Journal ideas are a great way to grow in personal development.
And personalized gifts like journals with specific themes or words inside are unforgettable gifts.
I have a friend who has the gift of giving memorable personalized gifts (where she would write something nice or attach a thoughtful card).
I knew she had the gifting gift from the first gift she gave me which was a blank hard-bound Hallmark journal with heavy ivory parchment pages (that’s thicker than resume paper).
It had this popular in the day vintage book pattern, but with a mint green color. I don’t think Martha Stewart would mind me showing off one of her cookbooks I’ve held onto.
I remember my friend even said she didn’t think I would like a diary with a locket.
Looking back, journal ideas would have been different when you know it wasn’t read by someone else.
Those were the old-fashioned letter and journal writing days for memories.
Today, journal ideas on paper are good for purging emotions and a form of meditation. They are productive way to release thoughts and feelings, gain revelations, and a quiet practice to slow down.
Journal Ideas for Personal Growth
If you’re feeling stuck in life, writing in a journal or composition book… or typing thoughtful words on a computer is a great exercise to help you gain clarity.
It’s an easy action step that can give you the next breakthrough.
And you feel accomplished and calmer when you address areas of your life you may not have if left in your brain.
Journaling can be a good means to an end and help process what you haven’t figured out just yet.
Written details bring out solutions.
Gratitude Journal Ideas (#1): So one area you can start with is appreciation.
You can write a gratitude journal that lists out what you’re grateful, small and big.
So if someone showed kindness, you could write that down. And your mind will blow that up.
After then after you process or noodle through your journal ideas, thoughts, and feelings, you don’t need those in-between or bridging memories anymore.
So you could toss them out in our growing paperless world, and that can be freeing like burning a piece of clothing that you no longer wear or an old identity you were holding onto.
You can use prompts like:
I am grateful for ___________ today.
I appreciate _____________ in my life.
Revelation Journal Ideas (#2):
Reviewing your old journal writing you wrote can be eye-opening and fun.
You can laugh at life and discover who you’re becoming.
We are meant to grow and change.
You’re no longer in the process of where you were when you wrote the journal entry.
Your habits have changed and you’re in a different season.
the sadness stings or hardships have changed and hopefully lifted.
Some things you wrote could even put a smile on your face. Some are worth repeating (like re-reading) for the laughs.
And some journal ideas could be reminders for a future dream you can pickup today.
Prayer, Quotes, and Hope Journal Ideas (#3):
Using Scripture, quotes, and heartfelt mantras can be super helpful for uplifting, encouragement, and reminders that we all need.
They can get us to our next moment when situations are tough.
We can lean on others’ ideas that helped them through similar troubles that got them through.
That adds a ray of hope. 🌅
And you can use your journaling for shadow work. Sometimes we didn’t get what we needed in our past.
So we can add reminders like:
I am loved.
I am never alone.
S.W.O.T. Journal Ideas (#4): Using the SWOT Method In Your Journaling
S.W.O.T. stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
SWOT is a tool for strategic decision-making that I learned in my later college years.
We drew a lot of grids in business school and this one I’ve used for many areas of life to slow down and make decisions without regret.
I’m more practical than impulsive, but this is also great for those who are.
When applied to a writing tool, like in journaling, it can help you to process thoughts and evaluate from a more objective (higher) point of view.
You can count the pros and cons (and probably save time and money from hiring help) to make better decisions.
It can help you slow down (to ultimately speed up) and help you avoid making a wrong choice.
You can start by thinking of what your current strengths and focuses are today.
And then, what could hold you back (weaknesses and threats) from going all in?
Sometimes you discover it’s nothing or it something you can grow and change in you… that’s the best kind of SWOT journal ideas…
Then write what opportunities you have to move forward on.
Look for answers to know where you’re headed in your destiny and next steps.
If you want to transform your life, and you don’t have a chance or want to take a radical sabbatical now, you could meditate and journal for a few minutes a day in this season that can help propel you into the next one.
In the past decade, I have spent 3 separate Thanksgiving holidays abroad or overseas that was everything but a calm Happy Thanksgiving. It was organized chaos in Mexico, Spain, and Morocco.
It’s all relative to each person’s life. For me, the trips were exciting and memorable times, and during more calm days when we traveled around freely. Some refer to as “the easier days.”
Those holidays, I was attending celebrational gatherings and occasions. But despite the freedom and travel adventure, I always felt something missing, being away.
