Change Your Life Friday

2021 Restart, Reset, & Relaunch

Day 18 – Wednesday Nov. 6, 2013

Posted on November 6, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

Reach Out in Gratitude.

Today I got an unexpected call from a person I have not seen in many months. The call was simply to say thank you, and to tell me they appreciated that I had been available to their son when he was in a time of need.

I challenge you to reach out to someone and tell them how grateful you are that they are in your life. Perhaps there is someone you have not talked to in over a year, let them know how glad you are to know them and have them in your life. Reach out and give someone a smile.

Daily Gratitude list
1. I am grateful for _______________
2. I am grateful for _______________
3. I am grateful for _______________
4. I am grateful for _______________
5. I am grateful for _______________

Day 17 – Tuesday Nov. 5, 2013

Posted on November 5, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

Stay Awake.

In my short time on earth, I have come to realize when I am “awake” I have the opportunity to experience life. Please stay awake. I am not talking about avoiding sleep; sleep deprivation over a long period of time can be dangerous. I am talking about in your day-to-day life, please stay aware to all that is coming into your experience.

When I am awake, aware, and conscious to Life, I get to truly experience life. The good, bad, and indifferent. The deep experiences I have today allow me to feel and know true gratitude. Where is this true in your life? Where are you grateful for being engaged in life? Today please stay awake, and help us stay awake here at CYLF.

Day 16 – Monday Nov. 4, 2013

Posted on November 4, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

Whisper of Gratitude.

I heard a story that in some cultures it is believed that if you catch a butterfly, whisper your deepest desires to it, and let it go; that wish will come true. The butterfly will be so grateful that it is free, it will express those dreams to the Universe regardless of its inability to speak.

Today I have a two fold challenge for you. First, the longings that you have in your heart right now, whisper, or better yet yell them out to the Universe with a grateful heart. Second, when you encounter someone who whispers their dreams to you, hold those thoughts in your heart with so much gratitude that they have no choice but to be realized.

40 days of Gratitude

Posted on October 17, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

I was working a freelance job for the past two days. The kind of job that pays well but is not consistent. I stayed busy the whole day, busy enough that a 12-hour shift did not really seem that long. At the end of the day some of the bosses and my boss’s bosses thanked me for the work I did. I thanked them for the opportunity and I felt gratitude in my heart. Its funny how this simple act of them thanking me at the end of the day made me feel good about my work. I wonder what the workforce would be like if at every 9-5 job, the bosses thanked their employees before they went home each day.

I am reflecting on gratitude today to start getting in the spirit of the next forty days. We start on Sunday with a topic, question, or some sort of prompt to help you think of what your grateful for and we will have a new post everyday for the next forty days. The fortieth day lands on Thanksgiving, a perfect way to start the holiday season.

Affirmation: I am the catalyst for positive change amongst my friends and my community.

Call To Action: Will you take the forty days of gratitude with us? Be brave, be bold, post it on our page or share on Facebook with us what you are grateful for. Inspire gratitude amongst your friends. In forty days you will have a new life!

Creativity

Posted on July 26, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“…by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

-Sylvia Plath

Over the past few years one of my friends and I have talked about creating a movie script. Every once in a while we would bring it up and make comments about different ideas for scenes, characters, topics or themes. This talk and banter has always been fun, but until this week it had not gone much further than that. In truth, I never really took it much further than the idea, since I had no experience in the script writing or movie- making realm.

On Wednesday, my friend called me and asked if I was ready to sit down and start writing that script. Out of the habit to saying yes to life I said, “absolutely, meet me in an hour!” Before that self-doubting part of my brain could kick in, tell me I didn’t have the skills, or the experience to try something new involving creativity, he showed up. I am so grateful for my cultivated reaction to say yes today.

When my friend arrived to my house I was committed and all in. We sat down and began talking and writing, making notes, dreaming and brainstorming. The result to the effort was the birth of creativity. Two open minds came together and worked towards one common goal and inspiration happened. The experience was so positive and exciting that we sat down again, with an even bigger group of people, the next day and made more progress and created even more. What I see today is just another reminder that all of the creative thoughts that I have are always just a little effort away and they are so exciting to tap into.

Affirmation: I am a creative and intelligent being, and in this moment I am inspired to cultivate new thoughts and experiences!

Call to action: Please take some time today to flex your creative muscle. Write a poem, a story, or an experience on paper. Or reach out to a friend that you have been talking about a project with sit down together and figure out what it will take. Share your experience with us so that we can all grow together. Lets change our lives again this Friday!!!

