Posted on by Raj Daniels

Self-care

Do you have a self-care program? A system where you take time to prioritize yourself or have you chosen to sacrifice your well-being for others?

You’re probably familiar with the overplayed airline message of ‘put on your own mask before attempting to help others,’ but there is so much truth to this.

If you don’t take invest time in self-care then not only are you less effective for yourself, but also towards those whom you want to help.

When you prioritize caring for yourself not only will you benefit mentally and physically, you will also reap psychological and emotional benefits too.

Self-care doesn’t have to consist of hours of self-indulgence; it can be accomplished in just a few minutes a day. A few minutes set aside to breathe, to think, to move, to eat right all in order to replenish and rejuvenate your mind and body which will ultimately do wonders for you.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

The Wall

What will you do when you hit a wall? Not a physical wall, but a metaphorical wall?

When you hit a wall in your relationship will your first thought be, how can I get out of this?

When hit you hit a wall in your career will your first instinct be submission?

When you hit a wall in your health will you give up on yourself?

The wall in any aspect of your life is inevitable. Think of the wall as the fall before you learn to walk. Imagine if you had given up on your first attempt.

The size of the wall will be relative to size of what you are trying to accomplish. Almost anyone can hop over a single brick but only some have the skills and resourcefulness to overcome the big daunting walls.

How you think about the wall will determine your approach. If you see it as a dead end then that’s what it will be. However, if you see it as part of your journey to a worthwhile destination then your approach will be different and you’ll find a way to overcome it.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Re-focus

How will you see the world today?

What will you decide to put your attention on?

Will you start your day reading or listening to the news telling you about all the bad things going on in the world?

Will you focus on the traffic, the construction, the ‘bad weather?’

Will you be looking for faults in people around you?

Will you think about all the things you don’t have?

Or will you decide to re-focus and drive your attention towards all that is good around you and be grateful for what you do have?

Your attention is focused awareness and with practice you can train yourself to ignore things in your surroundings that you can’t change and focus on the things you can.

Try an experiment today. When you find yourself complaining or thinking about something negative that you have no control over, quickly re-focus to something positive in your life. Over time and with practice this will become easier as you re-wire your brain to your new habit and soon enough you will find this will be your new natural state.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Getting Even

What do you do when someone treats you poorly? Do you spend your time and energy thinking of ways to return the sentiment? Do you say things like, if that’s’ how they behave then I’m going to respond in a similar manner? Do you become more like them?

If you have a set of guiding principles that you believe in for your own life then why would you compromise them based on someone else’s actions. Yes, it can be easy in the moment to react with a, I’m going to show them attitude, but where does that get you.

Not responding when you feel attacked or slighted is difficult because your ego jumps in to protect your identity. But if you’re confident in your identity then why does it matter what someone else says to or about you?

Don’t spend your precious life dwelling on or thinking about what people have said and done that has hurt or offended you. Instead, refocus and think about all the people that have been kind and thoughtful towards you, and you’ll see that your life will be much brighter.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

No Complaining

Do you complain about things you can’t change, things that you have no control over? Why do you do this? Does it make you feel better or change the situation?

Do you complain about?

The weather

The traffic

Your coworkers

Your family

The news

The economy

Or do you have any other personal favorites?

Complaining puts things you don’t like into greater focus which in turn makes the thing you’re complaining about seem more relevant than it is.

What if today you made the choice not to complain about the things you can’t change? And instead of complaining you just re-focused your mind.

When you find yourself complaining about something that you have no control over, learn to get in the habit of quickly changing your thoughts towards something you’re grateful for. By practicing this over time you won’t even notice the things you once complained about.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

You’ve already won

If you’re reading this then you’ve already won. Why have you won?

You’ve won because:

You know how to read.

You have the time to read.

You have a device to read on.

You have the command of the powerful language in the world. Yes, the majority of all worldwide business communication is conducted in English.

So now that you know that you’ve already won, what will you do with your winnings? Will you squander all your time and skills on trivial activities that waste away all that you’ve already won, or will you build a life of opportunities? The choice is yours.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Empty Space

How often do you leave space in your life for magic to happen, to experience serendipitous interactions and opportunities?

Living with your days crammed with activities and things to do leave you with little or no room for ‘by chance encounters.’

