passion and meaning in your life can break you out of your routine. You might be working hard right now, but are you excited and fulfilled?

Use these strategies to find more passion and create a life that fulfills you:

Determine what’s most important to you. Is it helping others or personal achievement? Does music move your soul? Do you love to compete? What brings you the most joy and happiness? Your passion in life is hidden in there somewhere. Can you find it?
Think short-term. What could you do right now that sounds exciting to you? While long-term goals can be more meaningful, it’s important to enjoy yourself in the short-term, too. Now might be the time to try skydiving or visiting New Orleans. Maybe it’s finally time to try out for the local theater.
Think long-term. Pursuits that are more meaningful are likely to require more time and energy. What do you want to do over the next 10+ years? If you could accomplish one thing before the end of your life, what would it be?

- Imagine your doctor just told you that you only have weeks left to live, what is the one thing you wish you had done?

How do you like to spend your free time now? If you have a few hours or a Saturday to yourself, how do you choose to spend it? Are you building a boat in your garage or writing a post for your blog? Your ideal life might include your current hobbies on a larger scale. Think about why you enjoy the hobbies you currently spend time on.
If you were retired, what would you like to do? If you had more resources and unlimited time each day, how would you choose to spend your time? Describe your perfect day.
Get out of your comfort zone. Most of us are limited by our fear of failure or a fear of the unknown. However, the most meaningful activities are most likely outside of your comfort zone. Be brave – explore all your opportunities.
Set a goal to find meaning in your life. If you can set a goal to lose 25 pounds, you can set a goal to create a more exciting life. Create a goal to find your life’s passion. Give yourself 30 days and spend a few minutes each morning and night on the task. Close your eyes and listen for the answer. Keep a running list and evaluate it at the end of the month.
Turn off the TV. It’s hard to live a meaningful life full of passion if you’re spending time watching TV. You can find something better to do. Go do it.
Do something new. If you’re stuck in a rut, the easiest way to shake up your thinking is to try a new activity. Take a salsa lesson or book a dinner cruise. New experiences help to make each day unique.

Humans have been searching for the meaning of life for millennia. While there isn’t a universal answer, it’s possible to find meaning in your own life. Avoid allowing your life to pass by without fully living it. Set a few goals and experience life outside your comfort zone. Find your passion and build your life around it.

If you set goals and find your life’s purpose you will be in the upper portion of people who know what they want and how they will achieve it. You can join the ranks of the ultra successful.

Book a 15-minute “Get to know you call” by clicking on the blue button below

We can talk about your life’s purpose and goals and discuss how we can work together to help you become one of the successful people in the world.

To your success

Michael

P.S. if you have thought about working with a Life Coach but have always thought it was too expensive or took too much time, I have created a Self-paced course that may be of interest to you.

You can check it out by clicking on the logo below.

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Learning To Cope With Things Out of Our Control

2021-04-05 ~ adminlife

At some point in your life, you’ve no doubt had to deal with a situation that was out of your control. Whether it’s a car accident, financial difficulties, or other challenge, these events cause stress and frustration, which negatively impact your health and mental outlook on life.

Learning how to cope with events you can’t control will help keep you in a positive frame of mind and alleviate your stress.

Consider the Serenity Prayer, written by Reinhold Niebuhr:

“God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.”

The words of this prayer exemplify the solution to a problem that plagues all of us. Once you’ve come to terms with the fact that you can control only your own actions (and reactions), you can begin to find peace of mind.

What Can You Control?

Worrying about the people or events in your life that you can’t control can cause all kinds of stress-related health problems, such as angina, high blood pressure, and sleeping difficulties.

If you need to feel more in control of your life, focus on those things that you can physically change.

Who you decide to accept as your friends and spend your time with is something you can definitely control. It may not be easy to meet new friends, but the opportunities are plentiful if you look for them.

Being around negative people can drag your attitude down, since you adopt the mood of people around you.
If you have people in your life who aren’t encouraging you to fulfill your potential, find other people to surround yourself with.
Having the support of people who believe in you will propel you toward reaching your lifelong goals.