29. Experience

Posted on July 19, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.” – Isadora Duncan

Last weekend at a resort in Phoenix Arizona several thousand people gathered together to celebrate their lives and inspire the lives of others. I was blessed to be a part of the planning and culmination of this event and could not be more proud of the results that were apparent throughout and after the weekend had passed. Part of my job in putting this event together was to get the word out to people so they would not miss out on the experience of being a part of something so big and beautiful. I recognized I can share a concept and an idea, I can do it with love and enthusiasm, but a concept will never have as much weight as an experience.

My life today is so much different than when I was younger, thanks to some very vivid experiences I have been graced with. These experiences gave me the ability to see how my choices were giving me a life I no longer wanted. When I look at my life in reverse, all of the great changes have taken place came as a result of some experience that opened a window of willingness to take action for a change. I often see people who are begging and pleading for a change and I do my best to tell them how the changes in my life have taken place. Sometimes, I feel so strongly about these things that I want to scream at the top of my lungs to help inspire someone but then, like this weekend, I am reminded if the words could help someone change then no one would have issues or problems.

I know today, life is what I make of it and the best I can do is help others get out in the world to have their own experiences. My life happens out in the world and the only way I can capitalize on that is by becoming a part of it as much as I can. The world is waiting for all of us when we step away from this page. With a little bit of action maybe this will be the Friday that you truly change your life.

Affirmation: A good life is not just a concept; today I will take the action to make it my actual experience.

Call to Action: This is the juice as my friend would say. Every week we share an idea that can inspire change. What this week calls for is going out and being that change and sharing with us the results. I know what my next step is and today I am going to choose to take it, the result will be an experience that I can build on to. The world is waiting for you.

Serenity

Posted on July 12, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.” – Thomas Szasz

Six years ago, I was moving out west to go to school after spending time in the military. As I was walking on campus a great sense of peace and calm came over me, and for the first time I felt I was exactly where I needed to be and doing exactly what I needed to be doing. It was an odd experience because it was not until after my life started changing that I could recognize what that feeling was, serenity. Since that day nearly six years ago, I continue to have these serine experiences. They become deeper and more frequent.

This week I was able to make a pilgrimage back to where I first felt those unknown feelings of serenity, and the feeling of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time came right back. I was able to reconnect with old friends. I was able to bring new friends to the places where I learned about serenity, with hope that they may have a similar experience.

During these great feelings of serenity and peace, I have been able to have some of my most profound life experiences and thoughts. What in your life brings you serenity? How can you harness this feeling in order to enrich your life? Who else in my life could benefit from this feeling and how can I share it with them? When I get away from this feeling, I try to shake up something about my life in order to see what is perhaps not working and helping me achieve similar things I have in the past.

Affirmation: Serenity is my truth. I know peace and serenity every step of my day.

Call to Action: Look for a time during your day when that sense of peace enters your heart. If that feeling of being in the right place at the right time shows up, harness that and use it to enrich your life. Please share with the CYLFriday community an example of this in your life today or in the past.

23. Health

Posted on June 7, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it.” -Unknown

As I was browsing the internet the other day I saw the quote above and was completely struck by how simple yet profound it was. I immediately brought into mind all of the little bumps and bruises I have had over the course of my life time and how consuming they become, so much so that they outweigh anything else that the present moment offers. Next I started to think about the people in my life who I have seen come under much greater physical challenges than I have ever had to face and how their whole reality was transformed and focused on this lack of health.

My experiences as I stated are small but it seems even the little things create such a mental circus in my head. I recently chomped on my tongue so hard that it hurt for a week. I would tell myself every time that I felt the pain while eating to never eat so unconsciously again that something like this could happen. That process held up for that week being reminded over and over again how great it is to not experience pain when eating or swallowing. Just as every other example that I could site, once the pain went away I completely forgot about the resolutions that I had made to live more consciously and take better care of myself, I was really just back to business as usual.

There are several experiences that I have seen in others on a much more severe scale that have been shown to be much more transformative. The first one that comes to mind is the great change in attitude and outlook that I have seen enter some cancer survivors that I know. Through the process of losing all conception of what health was and being forced to see the value in it, once recovery would take place, it seems an inner shift occurs as well and their whole attitude and outlook on life transforms too. They had experienced drastic changes physically that offered a gateway to gratitude for something as simple as a pain free day.

