Moxie Living: Courage and Confidence

Are You A Master of Your Own Self?

Personal mastery is about approaching life from a different perspective. Sometimes people would refer to life as a journey towards continuous improvement.

Personal mastery is guided with key principles like vision, personal purpose, creative tension, commitment to truth and understanding the subconscious mind

One of the most important fundamental aspects of personal mastery is personal vision.

Personal mastery when combined personal vision can create a framework or guiding philosophy on how you can operate and live your life. Some people would say that personal vision serves as a guide that would keep you on track.

Followers of personal mastery see that there are great opportunities to improve their growth.

Personal mastery is about loving yourself and expressing your gifts to its fullest. Some would think that personal mastery is controlling and limiting one self, but actually it is about understanding your personality.

To control or overcome some habits, it would be important to identify how and why those habits arise. The more you suppress things, the more you would have difficulty in conquering and overcoming it.

Personal mastery is self-discipline. It is about taking responsibility for the direction that your life is going to take.

You would slowly realise that you can do anything with the aide of your skills and talents. Discipline would clarify and deepen your perspective in life.

Those who quest for personal mastery would develop patience and see life objectively.

Personal mastery can actually help you become successful in life.

You can say that you have developed personal mastery if you are starting to fully understand your strengths, talents and your purpose in life.

Personal mastery enables you to be inspired, energized and happy with your life. You start to show a sense of commitment in changing on how people perceive life and the world.

It is also important for a person who is on quest for personal mastery to develop integrity, humility, justice and industry. Actually, these are “rules” on how we could conduct ourselves professional, socially and spiritually.

Peter Senge said that attaining personal mastery has no shortcuts or no “quick fixes.” Sometimes it would take a lifetime for personal mastery to be attained.

Personal mastery detaches a person from self-interest or selfishness and encourage people towards providing care and service to other people.

Also individuals who follow personal mastery see the connections in their surroundings and perceived everything as a whole.

Proactive behaviour is also something that personal mastery helps you to develop. Reactive behaviour like thinking beforehand hand that you cannot do things is dealt with when developing personal mastery. Actions and service that you provide are based on how you can creatively maximize your skills.

To summarize it, personal mastery guides you to develop being aware with your beliefs, attitudes and behaviour impacts. It also enables you to accept yourself and be responsible with your own action, attitude, and thought.

Experts would say that personal mastery could be truly gained by living purposefully and by living with integrity.

Living purposefully would include showing talents, gifts and strengths to achieve goals and be successful. Living with integrity is by integrating your ideals, standards and behaviour.

Stories are powerful, they can change perceptions and frames of reference in seconds. 

We’re very grateful and extend a huge thanks to Dr Susan Gregg for her kind permission to let us publish on our blog the opening story from her book Finding the Sacred Self . 

Enjoy…

“Two apprentices, a man and a woman, were walking down a path late one night.

The moon was moving toward full, but not yet bright enough to dim the stars. The wind rapidly pushed the clouds as they danced over the face of the moon. The shadows they crated moved ominously over the high desert terrain.

The night was far from empty; many spirits were out.  The apprentices hurried along.

The quiet was almost deafening, only broken by the sound of their footsteps in the loose gravel and the occasional cricket. Off in the distance a coyote howled.

They spoke in whispers about the lessons they had learned. Their teacher had unexpectedly told them to return home tonight. They had never been asked to leave after dark before.

Their teacher had laughed at their fear.

They tried to be warriors as they walked along the path but fear continued to rise to the surface. They knew someone was lurking in the darkness waiting for them.

As they approached the path leading toward the cliff they thought they saw someone step out of the shadows. At first they laughed at their foolishness but then they began to hear a quiet chanting. Before them stood an ancient one. Only terror held them in place.

The old one said, “Who do we have here? Who comes before me? Come closer and let me see you.”

Slowly they both began to inch backward.

They had heard stories of the old ones and how they steal the unsuspecting apprentice’s souls. Their hearts began pounding and fear began to rise within them; the night was filled with the sound of their breathing.

The old one asked, “What do you fear? Certainly not one as old as me, alone in the desert. How could I possibly harm you? Are you victims or warriors?”

The man timidly began to speak, “I have heard stories of the old ones and how they steal people’s souls. I have no wish to fight you.”

The old one laughed and said, “Who asked you to fight me? Do you really believe those stories meant to scare children into listening to their elders? Come closer so I can see you.”

Again they edged back and the woman asked, “Why are you here? Who are you and what do you want?”

The ancient one smiled and said, “The path to freedom always leads through your fears. You can never be free until you have faced your fears and conquered them. Your healing and your sacred self lies in the direction your head tells you not to go. Whenever your head says, ‘I will not do this,’ you must do it or you will never be free. Listen not to your head. Listen always to your heart.”

