Create Your Courageous Life
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.” Albert Einstein
Create Your Courageous Lifestyle
Do you have dreams, ideas, ambition, desire, energy, compassion, tenacity, drive and motivation? Do you want more out of life? What do you see yourself doing? What is holding you back? Is life, people, circumstances or finances holding you back? Are YOU holding YOU back?
What does a courageous lifestyle look like to you? Lifestyle is defined as the way in which a person or group lives. You get to decide every day how you want to show up in your daily space. Yes, we do not have control of some outside factors, but we have control over us from the inside - out.
When you make a cake, you fold in different ingredients to get the full flavor, texture and consistency for your cake. By folding in the courageous lifestyle ingredients below you are: (1) Adding life-changing dimensions to your life that no one can take away. Those around you whether for a day or a lifetime will reap the overflow of you. (2) You are breaking the mold the world is trying to put you in. Every day we are given messages of what we are to do, who to be and how to live and look like. It feels like some days we are on an assembly line waiting for the mold to shape us.
When you incorporate a courageous lifestyle, you are breaking the mold.
How to Create Your Courageous Lifestyle!
Choose one COURAGEOUS LIFESTYLE INGREDIENT below. Practice it every day for a week, then fold in another one. Repeat!§Do it afraid: In my recent blog I wrote about good fears and bad fears. Bad fear tells us what not to do "you can't, you shouldn't, it's too risky." Good fear awakens us to the fact that an opportunity has arrived. It is an indicator of what we should do. Living courageously shifts your focus away from trying to remove fear to leaning into it.
“The key to whole-hearted living is vulnerability. You measure courage by how vulnerable you are.” Dr. Brené Brown
§Be Vulnerable: Have you ever experienced feeling or being vulnerable? Those feelings you get when in moments of uncertainty, or emotional exposure that come when you are revealing your feelings and you are unsure of the response you will get from others. Creating your courageous lifestyle includes being vulnerable which weaves in courage.
§Gratitude: When we express gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin. These two crucial neurotransmitters make us feel 'good' and enhance our mood immediately, making us feel happy from the inside. Instead of complaining start saying: I’m grateful because: I get to have a job, I get to buy groceries, I get to take my kids to school. When you add this ingredient to creating a courageous lifestyle, you start fostering resilience.
§Let Go of Your Past: Just like second-hand smoke and junk food are not good for you, so is any toxicity from your past. Your past does not define your future. No matter what you did in the past or what others have done to you, you are more than the pain of your past. Your future is bright and full of great opportunities.
§Give Yourself Grace: We all mess up and make mistakes, so we need to extend grace to ourselves. We need to say, “I blew it, I messed up, I blew my temper.” Give yourself grace you will accomplish your goals, in due time. Do not compare yourself to others. Giving yourself grace will cultivate patience in your courageous lifestyle. You are enough.
§The Five-Minute Rule: Do not spend even five minutes obsessing about something that will not matter in five years, five months or five weeks from now. How much energy do you spend thinking about things that do not matter? It robs you of joy, peace, opportunities to be had, enjoying people who value you and moving forward in your life.
§Live Every Day As If It Were Your Last: There is something about thinking today may be your last day. It wakes you up to do something with your life, make your dreams a reality, forgive, love others more or do something on your bucket list. Do not live in fear that today may be your last day, but live today with determination … adventure, nothing holding you back, grace, peace, love, joy, laughter, courage, and forgiveness.
§Forgive (forgive yourself first): Forgiving someone does not mean what they did to you was okay. Extending forgiveness is about setting yourself free. Have you heard the saying “unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die?” Forgive others and yourself!
§Know Your Why: Knowing your why is the first step in figuring out how to achieve the goals that excite you and create a life you enjoy living (versus merely surviving!). Your why is your calling, personal conviction, mission statement and vision. Simon Sinek says every one of us has a WHY, a deep-seated purpose, cause, or belief that is the source of our passion and inspiration.
‘Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows, and live your todays.” — Anonymous
‘The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.’ — Martha Washington
