Tag: Self-belief

Share Your World 2015 – Week 45

inspiringmax

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?

I love having fun. Doing something spontaneous that involves lots of laughter. I may be in my 50’s but I am happy to play games and have fun at every opportunity.

What is your favorite time of day?

I don’t think I really have one. Although there is something beautiful about sunrise and sunset.

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want have a evening with?

I would love to spend an evening with Louise Hay. She is a very powerful motivator and positive thinker. She thinks outside the box, has many creative ideas to solve problems and literally hundreds of positive daily affirmations. She is also the owner of Balboa Press the self-publishing company I am using to publish my book next year so I am sure she could supply some great tips.

Louise Hay

“Don’t be afraid to be you. The world needs your unique brand of awesomeness.” Louise Hay

Complete this sentence: Something that anyone can do that will guarantee my smile is… 

Smile at me. I will always return a genuine smile and connect with the other person. If I smile at someone first and they return my smile, my smile gets bigger.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful for family time celebrating my son’s birthday and my work Christmas party celebrating together the year that was 2015. This week I am looking forward to getting back to blogging more regularly as life has gotten in the way a bit recently.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/11/09/share-your-world-2015-week-45/

Resilience

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What’s your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is my ability to cope with what ever comes my way. My life has been an interesting miss mash of experiences that have helped me developed my personal resilience. At times, I laughing joke that resilience is the one thing that I have achieved a high distinction in. Seriously however—personal resilience is no laughing matter. Although, it is the corner-stone of emotional intelligence. The following acrostic poem  describes some of the values my personal resilience has taught me.

Resourcefulness

Encouragement

Sincerity

Intuition

Logic

Integrity

Empowerment

Nurturance

Clarity

Empathy

To help you develop your personal resilience, look into the lessons your tough times have taught you. Moving forward they can turn into powerful tools that you can use to support yourself and others in times of need.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pride-and-joy/

Keep Believing

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What is the one thing at which you are the most afraid of failing?

In general I look at life through positive thoughts so I don’t think about failing.  I believe in myself and my ability to cope with what life throws my way. If something doesn’t work out the way I planned I look for the lesson for it, make a new plan and move forward. I believe focusing on failure and what I can’t do doesn’t help and fogs up my view of my reality.

This week many things that I couldn’t control came into my life and I was reminded of the above inspirational tweet. It would have been easy for me to focus on the negative aspects however, as challenging as this was, I continued to focus on the positive and believe everything would work out. I focused on what I could do.

To succeed at not letting what I couldn’t do interfere with what I needed to I acknowledged my fears, feelings and frustrations. These were the basis of the negative things that could happen and because I am a big picture person I made a small plan—just in case. That done with support from those around me I focused on the positive. I kept believing that everything would work out.

Now as I start a new week I am grateful that things are moving forward in the right direction and non of my fears transpired. In hindsight, I am happy my mindfulness and positive thinking worked out and should a similar situation happen again, I will again follow John Wooden’s advice.

If you find yourself  focusing on what you can’t do, take a moment believe in what you can do and see where it leads you.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/must-not-fail/

Things I’ve Learnt

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Have you ever considered what you have learnt? The following list reflects my first thoughts after pondering this topic.

  •  I can do anything I want by breaking my goal down into small practical steps
  • Adequate sleep is essential for my mental health
  • Connecting with people brings me joy–in person and in the blogging community
  • Acknowledging my feelings takes away their power over me
  • I can do anything I really set my mind to by seeking the right help and guidance
  • Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but one of strength
  • My choices need to reflect my priorities to achieve my goals
  • Mindfulness colouring-in books are great for stress relief
  • We teach others how to treat us by how we treat ourselves
  • Colour lifts my mood
  • Positive thinking is powerful
  • When life is difficult I work out what I can practically do in the moment—the rest can wait till later
  • Drinking water makes my body work better
  • Spending ME time daily is important
  • Spending time visiting others blogs is an important part of the joy of blogging
  • If I just do things instead of procrastinating about them I save time
  • When one door closes a window with a better view usually opens
  • Getting back to nature grounds me
  • Get the facts then make decisions—don’t assume
  • If in doubt—Google

Chances

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What’s the biggest chance you ever took? Did it work out? Do tell!

