How are your daily actions effecting your dream life?

We all have our daily rituals and routines.  We wake up at the same time, eat the same breakfast, drive the same route to work, listen to the same news station in the car, type a version of the same email, drive home, eat dinner (often in front of the TV) and then go to bed.  This pattern day in and day out creates deep rooted habits that seems impossible to change.  When we reflect on our daily patterns we can easily identify flaws and areas to fix – but we don’t.  We don’t fix these areas because the fear of change or the complexities of how to change overwhelm us and we feel safer staying the way we are.  

We feel safer with an extra 10 pounds because its just too much trouble to diet.  We feel safer in a job we hate because it gives us a weekly paycheck.  We feel safer in a relationship we aren’t happy in because what if we end up alone?  We have created routines and rituals that no longer challenge or uplift us.  But what if you could slowly implement simple small changes throughout the day that could uproot the mundane and put you on a path towards living a joyful life? Imagine that life!  Imagine every moment of the day being exciting, powerful, and important!  What would that be like?  What if we could address the fear of change, acknowledge the process, and embrace the future?  Does that excite you?  I certainly hope it does!

I want you to do a little dreaming today.  Close your eyes and imagine your perfect life.  What do you look like in that life?  How are you interacting with people?  Listen to the laughter and the stories being told!  What are your surroundings? Are you by a roaring fire with family or sitting on a beach with not a care in the world.  Feel the heat on your back or the sand between your toes.  How do you feel in this life?  Are you relaxed, at peace, feeling free from worry?  As you’re dreaming of this life I want you to dive in a bit deeper into this life.  Acknowledge the details of this life.  Wrap yourself in this life and feel the excitement, the freedom, the joy.  

So now that we know how we want to feel and what we want to experience out of life – it’s time to get it!  I challenge you to create new rituals that will bring you closer to this dream life every single day.  We’re faced with decisions all day every day.  And we can be lazy in our choices.  But what if you broke it down and acknowledged each choice by saying: “Is this bringing me closer to my goal or pushing me farther away?” By asking this simple question every single day, you are actively creating your future as opposed to letting life take you wherever it goes.  

Here are 5 powerful examples of thoughtful daily action that will help you on your path towards your dream life: 

1) When you wake up in the morning, say something positive about the day, your life, your body, and welcome the day with gratitude instead of annoyance.

2) When you look at yourself in the mirror for the first time that day give yourself praise for being alive and pump yourself up for the day.  Do this instead of looking at your flaws and tearing yourself apart before you get in the shower.

3) When you’re commuting to and from work, turn off the radio and listen to something that motivates you.  If you don’t like your job and want to do something else, then listen to every possible book or podcast about that subject and immerse yourself in that dream job.  The more you’re absorbing the more it becomes a part of you.

4) During the day find time to give someone praise.  It could be for the simplest task, but acknowledge their work.  I want you to look at how your words change the shape of their face!  I feel such joy when I see someone smile and blush at a compliment!  You’ve made a difference in that person’s world today! That might be the first compliment they’ve heard in months. 

5) When you get home and you have the choice of work or TV OR acknowledging your spouse, kids, roommate, etc. I challenge you to consciously make the effort to choose connection.  Choose to connect and listen to the people in your life.  This small act of listening can be the one thing that makes a difference in that person’s day.  

Bonus:  This one is too important not to share.  I recommend starting a gratitude journal.  Every night write down all the good things that happened to you that day!  You can even take it a step farther and create a gratitude journal for someone else and every single day write something wonderful about that person.  By acknowledging and recognizing all the positives in your life it encourages you to keep doing these daily actions. 

We have been given the freedom of choice.  We have been given the freedom to dream and to create.  We have the tools, the resources, and the will to live our dream life.  

We are in the last week of January 2015 and many of our big dreams for this year have already faded into the background.  It is time to revisit and give more attention to these dreams.  This dream is yours for a reason.  Don’t wake up a year from now having not moved the needle forward.  Ask yourself every single day: "Is this bringing me closer to my goal or pushing me farther away?“ Decide your future and live your dream life!

xo

Becky 

When I think of New Year’s Resolutions I think of these GRAND ideas, dreams, goals that will change my life!  Getting a house, making a certain income, losing “x” amount of weight, etc.  Sometimes these goals are so huge and I put so much pressure on them that I set myself up for failure.  

Have you ever felt like that?  You put so much pressure on achieving the goal right away that when it doesn’t happen by February you just say “ah well - I guess that wasn’t meant to be.”  Or you say “well someday it will happen.”  We give all of our power away to “someday” within a few short weeks.  The problem with that is we didn’t even give it a chance to succeed.  We didn’t work at it long enough to feel the beneficial swing of momentum help us along.  

