Start early today

Tag: Gratitude

Dedicating today’s work to further all things good

By dedicating your efforts to furthering all things good, you are setting a positive intention and aligning your actions with values of kindness, compassion, and positivity. May your work today contribute to the betterment of yourself, others, and the world around you. To further all things good in todays work, here are some ways you can incorporate positive actions:

1. Practice kindness and empathy: Treat your colleagues, clients, and customers with kindness and empathy. Show understanding and compassion towards their needs and concerns.

2. Foster a positive work environment: Create a supportive and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued and respected. Encourage teamwork, collaboration, and open communication.

3. Volunteer or support charitable causes: Look for opportunities to give back to your community or support causes that align with your values. This could involve volunteering your time, donating resources, or organizing fundraising events.

4. Mentor and support others: Share your knowledge and expertise with others, especially those who are starting their careers or seeking guidance. Offer mentorship, advice, and support to help them grow and succeed.

5. Practice ethical decision-making: Make choices that align with ethical principles and consider the impact of your actions on others and the environment. Strive to act with integrity and honesty in all aspects of your work.

6. Promote sustainability: Incorporate environmentally friendly practices into your work. Reduce waste, conserve resources, and promote sustainable initiatives within your organization.

7. Encourage personal and professional growth: Support the development and growth of yourself and others. Provide opportunities for learning, training, and skill-building to help individuals reach their full potential.

8. Foster a culture of gratitude: Express appreciation and gratitude for the contributions of others. Recognize and acknowledge the efforts and achievements of your colleagues and team members.

9. Seek opportunities for positive impact: Look for ways to make a positive difference in your work. This could involve initiating projects that address social or environmental issues, advocating for positive change, or supporting initiatives that benefit the community.

10. Lead by example: Be a role model for others by embodying the values and behaviors you wish to see. Demonstrate integrity, professionalism, and a commitment to doing good in all aspects of your work.

Remember, even small actions can have a significant impact. By consciously incorporating these practices into your work, you can contribute to creating a more positive and meaningful work environment and make a difference in the lives of others.

6 Qualities to Develop In Creating a Better Version Of Yourself

The fact that you are reading this proves that you are not only curious but you are taking charge in improving your current state. We can let nature mold us and wait until our environment pushes us to drive progress forward but some of us are ready to take the steps even before it is needed.

Maybe it is you, the curious one, the one who wants to design his or her own life despite the situation you are in. You maybe doing ok and surviving but there is more to life if you seek and get a little curious and courageous. Sharpen these values and observe yourself progress in ways you never imagined.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Abraham Lincoln

1. Optimism

People who accomplish worthwhile goals are optimistic. Make time to cultivate an optimistic attitude on life. There is always two sides of the story. How you approach everything that happens to you is a skill that can be turned into a habit. Kill the ANT (Automatic Negative Thoughts) before they send you down on a spiral. An optimistic attitude will bring more opportunities to you. There is always a positive side to everything. Instead of complaining “Why is this happening to me?” Turn it around to “How is this the best thing that ever happened?” or “What is this situation teaching me”. Give everyone and everything a space where in you can shift the negative to neutral to positive. 3 long deep breaths are one of the good tools to create space to respond with more optimistic choice.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

– C S Lewis

2. Adaptability

Everything is in constant motion and change. We suffer when we resist this natural law. The mind loves to stick to what it knows and is afraid of what it doesn’t know. Accept that everything will change, it will or it won’t, it may or may not. Most people are afraid of loss, not necessarily a physical loss but it can be a loss of rhythm, relationship, authority, etc. Being adaptable will help you become more stable along these unpredictable changes. Stretch your psychological flexibility. Think of who you were 5 years ago and compare it to who you are today? In what ways did you adapt? Adaptation breeds resilience and if you intentionally develop your adaptation capabilities, you will open up and will be able to connect yourself to new exciting experiences.

“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher.” 