Change

I think for me the scariest chance I have taken was last year when I started Inspiring Max.  I had considered it for many years before finally plucking up the courage to find my online voice. It is a decision I don’t regret taking and I write about the lessons I have learnt from the experience in my first blogiversary post, which can be found at  https://www.inspiringmax.com/first-blogiversary/

When it comes to chances I agree with my childhood hero, Mary Tyler Moore that we grow from our mistakes. I love this quote and find it powerful when I need extra motivation to do something like the first time I pressed publish on a blog post. The next scary chance for me to take when I am ready is to send my book to the editor, hopefully sometime in the next few months. Thanks for joining me as I continue to change my life, take more chances and see where they take me.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/take-a-chance-on-me/

Never Helpless

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Helplessness: that dull, sick feeling of not being the one at the reins. When did you last feel like that –- and what did you do about it?

I don’t ever feel helpless. If I feel something needs to change in a situation I think outside the square to find an answer to the problem. Sometimes the leader may require help, I may need more explanation of what is really going on or life may have suddenly taken a tragic turn that needs managing. Whatever the reason feeling helpless just takes away my power. I hope you enjoy the following acrostic poem of how I turn HELPLESS into HOPE.

Hopeful an alternative could be found

Eager and encouraged to look for a solution

Liberated to have an idea

Pleased to put it forward

Liking the response I received

Empathetic to our leader

Safe in the knowing

Self-doubt didn’t stop me finding hope

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/helpless/

Help Me Please

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Is it easy for you to ask for help when you need it, or do you prefer to rely only on yourself? Why?

I am an independent, goal setting person who understands the power of being able to ask for help when I need it. This doesn’t mean I am weak. It means I am strong enough to say I need help and that I know how to get it. I understand the power of delegation—asking someone to do something for me. In most cases my asking for help may teach the other person a skill along the way. I find as a leader that my team recognise that importance of asking for help when they see me doing it naturally.

When I wanted to learn to blog I asked everyone I knew that blogged how to go about it. Piecing together all the information I  set up my blog. It took a lot of asking to finally get it running well however I am proud of my achievement. Something I would never have been able to do without help.

For me asking for help is about connecting with my needs. If I am too exhausted from a busy day at work and someone asks me whats for dinner I will say “whatever you get.” This triggers a chain of events from which dinner is sorted.

  1. The other person recognises that I am tired and not getting dinner.
  2. They decide if they have the energy and if so start preparing.
  3. We collectively decide how hungry we are and whether cheese on toast will fill the hole or if we want to order takeaway or go out to eat.

Either way for me the simple task of asking for help with dinner usually recharges me enough to pick up where I left off.

If I don’t understand something I ask rather than wasting time attempting to figure it out myself and getting nowhere. Let others help lessens your load, gets the job done quicker and brings you closer together. Asking for help also assists with setting boundaries with people as you decide who is the best person to help you with the task at hand rather than accepting someone not suitable because they offered.

Gift

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/i-am-a-rock/

Juggling Act

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How is this year shaping up so far? Write a post about your biggest challenges and achievements thus far.

For me, this year seems to be constantly giving me one theme—anything can happen. It is about learning to juggle even more balls in the air and see how much higher I can get them. Just when I think that I can’t juggle anymore someone comes along and says “I believe you can do this.”

Suddenly I decide let’s give it a chance anyway and I am taken to a new level and learnt a new skill. Sometimes its a bit surreal how it all comes together. Many years ago I learnt to juggle. Initially I used scarves to give me more time to learn the mechanics and then I was using balls. Once learnt juggling is a skill I haven’t forgotten but it definitely gets better the more I do it.

