What have you done for YOU lately?
I am an uplifter, a teacher who wants to inspire you to take the best step toward living a life you truly love and want. I know life is too cosmetic and busy, and between running the errands, working and trying to finish that dream project of yours, free time for you is nowhere near. You feel the burn, the ache and the frustration of wanting to break free, but you don’t know how to do it. So, day by day you repeat the same routine expecting different results. But you build up frustration because every action you take does not move the needle to where you want to be. At this point, your easy route is to despair or to blame others for your misfortunes.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Keep reading to learn simple steps you can take now and align yourself to the path of success.
What should you do?
Take a hiatus or a vacation, and let things fall apart for once. You have been holding things together so perfectly and ignored one very important part: YOU. If YOU break down, that illusion you have created —that things cannot work without you — will come crumbling down. It will be rather too late to salvage anything.
On other hand, this very moment you can make a commitment to start living your best life today. Making this happen takes a few simple steps. First, take time off for yourself. Take time alone to spend on relaxing or doing something you love to do. Even better, use this time to think through your life purpose and what you really want to experience. Or better still, go somewhere and experience it! If you like hiking, go hiking, or if you like adventure, take a trip to an island and have fun.
“Are you crazy?!” I can hear your outburst of how this isn’t possible in your situation. Maybe you are a single parent, or you are a solopreneur who works each day, no matter what, to bring food to the dinner table and to meet other personal commitments. I understand. If it is too much for you to take one-week vacation, just take a day off from work. And don’t use the time off to run any errands or clean the house or fix a broken sink. Make this day your day to do something incredible for YOU or for your life purpose. Trust me, at the end of the day, you will feel more alive and better positioned to bring solutions to the issues affecting YOU.
This short time you have allotted for yourself will help you cultivate clarity, and ideas will start flowing to you. You will start speaking like “you know, when I take that day off and just relax and reflect or work on this project I have been putting off for some time, time just stops, and I feel like nothing else matters anymore. At the end of this project, I feel more alive and fulfilled.” Why? Because you are living the life that you have defined for yourself and not the one others are telling you to have. Give this a try, and when you see the effect, you will be eager to repeat this routine over and over.
A day of reckoning
On this maiden day you set aside to take care of YOU, start by breaking the cycle of limiting thoughts that has stopped you from achieving what you really want. Stop seeing yourself as less than perfect or inadequate. Remember, the only roadblock you have right now, and which is stopping you from achieving success, is your inner critic. But within you, you have absolute power to overcome this monster you have allowed to blossom and that has hijacked your true path. So, next time when your inner critic is loud and is disturbing to your peaceful self, just remind this nagging critic that perfection is achieved when you take risks and when you allow yourself to be vulnerable. And through all the struggles you endure and all the battles you win, you learn something meaningful that allows you to think differently and to see possibilities. And when you put yourself out there and are not afraid of judgment, you become better at figuring things out, and slowly you build outstanding progress. And through all this conscious effort, you gain confidence that you can indeed shape your destiny. You can change that hopeless position you find yourself in right now.
But the question is, are you ready to connect with YOU? This time you have allotted to spend on you and your life purpose will help you draw some understanding of your abilities. This understanding is crucial. It could potentially put you on a personal growth curve, where you are not afraid of any limitation because you know you have unlimited, untapped hidden treasures. And when you keep on unleashing them, you can change the trajectory of your life forever. You learn through practice and a few setbacks how to improvise your daily routine to make it work even better.
Here is my promise to you: When you care for YOU, you will make great progress toward getting what you really want in life. I live by a motto, and I want to share it here with you now: Life does not happen to you, but you MAKE life happen to you.
Many of us, unfortunately, are doing things out of habits that aren’t planned or strategic. You don’t know why you do these things, but you just do them either because it is the norm, or you are just responding to life like a robot. You are just going through the motions. The big question, then, is how do you start guiding your life in the way that you truly want? First, develop a routine that is more intentional and learn to embrace change. Don’t eat and go shopping every day at the same places and expect different experiences. Don’t try to solve problems at work in the same old ways and expect different results.
Instead, keep a calendar with specific plans you want to accomplish within a certain time frame. On your calendar, set a deadline for when this event or project will occur. For example, let’s say you have been an accountant, but now you feel the urge to express your artistic side. Your first step is to define what you want to express and to put on your personal calendar the deadline for making this happen. Then, plan what you will do every day to make this happen. And on your day off, work toward completing this project that is so dear to your heart. Or you may want to encourage more happiness in your life or to feel vibrant and alive. Set on your calendar the things you want to bring to your life to make your heart sing the tune of joy. For example, maybe dancing used to make you happy. Now, for fifteen minutes a day, just put on your favorite play song and get loose! Whatever your goal is, the point is this: anything you want to experience, write it down on your personal calendar with specific deadlines. Paste these deadlines on your mirror so you can see them every time you brush your teeth.
After setting your deadlines, the next step is to evaluate your progress on a weekly basis. Are you making some progress? Are you seeing results? Are you developing new habits? Adjust where necessary but don’t lose track of your approaching deadlines.
Your third step is to celebrate each milestone you have achieved. Remember this: gratitude is the anecdote of success. Gratitude removes us from Hedonic adaptation, where our minds take things or wins for granted.
You exist for a unique reason
You are unique individual who exists for a noble purpose. In this entire universe, no one else will ever be YOU. So, stop pretending to be someone else to fit in, to be liked or to get that promotion. Just be YOU, and when you do this, you will feel more alive and more fulfilled. You lose YOU when you listen to other people who tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. And by listening to their unsolicited advice, you separate from your true YOU. Here in this land of mellowing out, you-wallow in the fakeness that is not you, and you grow a disdain of this person you have become. But the urge to break free from the norm is unbearable, so you painstakingly remain their indulgent servant for the rest of your lifetime. Come on!
Just do yourself a favor and stop giving in to other people’s crap. Stand strong to be YOU, even if it means to be all alone in the island of authenticity. Because at the end of it all, you will feel far more true to who you are, and by your example, others may find a hero to emulate. But if you don’t even know who YOU are anymore, start with the baby step of taking a moment to just connect with you. Shut down the noise and be only you in the world.
Imagine the possibilities of achieving the true purpose for which you were born to fulfill. As I said before—and it is worth repeating it again here—the only way you can get to understand YOU is to have a relationship with yourself. And you do this by taking time, like a day off or a quiet moment, to connect with your true YOU, the most authentic you. Doing small acts of self-care like this will free you from the shackles of unhappiness. It will truly put you on the path of becoming the star of your life.
Now it’s your time to break free, you can do this!
This is your chance to show the world what you are made of. Your gifts and talents are paramount in making this world a better place. You can no longer bury your head in the sand and expect to reach your full potential or to witness the expansion of human consciousness. But today you have a choice: to make a commitment to work on the projects that serve your inner YOU and advance the unique mission your soul came here to pursue. By consciously planning your time to rejuvenate, rekindle, rethink, reevaluate, re-strategize and review, you will break free from the shackles that have chained you to a life of mediocrity.
What have you done for YOU lately?
Written by Mercy Njenga, Author of Say I Can, now available at amazon.com.