Cherish The Day: Live Your Best Life!

Son Enjoying Time With His Elderly Father

Live Your Best Life: Focus On What Matters Most

Have you ever stopped to notice how fast our days seem to fly by? We wake up, bombarded with an insane amount of things we have to get done. Then, just like that, the day is over.

Of course, having the world at your fingertips doesn’t help to slow things down. It only adds to the chaos.

Today, I want to focus on what matters most in our lives. That could mean different things for different people. Nevertheless, each one of us has certain things they value more than others.

So, read ahead to find out how you can live your best life by focusing more on the things that matter.

The Most Important Things in Life

Having status and designer shoes are great and everything. But having them won’t make you any happier or healthier than the average person.

Another thing we tend to obsess over is what we don’t have. Sometimes, it becomes our driving force that can lead to negative habits and behavior.

Let me ask you this: do you want to live your best life today and every day? This is what you should do:

1. Identify What Matters the Most to You

First, take a step back and look at your life from a different vantage point. Next, try to dissect each aspect of your life. Which areas should you pay more attention to? Which should you cut back on?

To lead a balanced, well-fulfilled life, consider having one, or all, or the following. Maybe you can even add a couple of our own to the list.

A healthy body and mind
Family and friends
Money in the bank
The drive to constantly learn new things
A place to call home
Realistic goals and a purpose in life

The takeaway: Recognizing that what matters most in life has nothing to do with material possessions can help you appreciate what you have. Reconnecting with these things can lead to a better, happier, fuller life. It can also boost creativity and lower stress. It also gives you control over your happiness, rather than allowing external factors to affect your inner peace.

2. Listen and Pay Attention

While it’s important to listen to those close to you in life, it’s much more than that. It’s also about listening to yourself and paying attention to your likes and dislikes. This is a measure of your true worth and how much you love yourself.

Self-love requires practice, but it gets easier with time. When you’re at peace with yourself, you allow yourself to love others in a healthy, mature relationship.

The takeaway: Show yourself the same kindness and compassion you show others. When you look in the mirror, focus on the good rather than the bad. Treat yourself to nice things and be happy with who you are.

3. Be in the Present

Too often, we find ourselves regretting the past or worrying about the future. However, what matters the most is the moment we’re living right here and now.

Connecting with the world around you makes you appreciate what you have. The more you’re in tune with your ‘present,’ the more you’ll realize just how precious life can be.

As Earl Nightingale said, “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life…Think how really precious the time is you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.”

The takeaway: Being self-aware helps bring tranquility and happiness into your life. In turn, the happier and calmer you are, the more things you’ll find to be thankful for.

4. Find a Hobby

Hobbies are the things you do for fun in your free time. They can range from knitting to deep-sea diving to jumping from airplanes.

Your experiences in life are what make it worth living. They give it meaning and shape the way you see others around you. Doing something you enjoy has been widely hailed as one of the best stress reducers of our time.

You can also use it to push your boundaries a bit and step out of your comfort zone. Sometimes, the idea of doing something new can be terrifying. If this happens to you, recognize your fear. Then, tell yourself it’s okay to be nervous about something new.

The takeaway: Live your life. Be eager to try out new experiences. They’re what add fulfillment and richness to your life.

5. Practice Positive Habits

Identifying positive habits and carrying them out daily brings order to your life. Good habits also result in good physical and mental health.

With a steady routine, you can reduce distractions that stand in the way of your accomplishing things. They also help steer you towards making better decisions. Studies show that by creating routines and enforcing good habits, you become better at taking care of your life, health, and overall well-being.

The trick is to be authentic to your values and beliefs. Let’s be honest, that can be hard to do in this media-frenzy world we’re living in. Yet, just having confidence in who you are can help shine the light on what matters most in your life.

The takeaway: Your thoughts are expressed through your words and, ultimately, your actions. Those actions turn into habits, so make sure you stick to enforcing positive habits in your life.

Final Thoughts

These five things are just some of the ways you can focus on what matters most in your life. At the end of the day, what it boils down to is that to live your best life, you have to focus on certain things over others.

Remember, what matters more to you may not be as important to others. So, stay true to your values and hold on to the things you treasure more in life.

“Caregivers Trials to Triumph”

No matter what came Lisa’s way, nothing was going to stop her from her dream of being a nurse.

Did you know that successful people deal with adversity? It’s true. If you read or hear the stories or profiles of most successful people they have a trial to triumph story. They use their life stories as a tool to show that you too can make your dream reality. Everyone likes a story of grit, grind, and conquer. As a caregiver you have daily successes because of the adversities that come with caregiving. Recognize your strength and flexibility to triumph in making quick decisions.

You should read the profiles of successful people. They contain gems of information and can act as a resource for everyone else. The story is one aspect of reading about them. However, how they dealt with the situation is often a source of inspiration. When you become inspired, you increase your chances of facing and working through your own problems.

Inspiration last for only a period of time. You need to continue connecting yourself to people who are where you want to be. If you can, try to set aside time to read one story of a successful person every month. It will help you with your inspiration, and it can inspire you to rethink your course and learn from their mistakes.

The stories of some people are dated. However, their techniques may be timeless. A perfect example of this is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The stories themselves describe people and occupations of days long gone. But, his techniques are as valid today as they were back then.

Reading is great and all, however execution is what make things happen. If you don’t take action you will not see any results. A plan without action is just a wish and wishing is not going to create the life you desire. People dream all the time, but those dreams can become reality when you put forth the work.