With this knowledge I get to ask myself a few questions; Am I healthy? Am I showing gratitude for the health that I have? What am I doing to stay and grow in healthy ways today? If I honestly look at these questions I can quickly say that overall I am a very healthy person, I exercise, I eat consciously and I try my best to focus on the things that are good in me today. So in some ways I believe I am grateful but I think that I have so much room to grow in this area. When I bit my tongue I spent so much time and focus on how painful and problematic that issue was, I have never focused that much love into the little things that my body blesses me with everyday. When I look at it this way it seems like a complete lack of balance. I know in this moment that I don’t want to have to wait to lose something to see the blessings I have right in front of me today.

Affirmation: I am blessed to recognize the value of the health that I have in this moment; today I will focus on all the parts of me that are perfect healthy and whole.

Call to Action: Time to do some work! My back hurts, my leg is sore, I have a blister… These stories become our complete reality but while they are obvious concerns the rest of the machine that makes up our bodies are working in perfect harmony. Today my back may be hurt but that will not define me, My head is clear, My hands feel strong, I breathe with ease and comfort and I can enjoy even the spiciest meal with complete comfort. Also this may be the time to look at some of those things which are consciously taking away this precious gift of health that you can still seize. Time to get honest, eh? What health blessings do you have today? I have ten fingers and toes and for that I am grateful.

21. Intuition

Posted on May 24, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be revelation.” – Eileen Caddy

I just recently moved in to a new place. The idea behind this place is for people to come together, live in community, and develop a rhythm of life through prayer, mediation, and service. It is an interesting and new endeavor for me, and sometimes I am baffled that this is something that I would be interested in doing.

This past Sunday we had a house blessing, and many people were invited from throughout the community. The days leading up to the event I sent some e-mails, talked to people inviting them to the Sunday event, and so did other people that are involved with this project. When the hour arrived for people to start showing up I was amazed and overwhelmed by the number of people that showed. There have only been a handful of times where I felt as supported as I did on Sunday. It reminded me when I follow that intuition in my stomach amazing things happen.

About 14 months ago I made the decision to move back to my hometown, something I was “never” going to do. I came to help family and decide what my next move was to be. I am basically writing this on my anniversary of moving back. I am now locked in to a unique and fascinating thing for a year, and I have the most amazing anxiety, openness, and hope to what the next year might bring.

Today as you walk through your life and your intuition is telling you something, or you are headed down a path that logically seems a bit unheard of, try to remember that we have something deep within our being that is guiding us for the greater good. The people that truly love you will understand and respect this outlook to life. Follow your heart and take in others suggestions, but always remember that when your head hits the pillow at night you only have one person to answer to, and that is yourself.

Affirmation: In this moment I am guided and directed towards who and what I should be.

Call to Action: Is there something that you feel is right in your life that you are too scared to follow? I know when I stop trying to figure it out and follow the simple steps in front of me the results are always better than my mind can fathom. Share your blocks and experiences with us, help us all grow.

20. Rewards

Posted on May 17, 2013 by changeyourlifefriday

“Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy.” – Ralph Ransom

Last weekend I was able to take an amazing trip to one of the most beautiful places that I have seen in my lifetime. I went on this adventure with one of my lifelong friends and a large group of acquaintances. This place is special for so many reasons, it is off of the beaten path, far away from civilization, lightly traveled and you have to put in work to get to this far off location.

When I first heard of this opportunity I was struck with the fears that come with any new adventure, can I take the time away from my busy life, am I prepared for the struggles that are involved with the journey and will it be worth it. As with most fears, I put in my end of the work, I did my best to clear the space in my schedule, I adjusted my mindset to allow for a successful trip and I trusted in the people who went before me to believe that the journey was worth it.

The reward that I received through the effort I put forth in preparation and effort once I began far exceeded anything I could have planned for. The location was so incredibly beautiful, there was a true connection to nature and a bond built with the other people who I took the trip with. The work that I put in paid off.

As with most great achievements and gifts that I receive, I try to relate them back to my day-to-day life. I often find that I am unwilling to prepare and put forth the effort but I always want the reward. In truth, a lot of the time I can get away with that. This experience showed me something much deeper, there was no way to get the benefit without the work. The greatest benefit was the feeling of accomplishment for doing something that was so foreign to me. I think what this means for me is the more I put forth all the effort necessary the sweeter the rewards will be.

Affirmation: In this moment I am so grateful for the chance to see that I truly do reap what I sow.

Call to Action: Are there any places in your life where you expect an outcome but are not willing to put in the work. Does it sometimes feel like the rewards you are getting are unwarranted? Is there a better way and more fulfillment around the corner if you put forth a more honest and concerted effort. I know there are some places where this is very true for me…how about you?