Journals

Create a Vision of the Perfect Life

Focus on what you can control, even if it’s very little.

If you want to live life to the fullest, you need to define what that means to you. While you can draw inspiration from others, only you can determine what is right for you. Whatever your destination, consider creating a vision of your perfect life.

Most people will flood their visions with money as the biggest part. However, this could be the wrong approach. Money is important to realize many dreams. But, it shouldn’t be treated as an entity for which you strive. Instead, when you are constructing your vision, the money will support those other components.

This may not be the best of goals at this time in life. But...

For instance, if you love to travel and that is what you put as your top item on the vision, you can figure out how much money you need to make it a reality. It’s much easier to earn money when you know how much you need. When you contrast this with the vision of having lots of money, that becomes a much tougher road to follow.

There are plenty of aspects of life that don’t require money. For instance, people are content with hanging out with friends. You could make it part of your vision to make new friends, or you can strengthen the relationships with the ones you have now. We now have social distancing in place which changes things a bit. But, in a normal case, inviting your friends to your house doesn’t require much money. In fact, your friends will probably volunteer to bring items to your house. This is not over, but the way we do this has changed.

Even when you are traveling, you can find a low cost or even no-cost things to do. When you travel to New York City, for instance, you can go to Central Park for free. That could consume most of your time if you decided to explore all the grounds. There are plenty of other free things to do in most cities. People have to live there, after all.

Consider creating a vision board for this task. This board is something that you can post pictures or news clips, or whatever you like. It can include what you have already accomplished as well as what you want to accomplish. You find artifacts that can be anything to help you realize your vision. Just place them on the board in any order that makes the most sense to you. It’s not necessary to keep every artifact on the board.

When you create a vision of your perfect life, you now have set your mind to achieving the vision. You will take the steps needed to get there, and you will find it quite fulfilling.

Resilience: Short Story

This is an inspirational story to me and I hope after reading it you will feel the same. Having the drive and a take-action attitude can change your future, once you change your perspective and mindset. /M
Let me tell you up front, I am leaving the best part for last.

When I was starting to develop my own ebooks and information products to go along side my mentoring and advisory services I realize that there was so much to learn and that I could not do it on my own. So while continuing on my info-product journey, I reached out to some friends and online entrepreneur mentors who could help me to get better at my new craft.

I have a friend and associate who lives in Fort Washington MD. named CJ, a teacher and marketer who I started to call upon to record some voiceover work for my information products and explainer videos. He has a very distinct vocal tone, and he gets the point across to his students and course development clients.

While trying to learn and expand my skills, I could not wrap my mind around recording the voiceover work. I just could not focus on doing it. There were already too many moving parts with my online product creation.

Now, mind you, I get asked all the time have I ever done voice-overs or thought about being a radio personality? Well, yes to one and no to the other and not in any specific order.

But my friend CJ is good and fast at it and this was just what I needed to finish creating my own brand of information products and mentoring solutions.

Now:
To make a long story short; in Feb, I reached out to CJ and ask if he would give me some pointers on creating an online course that I could learn from, and continue on and develop a how to blueprint for my clients so that they could learn how to start their own courses fast?

He said yes, and started to help me with some directives on doing it simple and fast while learning to scale up as I go along.

During one of our training sessions, he mentioned that he had been working with a musician who was very talented. All through he loves music, this is not his strength, but he stated that working with the mindset of brilliant musicians was mine.

He was telling me that this musician wanted to find a way that she could create a course that she could teach and she had an idea that once it was finished she could turn around and sell this course to her classical newbie students.

Now she and CJ, they had been working together for almost 90 days.

So he asks me in return could I dialogue with her on some areas that she was stuck, while trying to move forward. To him, it was such an artist point of view that he was not sure that he could pull out that special type of confidence, the kind that she seem to need. Many times this is a necessary lift that comes with being a musician, singer, or songwriter. Those moments when talent could use that little extra push, this could be anyone for that matter, we all need it sometimes but, the music creatives can be a little different.

So I said yes, I spent a little time with her and a few emails back & forth we cross over the hurdle. Now during this time, what I got from her was that she was determined to create her course(s) and learn some of the technical ends of it.
She was resilient in spending time on her instrument, spending time with CJ, to implement his training, also entertaining a new way of creating a side-hustle for herself.

Putting in the time and effort was just part of the process for her, she understood the need to have a teacher or someone to learn from and she knew some help was needed. A true Ahha moment for her.

Just like so many other singers and musicians in the entertainment community, all her gigs went out the door during the pandimic lockdowns. I don’t know if I mentioned that she plays a wind instrument, a clarinet girl with a classical upbringing. So she was not just out with the rhythm section every night of the week. But she was working all the time and successful at it.