You don’t have to schedule hours of empty space but you do have to make an effort to make time for opportunity. You can do something as simple as go to a coffee shop and talk to a stranger with no agenda or outcome in mind. You can take a walk without listening to music or talking on phone, just looking and absorbing your environment.

There are numerous examples in history, such as Newton and his apple or Archimedes and his bathtub where inspiration for a new idea struck when least expected because of empty space.

Make it a practice to add, or perhaps better said, to remove constant activity and input to your life. Leave some empty space for yourself and see what magic you experience.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

No Blueprint

Are you trying to follow a blueprint of someone else’s life to fix or improve your own life? The problem with blueprints, templates and other such mechanical terms is that they only work for mechanical objects.

Take a diet for example. A 100 people could be on the same diet down to the last calorie counted and measured, and yet there would be 100 different results because no two individuals are the same.

When you find yourself saying, but it worked for her or that’s how he did it, you are inviting yourself down a slippery road. You are making the error of assuming you are the same as the other person.

Now there are guidelines you can use to direct your life and they can help you move in the general direction towards what you want to accomplish but guidelines don’t guarantee ‘success.’

Someone else’s life blueprint can be a good starting point for you, but only as learning tool for you to continue to conduct your own life experiment and find a way to a unique to you.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Permission to Play

Do you give yourself permission to play; to lose yourself in an activity that you enjoy so much that time disappears?

It’s been said that play is essential to creativity. Playing enables your imagination to express itself in ways that you wouldn’t normally do in your everyday routines.

Playing is different for everyone and there are no set guidelines for the correct way to play. Playing for you could mean participating in sporting activities, wrestling with children or just watching movies.

As an adult you will always have ‘adult’ responsibilities as part of life and they will never go away. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give yourself permission to play. Indulge yourself occasionally in guilt free play time and don’t worry about all the other adult stuff, it’ll still be there when you’re done playing.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Start to Start

What personal project, goal or idea have you been putting off? What’s that one thing that you think about that you really want to do that you haven’t taken any action on? It could be as small as clean the junk draw or as big as travelling the world. What’s yours?

Make time today to write down one thing you want to do. And I don’t mean make a list or take a note. Write it out in long form and go in to as much detail as possible.  Describe what the end result will look like and what it will mean to you.

Starting is one of the best habits you can develop for yourself. Not only will you get more done but it’s only after starting that you can really grasp the effort required in accomplishing what you want and it will also help you decide if you really want to continue.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

How can I help you?

How can I help you?

How may I serve you?

What can I do for you?

These questions have magic within them. They have the power to transform your life if you ask them with a sincere desire to serve others.

These questions also require you to have an abundance mindset because you have to know and believe that you have enough time, energy and mental capacity in order to make time to do things for other people.

Research shows that when that when you help others you’ll receive the added benefit of feeling good about yourself too. So make helping others part of your daily routine.  Add these questions to your vocabulary, make a habit of using them often, and experience how your life changes when you commit to helping others.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Self-Worth

 

What is your self-worth tied to?

Is it tied to the amount of money you make, the number material possessions you have, your house, your car, your job, where you live? Would you have less self-worth if you lost any of the preceding items? Is it tied to how people see you? What if they were no longer in your life?

Self-worth begins from respecting yourself. It starts with appreciating who you are regardless of what you have. Now this sounds easy but you’ll be challenged daily by external forces such as family, friends,  media and advertising telling you that you’re not worthy until you have what they think is important.

Fighting these external forces is tough and you’ll often find yourself second guessing your self-worth because you begin to assess your value through the eyes of others. And you begin to measure yourself against other people.

The first steps to improving your self-worth are to stop tying your self-worth to possessions and to stop comparing yourself to others. Comparing yourself to others is not only destructive but it doesn’t make logical sense since each individual is made from a totally different set of DNA.

When you find yourself questioning your self-worth, challenge your inner thoughts, see yourself for who you are and commit to appreciating who you are and what you have.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Need or Want?

What are the things in life you need and what the ones you want? Finding a balance between the two can be challenging especially if you have trouble differentiating wants and needs.