…It’s the similar feeling that you get when you’ve arrived to your destination (place or accomplishments) and now you’re ready to go home or move on to what’s next…
Have you been there?
In those past Thanksgiving occasions, I knew that the something-missing was being in the country that I’m most grateful for, where I live and grew up celebrating Thanksgiving (along with all Americans) on the last Thursday in November. 🦃
Watching the Macy’s Day Parade is a calm Happy Thansgiving event I look forward to… and, hearing television football games played in the background, catching up with family and friends, getting the special dinner on the table in the afternoon, and forgetting calories to celebrate.
…And remembering that Thanksgiving starts and sets the countdown to Christmas.🎄
Holiday time is also a time when holiday stress can creep in finishing work projects for the year, gift giving decisions, and sometimes compromising decisions on food and travel, and making winter and holiday plans.
…So, especially if that’s you, I wanted to help you to find a calm Happy Thanksgiving to kick-off your BEST holiday season.
I joyfully love to keep my holiday season as calm and simple as possible. And baking at home is one of those ways. That’s how I roll (and some time before this year ends I’ll be baking my first swiss roll and you can be the judge of how it turns out… so stay tuned).
And our staying calm is how I believe we can win in our life’s marathon. You don’t have to look far to find ways to not find R&R in this life. It’s your perception (mindset shift) that can change everything for you. I know this, because it did for me.
You can stay cool as a cucumber even when your situations get complicated and sometimes out of our hands.
You’re your biggest influence if you allow yourself that empowered choice.
We can go after the things that make us happy or feel calm.
One example is the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzies (you don’t need a reminder as they’re everywhere). Those are part of our newer culture traditions, but not what make a calm Happy Thanksgiving.
I mentioned I was overseas on three Thanksgiving occasions. One occasion was spent in Seville, Spain.
That year, I noticed they had similar shopping celebrations inside a mall I went into. I realized day after Thanksgiving big shopping sales don’t just happen in America in a shouting from the rooftops or fun confetti gun sorta way 🎉.
My turkey (while not the traditional kind) that year came from an express Carrefour grocery supermarket, and while not stuffed (the turkey or myself 😊), I felt grateful that I was healthy and able to travel before I started a new work chapter in my life.
… I felt I knew what I more deeply wanted in this Life… meaningful things that brought more peace, joy, and love that were missing from the previous season.
…That can sound like a Hallmark card or movie-ish, but that’s what everyone wants no matter what socioeconomic status. That never changes. And even if it’s never declared.
Having nice stuff is great, but getting in a habit of buying can swallow us up if we take the eye off the real joy and riches in this world.
And then those fickle feelings, thoughts, and moods can creep into the day. And we can easily feel dissatisfied at some point when our elated feelings draw to an end and the novelty wears off (…that’s this life).
We can then feel something missing when what we really want is to feel whole (and not missing anything). We want to feel healthy and healed.
So, from that lens, looking for the calm (and not the highs that can lead us to the lows) keeps us joyful, content, and in full gratitude (for our life). And in control of our feelings and lives. Simple to say but not easy to do if the mind muscles haven’t been stretched or we get super busy or proud.
I remember in my past, I would get invited to foodie restaurants where the bill would be similar to say getting the indulgent luxury spa works package.
I never felt guilty, but I never felt any better than if I didn’t go, when I looked back. There was a misalignment.
Deeper inside, I remember feeling I would have preferred to just stay at home and eat a nice bowl of delicious healthy homemade soup instead of getting all dolled-up to go out and splurge on a decadent 4-course dinner.
I didn’t need to feed my ego and outer wants. And my body would’ve thanked me for it too!
In case you get tired of pumpkin everything, and over Thanksgiving… here’s a delicious, calming Vata yam soup you can try! 😋
…It took me feeling that I wasn’t missing anything to get to that revelation. Does that make sense?
And maybe since I had worked in and out and behind-the-hotel catering and restaurant hospitality-scenes, my lens was altered and the happy going-out eating Disney-effect just wasn’t the same.
…but I really do think it was more just being misaligned with my purpose. At that time, I was still trying to figure out what category that could be as I used limited gifts and talents (and more management and planning skills) in corporate work.
Today, I know what keeps life calm and joyful (especially as we enter holiday weeks where it’s easy to get off healthy and happy balance)… and, that’s taking care of and growing yourself (mind-body-spirit).
We all have a chance to forge a new path or start a new pivot for the first or nth time in this or the next season. I know what that is like as much as anyone (and probably even more). It can be a little uncomfortable in uncertainty, but with taking risks come rewards.