Live One Day at a Time

When you intentionally consider each day a gift, your struggles don’t seem as dire. While life does deal some bad hands, such as death, divorce, and financial challenges, how you cope during these hardships can make you stronger or break you.

When you purposely feel gratitude for the good moments within each day, you can genuinely start to accept your struggles as a path to a new beginning.

Coping with Financial Difficulties

One of the most stressful situations is coping with financial difficulties. Loss of a job often means having to give up things you’ve worked hard to acquire.

If you’re having a difficult time accepting that you have to cut expenses and give up the comfortable things in life, even temporarily, it helps to remember that it could be worse.
Be grateful for having your home and your health because there are many people in the world who have neither.
Once you know you can be happy with less, you can focus again on achieving your goals.

By accepting that you can’t change some things, you’ll become more powerful in changing the things that you do have control over. You’ll free yourself from the negative thoughts and emotions that can stifle you into sad complacence.

Use these tips to help you cope with things out of your control, and you’ll find peace, joy, and the passion to persevere through all challenges.

Being able to accept that you cannot control everything and that those things out of your control just have to be accepted or ignored moves you one step closer to being in control and empowered.

Book a 45-minute call on my calendar at:

https://calendly.com/michael-coach/focused-program-45-minute

to learn more about building up your empowerment level and to live a better life.

To your success

Michael

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I believe in my own abilities.

2021-02-152021-02-20 ~ adminlife

I am capable of so many things!

My talents and skills combine to help me do good things for myself and others, and I am proud of what I have to offer the world. Whatever comes my way, I can accomplish what I set out to do. I believe in my own abilities.

Each day of my life, I grow in some way. I put my best foot forward and learn from everything that comes to me. Because I can grow from even the most challenging situations, I know that I can rise to any occasion.

I am capable of more than I can even dream of today, and I look forward to seeing those abilities manifest.

If I ever feel like I am doing less-than-fabulous work, I give myself a breather. Sometimes a little time away is enough to give me the perspective I need to approach a task in a new light.

During this time, I think about my past successes. This helps me remember my own capability, so when I return to work, I feel good about myself.

I have accomplished so much in my life. This is due, in no small part, to my innate talents. But I have also learned many skills that help me achieve my goals. Whether working on my own objectives or being of service to others, everything I do helps me to do even better tomorrow.

Today, I am thankful for all of my skills and talents. I am confident in my ability to reach my goals. Each day, I remind myself of what I do well, which encourages me to move forward with positivity.

Self-Reflection Questions:

What are three things I do very, very well?
What challenges am I most proud of having overcome?
How can I continue to increase my confidence in my own abilities?

You now have some advice and tips to help you to believe in your own abilities so that you can keep growing in your life.

If you still think that this is something that you will need help with, you can contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com

To your success

Michael

Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay

Don’t Let the Fear of Failure Limit Your Life

2021-01-25 ~ adminlife

There’s not a lot to fear if you’re living in a first-world country. We’re free of wars, famine, plagues, animals that eat us, and dictators. However, fear is part of the human condition. We’ll always find something to be fearful about.

The fear of failure is a common fear that most people have experienced. We don’t like to appear inadequate in front of others.

Unfortunately, if you’re unwilling to risk failure, your life is going to be very limited. Learning to deal with the fear of failure is a worthy goal. Most people avoid situations where they might fail. That just means you’ll have less competition if you can get over your fear.

Take advantage of these strategies and refuse to allow the fear of failure to limit your life:

Define your fear. What exactly are you afraid of? Are you worried about being laughed at by your peers? Would you feel bad about yourself if you failed? Are you worried that you’ll never be successful? Define your fear.
Redefine failure. What is failure to you? Is it an inescapable and permanent result? Is it a sign that you’re incapable or inadequate?
- A healthier definition of failure is that it’s just an undesired result. You took a guess and you were wrong. You can learn from that result and do better on your next attempt. That’s not so bad.

Visualize success. Rather than imagining yourself failing, imagine yourself being successful. Take five minutes a few times each day and imagine yourself succeeding. Notice how great it feels and focus on that feeling.

- Give your brain more images of success than of failure. In time, you’ll grow to expect to be successful.

Consider the worst-case scenario. What is the worst that can happen? Can you handle it? Of course, you can.

