To begin living a life you love, start at the beginning; just as in the alphabet you start with the letter "A." Happiness is not an event, it is a process. To accomplish or succeed in any great endeavor, you must first start. This may not be the start of a whole new life, but could simply be the start of a new idea, a new path or a new way to approach living your life. Times of great change give you the chance to re-engage in life on your own terms and in your own fashion. The happiness journey requires working through each new step you take to arrive at the next one, with each step motivating and inspiring you to press on to the next without faltering. From the vantage point of "A," "Z" may appear far away, but once you master "A" you will see "Z" gleaming out on the horizon. The beginning of any process is the most creative, let's start with "A."
1. Become aware.
Always strive for more. Dream big. Be the person you have always wanted to be by acting that persona out in your daily life. To live a life you love, be in the development of building and expanding yourself as a person, not just as a success in one area. The more you grow yourself, the more you grow your life. Hold an image of where you are in any given area of your life right now. Now, envision where you want to be; happier, richer, more successful, fit, healthier, in love.
To get from where you are to where you want to be, become acutely aware of the choices you make each day which lead you away from your desired goals. You cannot change direction if you are not aware that you're not headed in the directions you want to go.
Become conscious of every single choice you make today, so you make better choices for your tomorrow.
2. Leap into action.
To win you have to begin. To change your life, map out the desired circumstances you need and want. If you cannot find them, make them. Take initiative. If you don't see the door to your success, happiness or fulfillment, then build it yourself by taking actions in the direction of your desires.
Write down the action steps you need to take to get to where you want to go, to do what you want to do, and make these goals as tangible as possible. One successful goal achieved inspires you to achieve the next goal in front of you, and so on. Will these steps all be the correct ones? Maybe, and maybe not, but you won't know for sure until you start engaging. Once you start putting yourself in motion, all steps taken are a gift because each right or wrong step provides you with insight and direction.
The point is to be passionate about what you want, letting nothing stand in the way of you getting it.
3. Be accountable.
Very few things prompt a person to follow through on their dreams like accountability. Create ways to make yourself accountable and to push through habits of laziness and defeatist thinking. One way to do this is to share your goals with others who can help motivate you to stay on task. In telling others of your goals it puts a more intense pressure on you to keep working at them. Pairing up with someone acts as a deadline to keep you motivated.
Track every action that pertains to an area where you want to see change, whether it relates to finances, health, career, love or relationships. Whether you are working with someone or going at it independently write everything down, every day without excuses or rationalizations. This process forces you to be conscious of your decisions.
Tracking your progress and missteps is the path to living a life you love waking up in.
4. The powers of attraction.
Once you are directly on the path of doing what you want to do, are taking action, and being accountable for following through, you will begin to produce the results you crave. You start getting closer to realizing your dreams and feeling the life satisfaction you seek. This type of movement produces a very powerful side effect; you start attracting like-minded people into your life.
If you want a life that grows, become a growing person. When you're committed, you attract others who are committed. If you're dedicated, you attract others who are dedicated. This puts you in a position to begin building a network of like-minded people who are passionate along the same path. Your greatest growth will always come as a result of finding people ahead of you who are able to show you the way forward.
The Law of Magnetism says "who you are is who you attract."
5. Seek accomplishment.
Get committed. Be willing to pay for your personal growth emotionally, financially, physically and spiritually. Be consistent. Keep your every thought, word, deed and action focused on change and progress. Be creative. Visualize your desired outcomes and involve yourself in all forms of personal development. As you become happier, your life reflects this. Study the people in life and business you admire. Read their books, attend seminars, hire a business coach, see a therapist and employ a personal trainer. Spend time each day preparing for these meetings and interactions. Reflect upon the interactions you have and be thankful for every opportunity carved out for your learning.
There is nothing more telling to the levels of success you can achieve, then possessing a teachable spirit.
6. Become your own authority.
Oftentimes pursuing your dreams proves to be more difficult than you had ever imagined. For this reason, you have to be the authority over your own emotions. You may not have had any idea how much time it would take you to get to where you want to go, and you may not have expected to have had as many demands placed upon you or your life as happened, or you may not have realized how long you would have to keep paying the price for your happiness.
What weeds the successful out from the mediocre is the ability to take authority over their tiresome times, with the deep belief that the payoff of their hard work will make the times of great sacrifice well worth it. When you do what you want to do it will be better than you ever imagined. The compounding return of investing in your personal development will be astronomical. You will be blown away by how much fun you have doing what you want and succeeding at it. Once you are in the fun place of experiencing the joy of your improvements... own it, revel in it. Then... start a new journey with another new beginning, starting with the letter "A" nurturing it all the way to "Z." Each time you go through this process, you expand the ideas you hold of yourself, your life and of your continued possibilities.
A life worth living and loving is one that is always under construction.