You could be in a slow season or a fast-paced one that’s passing you. Neither I found were sustainable. They were for a season.
And whatever the case is for you today, it’s better to take charge of your destiny.
…Because you’ve probably noticed in your life, as soon as you get used to a way, then a new one is presented especially these days in our warp speed up and slow down world… and sometime it’s hurry up and wait (that will help you in your adaptability and flexibility… good skills to have!).
If you want to find your next calling or your purpose, one thing you can do is maintain better consistent sleep which I think is one of the telltale signs of your optimal mental health (and of course physical health).
If you have a new purpose to wake up for or purposefully trying to search for one, your mental health improves and that helps your sleep. And getting moving with physical exercise can be one of those easier ways to get this sleep party started (if that needs restoration).
As for finding your life’s purpose, if that’s the crossroad where you are, thinking outside of what’s around you and finding inspiration from those outside your circles (different from you) and the sources you usually would look at, can definitely spark new life and life-giving journeys…
For many seasons, looking back, I found I was thinking way too small at times (not dreaming big) and usually those were clouded thoughts. There wasn’t a sharp gut knowing that I had felt before in other seasons (from dreams or heart whispers). Like those feelings of when you know, you know, and when you don’t, you don’t.
When I got more air and space, I could believe for bigger things, and those ideas became my reality. Not usually right away, but sometimes they did “suddenly” in life’s mysterious and everything-happens-for-a-reason ways.
I consider myself a feet-firmly planted on the ground type of person… and maybe that’s how you operate.
On the ground, these days with all the resources we have available to us, we can go straight to the root, find resources, and decision maker sources, and bypass months of trying to find right answers, and get in the front door. The right ones open for you in your effort and staying calm.
And to help you stay calm, here are 3 simple ways to stay feeling balanced, joyful and in calm waiting (if you are waiting) over the Thanksgiving weekend and maybe (hopefully) beyond… Continue reading “3 Ways For a Calm Happy Thanksgiving”
When you get tears of joy (😂), your body is set in joy motion. You feel something and that can get you to move and take good action.
You get to experience freeing moments like you’re on top of the world, and your mind is joyfully elevated. This helps your mental health and outlook. And when your mind is happy, your body feels the connection. That’s Ayurveda in a nutshell.
Well… except it’s not that cut and dry (…I don’t think anything is these days). I wrote some personal notes below at the end of this post, from over a decade of intentional-balanced and healthy-minded living
I think it’s safe to say, we all have different body goals. One of mine is to stay looking young for as long as nature will let me. I can’t stop gray hairs from coming, but I can avoid the stressful grays that started in my mid-20s.
And our preferences are different, like in music…
For me and maybe for you, that can be in listening to a song that strikes a chord inside, like Adele’s emotional songs or the empowering words from a Lauren Daigle song.
Lyrics matter to me more now than they used to when I’d hum along to anything that had an upbeat vibe. It’s a good idea to be choosier about what we put in our minds (and body) if we want certain results.
And in modern Ayurvedic living, you choose as it’s not rules-based but certain practices work because the body is intuitive.
In other happy moments, seeing someone else happy can leave us smiling. Or when they have tears of joy, we do too.
And in another moment, that could be laughing out loud (does anyone even use LOL anymore…besides me? 😊).
And btw, I get a good laugh in watching The Great British Baking Show. I’ll spare you the witty, but clean jokes swirling in my head. But, that’s what sets it apart from every other baking competition. It’s standup (filmed) comedy or silly, tongue-in-cheek banter… oh, and beautiful bakes too.🍥
And it’s easy to love and relate to all the friendly contestants (and be glad you’re not under the pressure!). Read-dy?…Now Bake.
Just kidding. (I can’t say lol since I just called myself out on it).
But, anyway… in life, you’re usually witnessing your life from and with other people even if it’s through a computer or television. Even if we feel like we live in a bubble, our energy permeates through social media and our connections made. It doesn’t take a plane ride… it takes nanoseconds for our energy and atoms to travel.
And that’s the relational power we have in this life. Along with our connecting breath.
Next time you think about it, pair your tears of joy (or routinely adding daily eye drops) with a special breathing exercise called Pranayama, that’s a controlled way of breathing.
