My new reason for blogging is to share what I have learnt about life along the way, with the world. I hope that someone will learn from my experience and so live successfully by achieving all their dreams as they apply the tools that I share; I also want to believe that as I accomplish this goal, there is a law that operates naturally to my benefit. Those who give to make others lives better also get enriched by the experience.
I think I do not need to focus on the fact that the goodness that I have shared will release enrichment but rather concentrate on making the lives of others better. What do you think of this idea?

The moment I stumbled on this new reason, the joy of blogging flooded my whole being again. I do not know how long this good feeling will last but I intend to enjoy it while it remains.
Please do not forget to include your comment after reading this blog. I am indebted to my readers for the comments that they share to help me as a blogger and an individual committed to personal development.

I think it is important that I accept I am not the first person to get to this critical part in the journey to achieving a goal. This is crucial to avoid self pity that produces more issues to cope with in the future. The vital question, I am asking myself at this moment is- “What do I need to do to navigate this challenge succesfully?” I know that in the past I carelessly sweep the  issues under the blanket and pretend they do not exist. Another response that I think I have used and have found do not solve the problem or help in the journey to achieving my goal is to stop working on the task at hand. I know two of the strategies that do not work- pretending the situation does not exist or simply giving up. I am setting myself the challenge of trying out a third approach- “Find a reason to go on and report on the outcome on your blog.”

I know that publishing insights into my journey in self improvement definitely allows others to find some vital tools to make their own journey more profitable. I think this is sufficient reason to keep going.

I am inviting all my readers to make their comments about my decisions and ways of ensuring that I continue on this journey.

Allowing yourself to achieve your specified outcome by setting goals and identifying the steps needed to achieve the goal.

“Do you know society has changed so much,” said the man on a journey to an adventure island. A fellow tourists said, “Well, that is a fact, but the most important thing is how this change has affected you.”  I think this is where I am in my journey and I share the sentiment of both tourists. Society has changed but the issue is closer home than that, how have I been affected by these changes. It is time for each of us to take time out and begin to make some vital decisions that will ensure we end up fulfilling our dreams.

 I am convinced that we each bring something into the lives of the people that we meet each day but we need to decide the nature of that something. You will have to decide if you are going to bring a smile or untold misery into the world through your actions. Unfortunately, some people choose to bring misery and hardship. Let me share this with you, what you choose to sow will define your own life experiences and the quality of the people that surround you. There are many individuals today who would do with a smile that will brighten up their way and give them sufficient reason to go on to achieve the best that they are capable of.

The challenge that I have chosen to put on myself as I write this article is to share with all my readers how we can individually and collectively choose to sow goodness deliberately, so that the world will be a better place.

I think being deliberate in our acts of kindness is a very important part of the strategy to sowing goodness into the lives of others. When you choose to sow goodness it becomes something you do in most situations and when you deviate from the norm, you have something to go back to. There seems to be a continual pull to goodness and although you know that you might fail sometimes.

In order to maintain the deliberateness towards sowing acts of kindness in the world, you need to think and plan acts of kindness ahead of situations when they might be needed; think about the nature of the act and the likely effect of these actions on the recipient of the act; reward yourself for taking appropriate actions and always remember that such acts need to be wisely managed.

Enjoy your journey in self improvement.

Learning to work in a team to promote individual and group development is an important part of self development. I have heard the phrase “No man is an island.” But I have never stopped to think of the significance of that to my personal development. As I grow older, as they say “Experience is the best teacher”, I am slowly growing in the appreciation of the gifts that all the people that I meet each day of the week, contribute to my life. Do you know the added bonus to this lavishly enriching attitude to life? It is the fact that the contributions do not necessarily have to be pleasant. For example if a colleague takes a personal dislike to your ways of working; this is likely to cause you huge discomfort but you have a lot to learn from the experience. Be open to the opportunities for growth and change.

Let me allow you a brief visit to my experience and the way others have contributed to my development. I know that the desire to write has been part of my vision for a very long time but I did not know how to go about it until I met a very special friend. She proved invaluable to sparking my creativity and opening the doors that would allow me to blog on the internet. She built a blog spot for me and shared her experience with me through her unique coaching style. This was the breakthrough that I had been waiting for; I finally found the key. Note, the key was delivered through a friend. The fact is this; you can never tell who will be carrying the key to the next most important event in your life so it is worth cultivating each relationship with sensitivity. If you do discover that any relationship is not giving you the benefit that you envisage, it might be time to cut the ties and move on to new ones. Time is very precious and the forming of a network of relationships that promote self development is a priority.

You might be thinking- how do you forge such great relationships? It is important that it begins with caring for yourself. The people that will be drawn to you, are those who like what they see in your life. It seems, individuals are usually guided by their drives to form relationships that would benefit them. Are you the sort of person, that the person that you wish to find, would want to spend time with? If you are not, I think it is time for you to begin to be one. Spend time on developing that attractive inexpensive attitude to life and they would prove invaluable in the future.

Secondly, when you do meet with the person, who you think has something to contribute to your development, choose to spend some time with them. It is the wise thing to do. Relationships take time to forge. Indeed the process passes through a lot of hurdles. There is the initial euphoria of finding a new friend; then there is the testing time- a time to prove if the other person is worth the expenditure in time and energy and finally there is the beginning of a commitment to growth and personal enrichment. When these hurdles have been successfully navigated, then the work begins.

