“The most common trait I have found in all successful people is that they have conquered the temptation to give up.”   Peter Lowe

Giving up can look tempting at times can’t it! Knowing what you want to do with your life and having a clear path ahead is a great WHY to keep us ‘going when the going gets tough.’ I am doing a programme at the moment that brought me back to what is it I want to achieve with my business. Sometimes the answers to these sorts of questions can change depending on our circumstances – personal and around the world. Covid may have given you a shake-up leaving you wondering what your life is about. Some of us may be happy to be shut up inside for the majority of the time, especially when your city is inches deep in snow, but others may feel too restrained and it might not sit with your biology at all. I’m in the latter group, so having a good zoom connection with friends, family and work related calls made it bearable. I didn’t give up but I didn’t work at my usual level either.

My Dad used to say, “Moderation in all things.” And what that crazy time, for me here in NZ, brought out was an acceptance that judging myself wasn’t going to solve anything. I needed to listen to what I felt deep inside was what I needed to do TODAY to move me towards my goals. It may seem easier to turn your back on those things that may seem hard but in the long run we all know we could look back with regrets if we don’t live the purpose we came on to this earth to do. If we know that, it can guide us to get up one more day, and do the things we don’t want to do. Because ultimately that is what will move us towards our purpose and the legacy we came into this world to leave. Does that inspire you to keep going even when it seems too hard? Letting that inner nudge have its way may be all you need to reach the success you want – whatever that word success means to you.

Enjoy “conquering the temptation” to give up!

“Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.”   Jim Rohn.

I am often using Jim Rohn quotes for my weekly Rejuvenating Thoughts. Jim Rohn was one of the first motivational speakers who I really resonated with. He didn’t appear to be full of hype and fluff. I have heard him talked of as ‘Gentleman Jim’ and this is how I saw him, with lots of wisdom about the personal development world that I had entered when I first went into a MLM business hundreds of years ago. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then but he still holds my interest when I listen to his tapes – remember those days! In posting this quote I’m not advocating that you should never ready an entertaining book because a good fictional book can be an enjoyable experience. Often I am reading more than one human growth and development book at once, dipping into them as the mood fits. Sometimes I will pick up a book (or my iPad) and read something I have read before and find some new information that I didn’t think I had read before. This is because we will only pick up the information in the material that resonates with us. If we are continually reading articles and books that help us grow, when we pick that material up a year from now we will be different people with a completely different understanding.

I  definitely, feel a drive to grow, just like a weed will push through the tiniest crack in concrete. I was speaking to a friend in the weekend whose 8 year old grandson can’t get his hands on enough material that he can read and understand about animals. For someone else it may be technical details, that helps them grow. What is it for you? I know it’s not the same reading a digital book but I find I love to have that instant availability, not waiting for several weeks especially when the local bookstores don’t stock what you want. The digital copies also make it possible to afford more books or failing that the library can be an excellent source of reading material that will help you ‘grow.’ I remember once hearing Jim Rohn saying something to the effect that most people spend more on their toilet paper than they do on material that will enhance their minds.

I will finish with another of his quotes about books, “It isn’t what the book costs. It’s what it will cost if you don’t read it.”

Enjoy growing with reading!

As the first official break for the New Zealand year since New Year has come around I am reflecting on what I did & didn’t achieve in the month that has already been & gone. I could focus on what I haven’t done because I like to be able to tick things off my list & if that doesn’t happen my inner critic can pull me down. This is a choice that will take me down the rabbit hole to a dark place of ‘not feeling good enough’ or ‘I haven’t got what it takes sort of messages.’ This can change our whole physiology so that it feels stressed.

Stress is not all about the physical pressures we encounter in our day-to-day lives, but more about the habits and patterns of responses we have to everything going on in our lives. It can be about the thoughts and beliefs that arise as we encounter an external person with their comments, or the internal voice who has just as much to say on a daily basis. He or she can tell us all sorts of things that don’t empower us to be the best we can, or to grow in some way. Instead, it can drag us to a place we DON’T want to be.

Stress can also be a biological reaction to not doing the things that we know we want to do, or doing things that others feel we should do and we make that a higher priority than our biology thinks it should be. Timing is everything when we are looking at our biological health. Even something simple as when we go to bed, how much sleep we get, and how early we get up. Your Health type may not operate well when you live according to the majority of other’s ‘clocks.’  This could be a stressor to your body. My ‘Type’ needs to get up and start moving at a time that appears to be ‘normal’ to the majority, but you may need to get up later and take your time to hit your peak later in the morning. When this is recognised by you and those around you, so the nagging or snide comments stop, your biology will feel the relief and be at peace.

Enjoy living according to your chronobiology!