For me this is the same with my challenges. The more I choose to say—why not instead of why—the more I see my world open in different directions. This year I have changed my role at work and completed the A-Z April Challenge writing every day on a new letter of the alphabet whilst at the same time keeping up my usual blogging schedule. I have also learnt how to download my book as an e-book to help with the final stages of editing. Who knew I had the ability and only five months in. Certainly not me but I have kept pushing myself, learning new things and here I am reminding myself that I am not nearly as breakable as I thought and getting stronger by the day.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/state-of-your-year/

First Blogiversary

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On Mothers Day 2014 I bit the bullet and started a blog. I had no idea where this journey would lead me but I stepped out anyway and the following have been my rewards.

  1. I have met many new friends
  2. I am no longer scared of the internet
  3. Writing daily has helped my word order and editing skills
  4. I have a greater knowledge of countries around the world
  5. I have learnt to reach out to others by leaving a comment on their blog
  6. Understanding WordPress has helped me download my draft copy of my book as an e-book in Pressbooks
  7. I am learning to write poetry
  8. I am learning about search engine optimization
  9. I have been viewed by people in 114 countries some I didn’t know existed
  10. I am learning to fix things on my blog
  11. I am becoming more comfortable using my experiences as a basis for my writing in a public forum
  12. I have learnt to never assume anything and to make my writing clear
  13. Over the 12 months I have had 12, 567 views and have 415 followers
  14. I have learnt that visiting other blogs is as important as writing a post
  15. I have enjoyed several Blogging University courses and learnt a lot from them
  16. The A -Z April Blogging Challenge really tested me but I was excited to join it and complete all posts
  17. I now notice fun blog ideas and can gather the information ahead of time
  18. My audience continues to grow as I learn about traffic flow
  19. Blogging events help us to interact
  20. I have developed and understand my online voice and how it connects with others
  21. I have learned about many new cultures, people, places and things
  22. Finding peace in the blogging community
  23. I have developed confidence with my writing through feedback from others
  24. Learnt to use photos to enhance my posts
  25. I enjoy writing and designing quotes using Picmonkey
  26. I have learnt perseverance—it takes time to find your community blogging
  27. Never give up, keep chipping away at it
  28. Some things you can’t control and who how many people visit your blog is one of them

Thank you for joining me on my journey and I hope we continue to interact over the years to come in the blogosphere. My first ever post on Mother’s Day is here

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/journey/

 

Moving Forward

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When was the last time you did something completely new and out of your element? How was it? Will you do it again?

Moving Forward

I am regularly moving forward by stepping or often leaping out of my comfort zone to grow. Nothing exciting ever happens in our comfort zone. This time last year I was working my way up to begin blogging. And just to make it a harder I had decided to set my blog up on WordPress.org not WordPress.com. It took me weeks to get any views and after 2 months I had 34 views. I didn’t give up. I kept learning about the process, connecting with others and becoming more comfortable as a blogger. It feels natural now. I have had 12,250 views and am averaging about 50-70 views a day.

My latest journey out of my comfort zone is with Twitter. I don’t think I have any idea about its power but I am becoming more comfortable with it daily. Twitter for me is a double comfort zone as it has by name attached to it. Twitter is the next level of social media for me to connect with before I publish my book later this year. It feels a little more comfortable each day so I know I am moving forward in the direction of my dreams.

At the time I began writing my book my life was out of my comfort zone in many ways. I found Miley Cyrus’s The Climb extremely motivating and would play it loudly and regularly. This song describes the journey of moving forward and dealing with the difficulties faced during your climb to follow your dreams. It empowered me to do what I needed to do and see what happens. I am so glad I did. My life has changed for the better in so many ways and I am grateful I took the chances I did. Now when I need a shot of motivation I replay The Climb and re anchor the thought that I can do what ever I dream and that I don’t have to know how it will turn out first. I have learnt to trust the process.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/beyond-the-pale/