So what now?  Have I totally depressed you and made you want to give up on your resolutions already?  I hope not!  I told you that because I wanted to open your eyes to one of the most common patterns when it comes to resolutions.  We all know about this so why does it keep happening?  The whole reason we create resolutions in the first place is to better ourselves, right?  But with betterment comes change, and with change comes process, and with process comes time… so you get the gist… we fear the process and make excuses for our inability to commit.  I recently heard someone say that an excuse is just a very well crafted lie.  That kind of took me by surprise!  Sounds harsh right?  Well it is!  But honestly what better way to get us off our butts than a little harsh reality check.  The choice is yours this year - do you want to keep running in the hamster wheel of resolution failure or do you want to chart a different course - one with growth, renewal and success?

Hopefully you’re still reading this which means you choose door number 2 and want to meet your resolutions head on and fight to achieve them!  To that I say welcome aboard and it’s going to be a fun ride!  

Let me pause for a second to introduce myself and my mission for this year.  My name is Becky Jennings - I’m a wife, fitness fanatic, foodie, personal trainer, nutrition coach, and online fitness coach.  I’m also a dreamer, a planner, a doer, and someone with a lot of heart who just wants to help!  I attempted blogging last year and I loved it.  I got great feedback and it felt great to be vulnerable and journal my experiences.  But like many activities that better a person, it took time and I found excuses not to do it.  But not this year!  This year I will walk you through my journey to reach my resolutions.  I’m sure many of mine are similar to yours and so I hope you’ll find some nuggets of wisdom here.  

I’m here to help you create a NEW pattern so that our dreams and goals DO become our reality.  I read something recently from Brendon Burcahrd who said “Reality is bendable to our will.”  Let me say that again in a different way.  Whatever we want our lives to be - our reality to be - we can create it.  It is up to us and no one else to create our own reality!  

So right this minute we’ve given ourselves back the power to create our future.  Here is how I plan on shaping my 2015 to match my desired reality.   Now here is the fun part (well I’m calling it fun because scary doesn’t sound as motivating and I’m taking steps to  create my reality)!  I’m going to share my resolutions with you and how I plan on making them my reality! 

1. This year I want to double my income.  I say that EVERY year.  Being my own boss it’s up to me to generate my leads, customers, and revenue.  So every year I say to myself “This year I’m going to double my income!”  And each year I am within $5-10K of exactly where I was the last year.  But not THIS year!  This year I plan on doubling it!  How am I going to do that?  I’m going to get rid of the bad habits and replace them with good habits.  On my off time I’m not going to run useless errands, scroll the internet, or watch TV.  On my off time I’m going to build my online fitness business.  I’m going to devote my time outside of the gym to reaching anyone and everyone who wants nutrition and fitness guidance.  My reach can be national and I’m going to make sure it is!   
2. I’m going to take back my day!  Yup you heard me!  No more hijacked days where I end up doing everything everyone else needs before getting to what I need.  It might sound selfish but I can’t be good to anyone unless I am good to myself.  So I am going to organize my day and execute the tasks during that block of time and then move on to the next.  When I’m in the role of personal trainer I’m going to focus my attention strictly on personal training.  When I’m with my husband I am going to solely focus on being with my husband.  This year I plan on ridding myself of distractions so I can be present in the moments of my life.
3. I will set myself up for financial success!  This year I saved 10% of everything I made.   In 2015 I have set a goal of saving 30% of everything that I bring in!  It sounds big but I didn’t miss that 10% at all.  It became a habit of taking that money out of my checks and putting it into savings.  So why not take it up a notch?  This year 30% of everything I make will be put into  savings and investments.  I want to know my future is being build as I build my current reality!  
4. And lastly I want to abolish negative thought.  This one is wide spread!  From the negative thoughts in my own head to what people are saying about themselves or others to what I hear on the news.  This year is about putting positivity out in the world and moving away from negative thoughts.  It’s SO easy to get caught up in the tragedy and stress of this world.  But being absorbed in this world brings absolutely no benefit to the body or soul.  Instead of listening to the news in the car I’ll listen to a great book or music that pumps me up!  When someone mentions all the bad that’s going on I’ll ask them to find something good (my dad did this to me ALL the time when I was an angst ridden teenager).  And when I say something negative about myself or get down on myself I will change the course of my thoughts and give myself a compliment.  When I get in a fight with my husband I will do everything in my power to stop myself and tell him why I love him.  

It is my hope and purpose this year to better myself.  And throughout this year I will share how I’m doing that!  It could be a workout or recipe that fuels the body and revs up my metabolism; a book that brought me great joy; a trip or destination that filled me back up and relaxed my mind; or simply a quote I picked up that made me stop and reflect on if I’m living my best life.  

I leave you with this on my first post!  Happy New Year, what a wonderful year this will be. Now let’s go out there and better ourselves. Because a better us makes a better world. 

xo

Becky