Reading the stories of people who are successful and knowing their adversities that they have and are conquering, helps create a connection of “Hey, they are just like me!” Hard work, determination, focus, strategy, and most of all a shift in their mindset is the common theme you see in successful people. Persistence and having a positive attitude during challenging times will take you far in facing any situation.

In the midst of you learning from successful people, you will be inspiration for someone else. Don’t hide your gifts and superpowers due to adversity, if anything push through. Know that you are not alone in dealing with challenges in life. Rich or poor, young or old, black or white, adversity has no prejudice of person. Be inspired, take action, and create the life you want.

When you digest stories of successful people, trials and triumphs, and connect with how they became successful, it will shift your mindset to greater. You become what you feed your mind, body, and soul.

Adversity Comes With Success

Traits of Self-Disciplined People

By: Roz Jones

Whether you’re looking for a metric of how self-disciplined you are or you’re looking for some habits that you should form to be more self-disciplined, you should know that self-disciplined people have certain traits in common.

Not all self-disciplined people are the same and there are other traits that it wouldn’t hurt you to develop as you work toward your own self-discipline. Still, here are five of the most important traits of self-disciplined people.

They Respect And Chase Their Passions

Self-discipline can be, well, a discipline. It doesn’t have to be, however. If you have something that you’re truly passionate about, you won’t have to push yourself to do it because you’ll want to do it and do it well.

If you have trouble keeping yourself working, it could just be that you aren’t truly passionate about what you’re doing. It could help to take a second look at what you’re doing. It must be important to someone, so maybe it can be important to you. Alternatively, it may just be time to keep your eyes open for opportunities to do something that you care more about.

They Power Through

Even if you do something that you are passionate about, sometimes you just don’t feel productive. This is when better self-discipline can come in handy.

Another trait of self-disciplined people is that they are able to remain at work when they don’t feel productive. This may sound like all of self-discipline but it’s really just one aspect of it.

If you can’t work when you don’t feel productive, it can be hard to train yourself to it. Try to find things that make time more bearable for you, like focusing on what you’re doing instead of how long you’ve been doing it or have left to do it. Or, look at time in smaller blocks like working from now until your next break instead of from now until the end of the day. Having a cup of tea is a healthy snack or listening to music while you work can also help the time go by more pleasantly.

They Manage Their Emotions

Self-discipline isn’t just about working, it’s also about how you carry yourself around others. If you think of someone who has no self-discipline, perhaps a spoiled child or an unruly rock star, you don’t think about how little they work, you think about how they behave.

Self-discipline is very much about not “acting out” your emotions. This can be important to prevent you from snapping at people you are mad at, but it can also prevent you from snapping out at people you aren’t mad at just because you’re mad.

Doing this can mean learning how to calm yourself down, learning how to vent your emotions in healthy ways, or at least learning how to communicate to people when you are in a bad mood so that they understand that you aren’t mad at them.

They Understand Their Emotions

On that note, self-discipline is also very much about self-knowledge and self-control. In order to maintain your self-discipline, you need to understand how you act when you aren’t watching – so to speak.

For this reason, mindfulness meditation can be very helpful for self-disciplined people because it increases self-awareness by helping you to understand your feelings and thought processes.

They Understand Their Environment

Finally, self-disciplined people are usually also very aware of those around them. Self-discipline is a very personal thing, but it is also very much about the way in which you interact with your environment. As a result, understanding and appreciating your environment can help you to practice self-discipline. If you don’t understand or care about your environment, why should you bother monitoring how you impact it?

Self-discipline is a scary term because we think of “discipline” as punishment. This is unfortunate because self-discipline doesn’t have to be painful and is more about awareness than it is about austerity. It’s also about developing your passion so that you are more excited to do your part.

Reasons Why You Should Prioritize Self-Care

By: Roz Jones

Self-care refers to any activity that we engage in to maintain and nourish our health, including mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. While it may seem like an obvious concept, self-care often gets cast aside for more pressing priorities such as work, family and the everyday pressures of life. There are many reasons why you should prioritize self-care and we’ve listed six of the most important below.

1. Improves mood

Investing time in your own care can have a major impact on your mood, leading to greater optimism and positivity. It will help you to feel happier, more satisfied and better able to cope with the challenges that life throws you way. Even taking a small amount of time per week to nurture your physical, emotional and mental health can be hugely beneficial on your mood.

2. Helps relationships

Self-care helps you to be the best person you can be, which in turn as a positive impact on your relationships. Taking regular time to invest in your personal health allows you to be happier and more stable as an individual. This has a flow on effect as it allows you to be more patient and accommodating with others and therefore have better relationships.

3. Decreases risk of burnout

We all lead busy lives and regular investment in self-care is necessary to avoid burnout. Find a form of self-care that works for you, whether that be taking a walk, spending time with family or getting a massage, and commit to engaging in it regularly. It will help to manage your stress and prevent burnout.

4. Makes you become more present

Spending time managing yourself allows you to become more present and engaged with your surroundings. You are likely to have a better understanding of what it takes to maintain your mental, physical and emotional health, thus resulting in you having a greater focus on your current mood and trigger that have the potential to impact your health.

5. Better performance

Self-care is often seen as indulgent, when in actual fact it can have a much broader impact. Looking after yourself helps to maintain your health, which in turn allows you to perform better in all aspects of your life: work, family, sport.

6. Increases quality of life

The overarching benefit of self-care is that it increases the quality of your life. By helping you to be healthier, have better relationships and be more present, self-care allows you to live a more fulfilling life.