Like for so many others, everything changed overnight once Covid 19 appeared. So to conclude with this short story, I am sharing a screenshot of what happened for her due to resilliance and focus.

Tap device screen to enlarge image.

This is not the typical result or case for everyone when you go down a new road to start a new beginning or that you have the desire to create a side-hustle. But when you are resilient and determined to make something happen you can do it! YOU CAN DO IT!

Expressing Your Creativity

Learning to express yourself through creativity is a great way to learn to live more in the moment rather than in the past or future. It’s difficult to focus on anything but the present when your brain is actively involved in creating, and this is one of the ways you can live a healthier, more balanced, more fulfilling life overall. Specially when the world is changing the way that it is at this time in history.

A great example is being on stage as a performer there is a different freedom versus being in the recording studio focusing on delivering a stellar audio performance. It takes focus and presence of mind.

There are so many ways to begin expressing yourself through creativity. Below, let me share a few of them, but this list is by no means exhaustive!

  1. Look for beauty in everything around you. A forest full of trees holds beauty just like a city street lit up at night does. Beauty is subjective, and you may find that the things you find beautiful, someone else does not. That’s okay! The point of the exercise is to hone your ability to look for and find beauty in all places – beauty that will inspire your creativity!
  2. Learn to communicate effectively. You will have difficulty expressing yourself if you can’t communicate what you’re feeling and thinking. Learning to communicate gives you the power to express yourself with words. It allows you the freedom to capture and relate the ideas you have when inspiration occurs. There is no expression without communication of some kind.
  3. Find or make a creative home for yourself. It could be a room in your home that you dedicate to expressing your creativity. Maybe it is an art studio away from home, or a garden where you feel safe and unencumbered. Wherever you choose, when you get there, you should feel excited to begin creating.
  4. Take a step in a creative direction by deciding on a form your creativity will take. This never has to be set in stone, and this will change as you evolve. Maybe right now, it is dance, but later it might be drawing, journaling, woodcarving, or cooking. Don’t limit yourself! Try things that interest you, and if you find them fulfilling, wonderful! If you don’t, simply move on to something else.
  5. Give yourself time to practice every day. You won’t know if you really enjoy something unless you do it. Don’t let the fear of imperfection prevent you from the beginning. And realize that starting something new is always a little scary. The key is in not allowing that fear to stop you from moving forward. 

Hopefully, these tips will get you moving in the right direction towards expressing yourself through creativity. Don’t let the fear stop you – just get started!

Self-Discipline Hacks for Everyone

Has your life felt a little too out of control? I am sure that you have, due to the current state of mayham and our pandemic climate. Even with the lockdown status at the time I’m sure there have been too many demands on your time and resources trying to figure out how to move forward. Before this I’m sure that people at work needed something now, and your mother kept calling asking when you’re going to come to visit next. Things are coming at you from all sides, and you desperately need a way out. Well you got it and now you have to make unforeseen changes in your life.

Believe it or not, the answer lies in something as simple as self-discipline. By taking charge of yourself, you likewise take charge of your life. Self-discipline means you’re making decisions that keep your feet on the path that you’ve chosen for yourself. And while the demands on your time might still be there, you can feel more in control.

Need some help getting started? Below you will find a list of some quick hacks that will set you on the road to freedom through self-discipline.

1. Pick a start date. Research has found that by setting a concrete date and putting it on your calendar, you have a higher chance of success. So chose the date and write “Freedom” in that space on your calendar.

2. Understand why you’re doing this. Create a list of reasons why you want to become more disciplined. Use that list to create affirmations and then use those often to keep yourself motivated.

3. Use creative visualization. Imagine yourself with self-discipline. How does that life look? How does it feel? By seeing your self-disciplined life in your mind’s eye, your brain believes it is possible.

4. Deal with temptation. If what you’re trying to use self-discipline to correct (like eating better) involves tangible objects, then remove those items. For example, get rid of the junk food in your cabinets, because they will become a temptation. If it’s an intangible for example, a person you can’t say no to, then write a script of how you’d like that particular conversation to go. That way you already have the words to say no when you need them.

5. Grab a snack. Willpower goes out the window when your blood sugar is low. Ask any person with diabetes about a time when they crashed, and you’ll find out just how much low blood sugar affects brain processes. Even for people who do not have diabetes, low blood sugar can have a serious effect on your ability to carry through with your plans. A quick carb-loaded snack or even a small piece of candy might be just what you need to get back on track.

6. Hang out with the like minded folks. By surrounding yourself with self-disciplined people, you create for yourself a support group as you set forth on your journey. Sometimes all it takes is someone to mentor you through the rough spots.

Don’t kid yourself, becoming self-disciplined is hard work. But you can make it a lot easier for yourself if you set yourself up for success from the start. Remember who you’re doing this for (you!), and you’ve already won half the battle.