The man said, “Those are fine words, old one, but they sound like words of a trickster to me. Why should I trust you?”

“Because your mind tells you not to,” replied the ancient one. “Listen to your heart. What does it tell you? Come closer so I can see you.”

For a moment, they all stood motionless on the edge of the cliff.

Before the man had a chance to stop her, the woman smiled and stepped forward. The man yelled, “No!” But the woman and the ancient one just smiled.

Then the old one reached out and in a rapid, fluid movement, pushed her off the cliff. And she flew. ”

About Dr Susan Gregg “Susan believes that life is meant to be happy and free of struggle – that life is an opportunity to remember our divine nature and to have fun.” you can visit her site at http://susangregg.com

How To Stay Stuck on Motivated!

Finding that one ‘thing’ that motivates, inspires and drives you forward, is perhaps the easy part.

Sticking with it, that’s what most people find the tricky part.

And even if you have already succeeded in identifying what motivates you, the temptation to give in to (dare we say) procrastination are much more powerful than getting yourself up and going.

Lacking motivation or deliberately making yourself feel demotivated is a habit.

Seriously, something isn’t quite right when you refuse to wake up on time to get work.

Or, when you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the power of procrastination when you have deadlines to meet.

You know that something is going wrong inside you when the task you have to finish several days ago sits idly on your desk, untouched.

And something isn’t right when you can’t even force yourself to confront a problem that has been gnawing your will to live fully.

You may even lack the motivation to accept that you are not motivated!

So how do you build your motivation from the ground up?

Start with…

Identifying the things that zap out your motivation.

It always starts with very simple things in a very natural manner.

Then it starts to affect the other aspects of your life, which are not entirely connected with the thing that triggered your lack of motivation.

Maybe you just didn’t feel like getting up after your alarm rung off one morning. The next day, you did the same thing and on and on until you developed the bad habit of not feeling motivated to do anything.

Start with the exercise of listing down the areas in your life where you find no motivation to pursue at all and the particular things which you think makes you feel disheartened.

This will help you gain some perspective on the entire issue.

You can even derive solutions in simply knowing the cause. This will shed clarity on your issues with motivation.

Then you can move on to evaluating the risks and benefits of not feeling motivated.

Believe us, there are benefits to having no motivation – immediate self-gratification in the form of rest for one. And there are risks, for sure. Plenty of them. And the risks oftentimes outweigh the benefits.

Discovering the risks and benefits of not feeling motivated could be very enlightening.

In general, you would realise that it is never worth it to procrastinate, to give in to the temptation of hating to move a finger to finish your tasks, or to deliberately believe that it is much more gratifying to lie around and do nothing.

Finally, commit yourself to change.

This is not easy, it never was. But try to set the date for mustering your sense of motivation.

Simple Ways to Balance Your Life

How do you know when your life is spiralling out of control? What does it feel like when you can’t seem to see’ the wood from the trees’? Have you ever felt so stressed and overwhelmed by the events in your daily life that you have experienced the signs and symptoms of stress?

When your living life this way, it may seem impossible to think of what it would look like if it were in complete balance.

We live in a very busy world, there is so much ‘noise’ that sometimes do you think it’s hard to hear yourself and what you need?

Finding true balance is something that doesn’t start with changing your external world, it has to begin within you, first. Even if you feel your entire external world is in utter chaos, the true balance will remain a constant regardless!

It’s a state of mind, a commitment to remaining in control of you.

It’s ensuring that you allow nothing to ‘tip the scales’.

Below you’ll find three simple ways to begin balancing your life:

Quiet time

Among the first things we incline to sacrifice when we’re busy is our personal time.

Instead we devote all of our energy and attention to caring for others, multi-tasking, meeting responsibilities and “being productive.” Over time this depletes our energy and we begin to feel more and more burdened by our responsibilities.

To live a more balanced life, quiet time to yourself is essential.

You might think that you don’t have any time available for yourself, but something astonishing happens when you consistently make time; you find yourself feeling happier and more energetic, your focus improves – and you still get plenty done!

We know you may work full time, have a family, pets, friends and family crying out for ‘pieces of you’, a long ‘to do list’ and heck, you still gotta sleep!

Yet, if all (or some of these demands) cause you stress now, and you don’t claim back balance and admit that you are just as important.

Guess what? It can only get worse.

Just a few minutes spent on you can do wonders in transforming stress into peace and happiness.

Self-care

Beyond making time for things you enjoy, there are other ways to nurture and love yourself on a daily basis.