This blog was inspired by a stranger who has been following my blog for a while and then noticed that I had not blogged for a while. The feeling that someone appreciates the thoughts that I had shared in my blog,  inspired me to sit at the computer to write about this theme.

Enjoy your journey in self development.

Creativity thrives in a calm mind and an ordered environment. Have you ever thought that being creative means rolling in the chaos created in the moment of complete madness; hyperventilating because your heart is racing outside your body; your eyes rolling in your head like the red eyes of a man being chased in the jungle by a lion; or worse still looking dishevelled because of lack of attention to personal health? You need to know that there are ingredients that need to be present to allow you to be creative. In this article we will be sharing ideas on how to be creative in an ordered environment.

There seems to be a need to learn how to handle the surge of ideas that sometimes proves to be the initial stage of creativity. This stage is a vital stage but needs to be handled with an awareness that the fact that the ideas are being recorded in an uncontrolled way through mind map; writing lists; recording dreams; allowing the mind to make innumerable links through questioning; collecting ideas and putting them together in a big pot, does not mean the absence of order.

Although it is important to avoid being in a hurry to escape from this stage because your ideas need to see the light of day, you need to think of ways of making this stage calm and easy on yourself. You might be thinking that staying at this level is killing your creativity because you are not actually involved in the activities that will take you forward. Do not panic, you are doing a great job. Your mind needs to be emptied of all the great ideas that are running through your head like a runaway train so write them down.

Let me give you a peek into my experience at this stage. I find that the ideas are oozing out of me so fast that the muscles in my hands cannot keep up, so I tend to scribble and sometimes find it difficult . I am slowly learning to tell myself to slow down and to remember that creativity is at its best in a controlled and ordered environment.

Have you noticed that the computer is a tool that allows you to type very fast if you are willing to press each key on the keyboard one at a time? If you choose not to do this, you will have to spend essential time editing your work. The next time you catch yourself being pushed along without control over your mind, speak to yourself, words that reassure you that you are aware of what is happening and that you are determined to remain calm and controlled.

You might say something like this to yourself- “———- , thanks for all those ideas but at the moment I need to calm down so that I record the ideas calmly and in an ordered environment.” Do not forget to put your name in the space.
Enjoy your journey in self development.

Learning how to handle situations that are outside your control is a very important part of self improvement because life is a journey full of challenges that enable you to grow. Facing your challenges is an important part of this journey. The challenges in your life produce growth and maturity. To ensure that you have continual momentum for change, you need to be mindful of your beliefs of what you think the purposes of the challenges are. When you take a perspective that allows you to optimise the benefits in the experiences, you are living a life ‘without limit’. This perspective will prove crucial in the journey to self improvement by choosing appropriate activities.

This position changes your attitude to your challenges and causes you to settle for nothing less than advancement and growth all the time. Learning to live a ‘no limit’ life is a goal worth pursuing as a means of maintaining continual change and achievements. How can you know this type of life? What must you do so that this becomes your experience in all areas of your life? What has the quality of your commitment to self improvement got to do with this type of life?

Living a ‘no limit’ life in the face of negative feelings requires a change of strategy. It is important that you learn to listen to the information contained in your feelings. Writing down thee ideas ensures that you do not lose these after a short period of time. Catching the ideas needs to be tied to the need to find a solution to the issues raised through engagement in impactful activities.

I think that being able to think through the issues raised with a determination to find a way to solve the problems is the key determinant to the quality of life that we lead daily. We need to understand the situations that require us to make decisions and to align our will and desires to the actions required. One of the greatest challenges facing most of us who are interested in self development is that, of harnessing our gifts and potentials through engaging in impactful activities in unpredictable situations. This is the point where you live a life that fills you with the assurance that you are becoming who you know you want to be.

The ability to link actions to issues raised becomes easier with practise. As you continue to repeat the cycle of behaviour highlighted in this article, the easier it becomes to correctly discern the way forward.

The fact that action will consistently produce a reaction is a natural law. The challenge that faces a ‘no limit’ person is the art of predetermining the possible reaction and consequently putting in the correct action.

Listen and learn from your feelings .

Today is a day of continual improvement in all areas of your ife.

• I can think of some of the things that I have acheved today and I am very grateful for each of them.

An appreciation of the fact that every progress is through perseverance and commiment to work, is a useful strategy, as you continue to commit yourself to self improvement.

Everytime you are confronted with the desire to quit in the face of challenge, remind yourself that every hard work will prove profitable in the end.

If you have tried to do something for the first time and it did not work, do not give up. Make sure you learn all that you can from the failure. Facing the same challenge, with modifications introduced by your first experience, might produce success at the second attempt.

Enjoy your journey in self improvement.

If facing the reality of the work required causes stress, take a minute to congratulate yourself for what you have achieved so far.

When I congratulated myself for what I had achieved so far, I felt good about myself.  I know I can achieve my goal of improving in all areas, as I continue to support myself on this journey.

Congratulating yourself could be as simple as writing “Well done——-” with your name in the space on a piece of paper.

Remember to read it out loud to yourself.