Step 12 - Take Action

 This is an important step for any goal you want to reach or solution you want to reach. Don't sit around and wait for things to become great, don't complain if you have a problem with no solution, make one, If you want something, go get it. No one is going to do these things for you. If you want something to happen, take action.

Recognize what is action and what is procrastination. Educating yourself more, preparing to take action is not action.

You’re never going to feel ready to start so you’ll have to just take the leap. That feeling in your stomach may feel like fear but it’s really excitement! 

Taking action before you’re ready I believe helps you reach your goals quicker. 

It kinda goes like this:

Take action, That wasn’t perfect, let me make some changes and shifts and move forward and keep trying.

So you see, you just keep learning and moving forward until you get to where you’re going! 

Action...

This week for Step 11 in the Life Purpose series we will be talking about gratitude and the benefits of having a gratitude practice.

Gratitude is scientifically proven to improve relationships, physical health, psychological health, empathy, and self-esteem. It also can reduce anger.

Let's not forget that like attracts like so it's a great place to get started when you're trying to improve your energy and vibe and the outcome of anything in your life.

When you're starting to make your daily gratitude list or journal you might be thinking, what am I grateful for? Some people struggle at first to come up with things. 

Remember to start small. Think of all those small things that are just so great. Your morning coffee, Your puppy or your cat, the sunrise, someone who made a kind remark to you the other day. These things make a big difference in our lives and it’s important to acknowledge them. 

The more we acknowledge them the more they will show up in our lives!

...

It is not healthy for us as humans to stand still and to be stagnant. Remember, movement is life. It's human nature to want to learn and grow throughout our entire life and this should never stop. It is your job to feed and nourish this desire and keep your mind and imagination alive. Right now, let's focus on reigniting our desire to learn new things and have fun doing them.

I once watched a Ted Talk where the guy talked about an experiment he did where he tried something new every 30 days.

I thought, that sounds like fun, I’m going to do that!

The first thing I did was start eating plant-based cold turkey! It was an amazing experience and something I had been thinking about for a while. By the way, I’m still plant-based today and it’s been around 12 years! I also coach other people who want to transition over so give me a shout-out if this is you.

Don't worry about being good at something or looking good. Right now, just focus on moving forward, learning...

Step 9 - Love yourself exactly as you are~

If you love yourself exactly the way you are, unapologetically, everyone else will follow suit. Going back to the first step, learning about the things we love definitely helps, you learn more about who you are. Here are a few more questions to ask yourself.

Questions:

• Are you changing the way you act with certain people to avoid conflict or to make them happy? If so, why?
• Do you find yourself trying to do things that you don't like to do to please others? Why?
• Are you worried about sharing your beliefs and dreams with the people you love and spend time with because you're afraid of judgment? Why?
• Are you judging the way you look by comparing yourself to other women or representations of women in the media you consume? 
• Ask yourself if these are true representations of true women of today or are they unrealistic representations?

These can be signs that you're not in alignment with yourself and are questioning who you are. 

...

Step 8 - De-stress and self-care - Life Purpose Guide

De-stress and self-care

Most of the things we have talked about so far could be considered de-stressors and self-care. You will find if you don't continuously look at the ways you spend your time and reset how you might be doing things, you’ll become unbalanced. Just like riding on a bicycle becomes habitual and second nature, where you don't even have to think about the balance, it just happens, you need to form this same habit with self-care in your life.

Boundaries:

I believe that learning to set boundaries and maintain them so you can protect your energy and time is the foundation of self-care.

How do you know when you need to set a boundary? If you are feeling obligated to do something to keep the peace or to avoid conflict a boundary needs to be placed here.

If you feel like someone is walking all over you or you feel like a doormat, a boundary needs to be set.

Setting boundaries is about deciding what is acceptable...

Life Purpose Series Step 7 - Connection

 Being a part of a community makes you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself. It's important for us as human beings to feel accepted and to be able to offer our support to others. Being connected helps us feel a sense of purpose that we might not get from anything else.  

I talk quite often about the Blue Zone Study and community is one of the Power 9, nine commonalities that lead to longer, healthier, happier lives. As a matter of fact, 3 of the 9 have to do with friends, family, and community.

Be sure to spend time with, talk to, or write to your friends and family every day. Connection is one of the basic human needs and is very important to connect with the people in your life. This is one of the most important pieces of the health and wellness puzzle.

This step can be very important right now especially after coming through the past year and a half. 

Finding connection within some of the...

Get outside every day

I know this can be hard when you work indoors or also during winter weather. Making a point to be outside, even for 5 minutes, can make a difference in your mood, your energy levels, and it can even lower your blood pressure. 

You are a living being that needs sunshine to feel good and to grow. Think of yourself as if you were a plant that needs the sun, water, and fresh air to grow and thrive.

Some of the things you can expect when you spend regular time outside every day:

• It can help with anxiety and depression.
• It can help boost your vitamin D levels. Did you know that 40% of men and women in the US are deficient?
• It can help increase creativity, concentration, and mental clarity.
• It helps lower blood pressure and reduces cortisol levels.
• Being active outdoors helps us age more gracefully by improving sleep and improving mobility.

Getting outside with a friend is even better and we will talk more about community later in the guide.

We all feel better...

This week we will be working on Step 5

Movement

Being active can help you control your weight, relieve stress and anxiety, improve energy, improved sex life, and reduce the risk of disease. 

It always improves our mood and makes us feel better.

This is why I include this as a part of the life purpose journey.

If you really want to connect with yourself and your purpose you do need to take care of yourself. Self-care is key.

Yes, you can find your purpose in your life without movement but you might at some point be interrupted and thrown off course by dis-ease. 

I can’t stress enough how important self-care is so don’t skip this part. 

It is natural for us as humans to be active, so find something you love and do more of it!

Action Steps:

• Walk, hike, run, swim, bike, yoga, pilates, martial arts, weight lifting, gardening, sports, and dancing. Just find what you love!
• Keep trying new things until you find something you like enough to do everyday.
• ...

As women, we always focus on taking care of everyone else and often fall short on taking care of ourselves. Keep in mind if we fail to care for ourselves we will not be able to care for others.

At some point, we burn out and sometimes get sick. While some of these steps will seem simple and may also be something you know you should already be doing, it’s not always something we are doing.

You might be thinking? What the heck does this have to do with life purpose? 

Well, if we feel like shit we will not have the energy or the motivation to pursue any new ventures. I want you to have success and feel amazing.

It’s also hard to pursue anything new when you're sick. 

My hope for you is to uplevel however you feel right now. 

So let’s do this!

Eat Real Food

What is real food? Well, it's food that grows from the Earth, and food that has no label or under 5 ingredients on the label that are real food. This is really simple but not easy to do. It does...

Create a path where you feel lit up~

Some of the things we talked about in the last step, revisit what brings you joy,  are things that really make you feel lit up inside when you're doing them. It's the feeling as if you're in a flow, time passes quickly and it's amazing how much you get done. It could be something simple like painting watercolor or something more complicated like volunteering. Either way, it lights you up!

These are the things you need to focus on and also need to spend the majority of your time doing. I understand, we all have responsibilities. This is true but, you can start shifting your life in a way to make things that bring you joy become your responsibilities. This can take time but if not now, then when??

To create more space for yourself, be aware of the things that are energy suckers, things, or people that make you feel crappy, anxious. and tired. Remove or mitigate these things from your life immediately. I don't know about you but I have no time...