Getting a full 8 hours of sleep (or as much as you personally need) is a great start, as well as eating nutritious food, exercising daily and speaking kindly to yourself.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re really tired or stressed, even the smallest problem can seem like a nightmare?

On the other hand, when you’re feeling well-rested and centered, you’re much better able to handle upsets.

Caring for yourself is one sure way to consistently replenish your energy, inner peace and joy – which means you’ll have the strength to handle whatever comes your way.

Flexibility

Did you know that one of the biggest causes of stress is rigid expectations?

We all do it from time to time; get a mental picture of how our lives “should be” – and get really annoyed when our outer circumstances don’t cooperate!

One of the biggest gifts you can give yourself is a flexible state of mind. In other words, learn how to detach from unrealistic expectations and go with the flow.

When you have a flexible mind-set, you’re able to deal with crises and problems much more easily because you’re not working against a preconceived notion of how things “should be”.

You’re able to tap into your creative problem-solving skills and move through challenges without all the drama and frustration.

Be like the tree that bends with the breeze – and you’re much less likely to break!

These inner changes can make a dramatic difference in your state of well-being, but you may also want to examine your outer life circumstances and see if there are other small changes you can make to help support your inner work.

For example, you might choose to let go of certain obligations that are no longer meaningful or enjoyable to you.

Just because you agreed to host weekly meetings for a support group three years ago doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it forever – especially if it’s become a drain on your time and energy!

Be willing to let go of activities that no longer complement the lifestyle you desire, and you’ll create a space for greater fulfillment, joy and peace.

And we know, we know, asking…that’s the easy part, it’s the answering that creates the angst!

(Oh, we’ve called it Part 1 because we have plenty more of these ‘types ‘ of questions, all in good time friend, all in good time!)

When you have to answer questions about yourself, do you find them ‘challenging, sighing, eyes rolling, shoulder shrugging, soul searching’ impossibilities?

Maybe it’s because we don’t really ask questions of ourselves, are we generally too busy making ‘statements’ about ‘how our life is’?

You know, statements like ‘I hate my job’, ‘I have no self esteem’, ‘it’ll never get better’ or ‘I’ll never be able to learn/do/be that’.

Those types!

And the problems with ‘those types’ of statements are…well there’s a few, but here’s three for starters:

Problemo’ No 1:

They have nowhere else to go.  Once made the statement is made it doesn’t allow the brain to think of an alternative answer.

Problemo’ No  2:

They develop ‘this is the way it is, this is the way it’s always going to be’ thinking, no change thought patterns.

Problem 3: No thinking time.  Asking questions gives you the time and opportunity to search for answers, in a statement that doesn’t happen.

‘Nuff said.  Here’s the questions to ask yourself:

 1. What do I really want?

Yes, we know, old hat and cliché.  If you could answer THAT wouldn’t life be a jolly breeze.  It is the number one question to ask yourself and answer (genuinely and honestly).) If  your too busy thinking about what you don’t want ever wondered why things don’t change the way YOU want them to?

2. Do I want to change?

Seriously, do you want to change?  There is a great saying ‘change happens whether you like it or not’.  Some people want ‘different, better, another way’, yet they misunderstand that in order to achieve this they may have to ‘give up’ something in return.  It’s a trade off.

In could be a an attitude, a way of thinking, a belief, an environment, an entire way of living your life.

So do you want to change?  Is the new worth releasing the old?

3. How can I make this happen?

You may not ask yourself this question regularly.  But once it’s explained to you, we bet you will.  Take for example the statement ‘I can’t do this’, when you turn it into a question ‘how can I do this?’ be prepared, your going to be given many answers!

 4. Am I happy?

If you think ‘no one can be happy all the time’, we agree!

But try not to fight the question.

It’s simple, yet so many people avoid it.  Humans do a great ‘cover up’ job when it comes to being asked that question.

5. What would I do if I knew 100% I was completely safe?

Now, the resistance you feel answering that question might be huge, please put it aside.  What IF you knew you were safe, secure, loved and ‘perfect’ just the way you were?

What would happen?

6. What’s my mission?

If your answer is ‘I don’t know’, great, at least your thinking about it.

A mission can be your defining values and principles on how you live your life.  Incredibly simple.  You don’t need all of lifes ‘big answers to the big questions’ like ‘why am I here?’.

No no, much simplier.  A statement that defines you, your values, your principles and your contribution to the world.  Simples!

7. What are my personal myths?

Myths are not true!  They are stories.

Stories repeated often enough they are only kept alive by the repetition and constant refering to.  The most common personal development ‘stuck-id-ness’ myths are ‘I can’t/I should/I’ll never be able to’.

Write your down your myths and then refer back to question 5!