Food/water, shelter and clothing were at one time considered basic needs and more recently sanitation, education and healthcare were added to the list. Now each one of these categories is vast and can span the spectrum from very basic to highly sophisticated.

Differentiating between a need and want can be tricky because the language seems to be interchangeable and external influences often lead you to believe that wants are needs.  The key is for you to use the language correctly.

Having wants is good in that it can push you and motivate you towards certain goals. But just remember that because you want something doesn’t mean you need it.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Why am I trying?

Have you ever asked yourself, why am I even trying? Why am I even trying to be happy, lose weight, earn more money, be in a relationship, build a business or any other endeavor?

The why am I trying question usually arises when whatever you’re attempting to do seems impossible. Or when you think it’s just way too hard to continue.  And it can be a very valid question. And in the question lies the answer. It’s in the ‘why?’

What is your motivation for trying? What will you gain, what will you become if you succeed and will you be strong enough and willing enough to pay the price?

Defining your reasons for why to start and also re-examining your why while you’re on your journey will help you decide if you should continue. The majority of people that quit going after what they want is because they stop asking why.

Keep your why in front of you. Read it or see in on a regular basis so that when things do get difficult you will know why you are trying.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Practice makes You

What do you think of when you hear the word practice? Do you think of athletes, musicians, perhaps religion or some other activity that requires repeated attention in order to improve? And you would be correct, but what about you? What do you practice?

When you see an athlete or performer practicing they are engaging in an intentional activity to improve their ability to perform. The same applies to you except you’re usually thinking or doing without being intentional, because it’s just how you are. Or is it?

When an athlete sees that something is no longer working for them they work to change to it, they practice something new. What about you?

Every behavior you perform on a regular basis regardless of it being positive or negative is a practice. It’s just that you don’t view it as practice or re-affirming, you just see it as who you are. The reason the athlete is motivated to change their behavior and practice something new is because their livelihood depends on it. The same should apply to you too, because ultimately your life depends on it.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Wish others happiness

Do you spend any of your time consciously wishing others well? Wishing them happiness and sending them good thoughts? Or are you so focused inward that the well-being, happiness and success of others never crosses your mind?

Wishing others happiness is not a natural behavior for everyone, but it can be learned with practice. I know you might be thinking ‘what if someone has done something to hurt or betray you, how can you wish them happiness?’ And this is a valid question. But how much time and energy can you spend being upset with them and what was your role in the situation?

Wishing others happiness can actually improve how feel about yourself because it shifts your mind, even if temporarily from thinking about your own problems and challenges.  Practice today to send thoughts of happiness to people you know and random strangers and experience how it changes your day.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Unlimited Resources

 

If you had unlimited time, money and energy what would you do with your life? Would you really be motivated to do anything productive?

Working within resource constraints naturally forces you to be more creative. It pushes your mind to find new and unique ways to produce results. Nature itself is designed to work and produce against constrained conditions and the strongest of any species are those that learn to adapt and thrive with limited resources.

Nothing you need to or want to start doing requires unlimited resources; in fact having limited resources forces you to be more resourceful.  Whatever you want to do, start today and remember, the only place you need to have unlimited resources is in your mind.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Superpower

What is your super power? The thing that you are so good at that you always feel confident when you do it? The skill that when you look back on your life you know you could always rely on?

If you don’t know, or are not sure what your super power is then think of a time when someone asked you ‘how do you that? You’re so good at that? Or, ‘that comes so easily to you? These are all clues to what your super power is. You can also think about activities that you really enjoy doing, productive activities that you would do for free.

Once you identify your super power then you can learn to nurture and grow it. You can design your life around it. You can find roles or jobs that leverage your inherent talent and when you do you will ultimately do and feel better.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Break your routine

Break one of your routines today. Choose one thing you do every day and change it just for today. It doesn’t have to be huge change; in fact it can be a small as using a different cup for coffee, using the opposite hand to brush your teeth or sitting somewhere else at work. Just something that feels a little different.

Making a small change to a routine will engage a different part of your brain and spark new connections. You’ll see the world differently and experience different emotions.

Breaking a routine can be a great gateway for creating new habits. It can give you the courage to eventually make bigger more drastic changes because you learn to get comfortable with change. Try it today, because you have nothing to lose. If you don’t like the change you can always go back to your routine.