– Chinese Proverb

3. Passion

Make time to know what you are passionate about. Find it through engagement, most things that you think is your passion might not be after a couple of days of doing it. Know beyond the surface, try the law of 100. Doing it a hundred times and ask again if you are still in love with it. Passion can also be the way you look at life, an endless discovery and trial and error. Most importantly it is not what you do but why and how you do it. Try where your curiosity is at, engage in it and stay flexible on where your muse takes you.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

– Harriett Tubman

4. Self – Confidence

Having purpose and passion as your foundation. Following frameworks for disciplined practice. You are going to develop confidence. Dan Sullivan’s 4 C’s is a good framework. Commitment, Courage, Capability then Confidence. To achieve the power of self confidence, start with intrinsic motivation. What motivates you? What do you stand for? Who are you? What needs to happen today for you to become fully you?

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

–Vincent Van Gogh

5. Self Discipline

Learn to be self disciplined by being clear with your goals. When you got what you desire on paper, identify steps you need to take to be able to be that type of person. Self discipline is being a pro, putting your goal in the highest regard. Doing what needs to be done is more important than your feeling about it. Action precedes inspiration. When you are self disciplined, you don’t wait till you feel like it, you do it regardless. Try an experiment where in you do something within a certain timeframe say (walking for 20 minutes daily) for 66 days logging in your progress. You’d be surprised by its compounding effect. There is a version of yourself you haven’t met yet.

“Happiness is dependent on self-discipline. We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. It is much easier to do battle with society and with others than to fight our own nature.”

– Dennis Prager

6. Courage

If you want something to happen that has never been, you must be willing to do things you have never done. Summon up the courage to try that thing you’ve been wanting to do. Courage is the ability to try and pursue knowing that failing is a possibility. Fail fast, learn quick, don’t take anything personally and keep on going with a growth mindset. Do it afraid if you will, feeling the fear but doing it anyway will develop courage in you. So cut the overthinking and just go.

“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”

– Aristotle

Conclusion

Pay attention on how you are developing these qualities. Know that it is in your power to improve and change the way things are for the better. These are values you can cultivate for free, all you need is a little intention and consistency. From time to time ask yourself; how am I being optimistic, adaptive, passionate, confident, disciplined and courageous right now?

6 Mental Practices That Will Fundamentally Change the Way You Look Your Life

Much of our Peace and happiness comes not from outside of us but how we see and perceive a certain thing. The same is true for its counterpart, much of our pain and suffering is not outside of us but it is self inflicted. Know how to operate in harmony with the nature of your mind and new worlds of wonderful and beautiful things shall enter your world.

Are you bothered and irritated most of the time? Do you find yourself listening to your negative voices that talk non stop? The first important thing is to realize that you want this to change. Solutions need not be expensive and should come from outside of you like medication and therapy. You have the power to fix your mental health from the inside. Here are 6 key principles and how to integrate them into your day to day to further improve your mental well-being.

1. Become The Observer

learning this skill greatly increases your overall well-being. Seeing yourself as the awareness of your thoughts and behavior puts you in a position to control how you are going to respond with wider understanding and compassion.

To become the observer, take a deep breath and look at everything from a birds eye view. See yourself as a person undergoing a moment of experience right now. It may be eventful or non eventful. Pay attention to the things going on with or without your preferences. Like cars passing by, clouds appearing and disappearing, you can even see and feel the whole world happening without your participation.

Knowing this you relieve yourself of anxiety and realize that much of the things bothering you are really of no importance. All are just opinions of the mind and you can rise up and be bigger than its chatter.

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

– Marcus Aurelius

2. Be Open To Accept

Accepting things that you cannot change and changing things that you can. I’m pretty sure we heard this one. Not accepting a situation or an idea creates resistance in your over all well-being. There are billions of people on earth with varying ideas and preferences, accepting the truth that we are all different opens us up for creative collaboration rather than the zero sum game of competition.

Get passed your initial reaction of dismissing an idea presented to you. Things come to your domain of familiarity for a reason. Take a moment to look at things and first observe how it feels, then accept it as it is. Nobody can force you to act on things against your will but it is vital to accept and respect the diverse sentiments of others.

Remember, your initial reaction mostly comes from the ego’s perspective of self preservation. Preserving something it holds of value, maybe its preferences, its comfort, its programming. They might be true to some extent but make time to inquire is this Universally an absolute truth from all angles?

Look to nature, as the mountain accepts the storm. Be like this. Widen your capability to accept. That is what we are here for, to grow in ways on how we perceive the beauty of everything and each and every moment.

Next time when you find yourself stuck in traffic, take a deep breath and have no feeling about it. Just do traffic with no opinions added. Just acceptance.

“Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance.”

– Gautama Buddha

3. Declutter The Mind

Much like your closet and your desk, the mind tends to get cluttered. But instead of material things, it is often times overloaded with memories, concepts, programming, opinions and random thoughts. Anxious and confused state of being is just simply a lack of organization. The nature of the mind to paint pictures of doubt and threat is actually to our benefit, it lead us to think and evolve to what we are today. But not knowing how to use the mind will bring detriment instead of benefit. Evolution brought us here and it doesn’t end there, we still need to know how to operate in harmony with the brilliance of the mind. It is a double edged sword, like fire or technology, it can either make or break you.

“Your brain is a weights only three pounds but it processes 70,000 thoughts each day using 100 billion neurons that connect at more than 500 trillion points through synapses that travel 300 miles/hour.”

– Healthybrains.org

Can you wrap your head around these numbers? It is truly astounding. So now that we know how powerful our brains are, it is time to know how to use it. Your brain doesn’t stop thinking because it is its nature but you aren’t required to act on each and every one of them. Mind only gets cluttered when you believe each and every thought it comes across with. Declutter the mind by mindful breathing, noticing the thoughts and letting them pass by. One of my favorite phrases is “Be Engaged, Not Entangled”.

4. Cultivate Compassion

Most people are contaminated by negativity and this is not due to their destiny or the cards they were dealt with. It’s just they do not know yet that things could be different. Being judge mental and critical of self and others will raise up your stress levels and will do damage on your well being and relationships. Self compassion is a powerful coping mechanism that will change the way you see the world. Start by being compassionate with yourself. It all starts within you. I like to use Louise Haye’s meditation of imagining yourself and others as babies. This will immediately bring forth compassion because the nurturing nature of yourself will activate making you want to tend and take care of life. That no one is doing you wrong, a baby couldn’t do wrong, you are here to take care of the children in everyone you encounter. So give that a try.

Imagine the unconditional love of God for people, imagine the unconditional love of parent to child. It doesn’t reprimand nor judge. It is just there for you. This type of unconditional love is called Agape. You are able to access this Love within and only when it overflows then you share it with others.

Loving yourself First will diminish cumulative stress, foster better relationships, stand composed during tense situations. Cultivate this unconditional love for self and others and discover a version of your self that is calmer and stronger.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion,”

– The Dalai Lama 14

5. Enumerate Your Blessings

Let’s go deeper than counting your blessings. Enumerate and write them down. Write 3 things you are grateful for right now. Think of the things you have now and didn’t you just years ago only have them as desires? Celebrate your wins no matter how small. Being in the state of Gratitude opens you up for more blessings. It shifts your attention from what you don’t have to things that you have now and will have. Gratitude unshackles you from toxic spiraling negative thoughts. So take a break pursuing things you don’t have yet and focus and praise the things you have now.

“Being grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you least feel thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you: perspective. Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest most powerful way to effect change in your life — this I know for sure.”

– Oprah Winfrey

6. Increase Your Aq (Adversity Quotient)

Your Adversity Quotient is your ability to overcome and endure obstacles to turn them into opportunities. If you choose to broaden your Aq, you will be more adaptable in stressful situations. Have an approach mindset instead of avoid, be proactive rather than reactive. The more hard things you can handle, the easier it gets in the future. Facing the truth, being accountable and responsible for the nearest task at hand for the greater good will help you increasing your Adversity Quotient. Remember, everything has a solution and can be progressed and fixed. Are you gonna give up or warrior up? The up is up to you. Face some challenges, voluntarily lift something heavy and you’ll be resilient and won’t be stressed easily.

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

– Walt Disney

Conclusion

These 6 insights are of no use until practiced. Start with one and keep it on in your mind all throughout the day and know when to apply them. Knowledge is only power when applied. May you look at things with more compassion, gratitude, curiosity gaining resilience along the way.

Let’s get better together ❤️‍🔥 sign up below

https://makepurethyheart.substack.com/

Startearlytoday

Startearlytoday is here to inspire, motivate, and encourage with mindset models, simple principles, book highlights and more. 

Get Connected

Facebook-f Twitter Instagram

Copyright © 2023. Startearlytoday. All Rights Reserved.