- Develop a strategy for dealing with the worst possible outcome. Once you’re certain you can handle the worst, there’s nothing left to worry about.

Recall your past failures. You’ve overcome numerous failures. How many times did you fail while learning to walk? To talk? And yet here you are. You survived. We fail in small ways each day and the sun still rises the next day. The world will go on.
Become comfortable with discomfort. The thought of failure is uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean you have to allow it to influence your actions. The uncomfortable sensations of any negative emotions are just suggestions. You’re free to choose how you’re going to respond.
Start small. If you’re too uncomfortable to move forward with your plans, just start small. Take a small action and notice that you’re still okay. Tomorrow you can take a slightly bigger step. In no time at all, you’ll be taking massive action toward your goals.
Consider what will happen if you allow your fear to stop you. Imagine yourself 20 years from now having not taken this risk. How will you feel about that? You’ll almost certainly regret it.

- Think back to your high school days. Remember that boy or girl you were too afraid to speak to? How do you feel about that now? You know that you’d muster up the courage if you could do it again.
- We regret the things we don’t do more than the things we do.

How much has the fear of failure impacted your life? It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s a little silly if you have a good understanding of failure.

What’s not okay is to allow your fear of failure to keep you out of the game. Your life is passing by. Refuse to allow fear to get in your way. You only have one life to live.

You now have the information you need to be able to eliminate fear from your life.

If you still think that this is something that you will need help with, you can contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com

To your success

Michael

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Can You Really Have It All?

2020-04-042020-04-04 ~ adminlife

Of course, everyone wants to “have it all,” but is that even possible? There are a lot of opinions on the topic. Some people believe it’s entirely possible. Others insist that you can’t even some close.

Like many things in life, the most reasonable answer is, “It depends.” You can certainly have a lot if you’re willing to make enough of a sacrifice.

Consider these aspects:

Decide what having it all means to you. Everyone says they want to “have it all,” but what does that mean to you? Make a list of everything that you would have to have and experience in your life on a regular basis to be 100% satisfied with your life. Take all the time you need. Keep these categories in mind:
- Relationships
- Health and physical goals
- Possessions
- Hobbies
- Career
- Community
Notice the items that are under your control and those that are not. Review your list. Divide your list into two columns: Those things you can control and those you cannot.
- You can’t control your spouse’s level of patience, tolerance, or their waistline.
- You can’t control every aspect of your children.
- You don’t have complete control over your career.
- You’ll quickly find there’s not a lot that you can control in your life beyond your focus, effort, and attitude. Worrying about other things is an exercise in futility.
You can’t have everything. Time, money, and energy are limitations. Consider the items below:
- Committed spouse
- Active community members
- Committed parent
- Excellent friend
- Great employee
- Great boss
- Mentor
- Perfect neighbor
- Big house
- Luxury car
- And the list goes on
- Just reading this list can be enough to start an ulcer. How well could you accomplish all of those things and still enjoy your life?

With your idea of having it all, will you still be relaxed and happy? A simple life leads to higher levels of satisfaction and happiness. The more complicated your life, the less satisfied you’re likely to feel over the long term.
Life is about priorities. You can’t have everything, but you can have a lot. The more you want, the more it’s going to cost you. The more you want, the more complicated your life will become. The more complicated it is, the more scattered your energy and focus become.
- What are your priorities in life?
- Based on those priorities, re-answer the first item on this list.
- The more things you ultimately want in your life, the lower your performance level will have to be in one or more areas.

“Can I have it all?” is an ambiguous question. Can you have it all if having it all means having a spouse, children, a home, a pleasant career, and a circle of friends? Sure. Can you have it all if you want to perform at the highest possible level in multiple categories in your life? Doubtful.

Having it all is limited by your definition of having it all.

There’s only so much time in a day. There’s a limit to how much anyone can do. Look at the most successful people in the world. Some other aspect of their life is usually a complete mess. It’s almost a universal truth. Excelling at one area requires making a sacrifice in others. It’s up to you to determine how much you’re willing to sacrifice.

So, you can have it all, provided that what you want is reasonable, and you’re committed.