Here’s how you do Pranayama breath. Blow out all your air through your mouth. And then inhale breathe in a big gasp of air through your nose. Hold your breath for about 6-8 seconds. And then let out a big exhale through your mouth as you had started with. You can feel a burst of concentration/clarity in your mind. The mind fog is lifted (even if it’s temporary) and it can feel like you just had a shot of espresso or strong matcha tea.
In doing the breathing exercise, you’ve just relaxed and massaged your body from the diaphragm muscles to your vital nerves that impact your brain, breathing, and the body parts that regulate your stress. Sounds like a big deal… it is.
But we forget. And living in purpose is everything to intentional balanced living.
You get to feel alive! And that may be the that’s-what -I’m talkin’-about prescription you need, especially if you have constant stress in your life. You can try to find areas of life where you can shed tears of joy.
You can practice breathing purposeful daily wherever you are, so remember to do this regularly or when you next feel anxiety or a breather moment.
This can be another purposeful move where you step outside where you spend most of your day. Like when you’re out and see a work of art that moves your heart and stirs your soul. That can be from nature or something that is living and breathing like a baby-making cooing sounds or a dog with a wagging tail you see walking outside.
Passion purpose is a sign you’re on the way to your life’s work. My passion led me to these cookies I baked, and started out as a catering manager for a DoubleTree Hotel, as full circle. 🍪🍪
Star design chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe below. 🍪
But I believe…
We all have a second act in us for a passion purpose in life. And that’s how I felt when I started to question the culture we live in and our individual purpose.
The longer you live and explore the full possibilities, you get to see and decide if you’ve been looking out from the wrong lens in some areas of your life, like a passion purpose in life. ✨
You can use this star cookie (recipe below) as a guide or inspiration. 🍪
Star Pattern Cookie recipe below 🧡⭐️
You can walk into your passion purpose if you take strategic steps (and that’s what this blog post is all about).
I’ll start with my humble adult story.
I got married later in life (at least I thought). I didn’t enter marriage in my twenties (something I recommend waiting on). Like most, I went through big changes from 25-30. That’s pretty typical of getting your feet off the ground as a newer adult.
By 28, I kept getting the same answer back that I was changing and trading in my caterpillar feet for wings. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and my 180-degree career switch in high-tech data (from the hospitality business) was a metaphor.
I knew that if I wanted any semblance of a life outside work like my business college friends had, I needed to jump ship into different waters.
I had no idea how and had no real job connections other than the internet. There was no LinkedIn, lol. But I knew that if I took the risk, then a new door could open. I believed whatever direction I was headed in would happen without yet knowing why. And it did.
I experienced what work-life balance was for the first time. I also got married.
And I had time for relationships and self-care. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I still had a past that I hadn’t addressed but was affecting the way I thought and acted, especially in my marriage.
At that time, I didn’t know childhood wounds existed into adulthood as PTSD.
I didn’t connect the dots to how events from decades ago could show up in my marriage. The brain is messy and complex like that.
It’s easy to stay unaware about the lens from which you see out into your life (and even these days in a more open and knowledge-aware society). And that affects your daily thought life and outcomes.
It’s a lot easier to be critical of others and notice how they behave that’s different than you.
And if you’re married, you’ve probably been tested, as marriage like no other relationship will make you go into deeper places you’ve never explored. You’ll meet each other’s ego.
Intimate bonding will highlight those insecure dormant spaces that need addressing like a UV blacklight spotlights stains.
A marriage relationship can make the partners want to fix everything that’s not how each would have done as a single person.
Marriage can be a tough bootcamp and why it’s such a great training ground for personal growth (and I’m all for it!). And so is building a business from a passion purpose in life. Even though not everyone likes that kind of testing ground to move up.
And that described what I experienced. Then years later, I lost my work-balance job from a massive corporate layoff.
And my marriage came to a peaceful screeching-halt end suddenly. And the business foundations I started, crumbled.
I relocated back to where I grew up and started over with a more mature lens. These events eventually helped me to find my individual purpose.
It started with a blogging journey back in 2009 and then put aside for about a decade. That was my passion purpose in life then.
And one day, I started writing a funny lesson learned story from a hot tea kettle burn on my finger. I submitted for publication and have never stopped writing since.
Long story short, writing never left my veins. And in the messy middle (by design), I found the path leading to a passion purpose in life.
And this leads me to 3 ways I can share (from my journey) how you can walk into your passion purpose this season.
1. Start Over (Finding Your Passion Purpose In Life Could Depend On It)
Don’t be afraid to start over. Be okay with the unknown as all of life if you think about it is uncertain. Taking gut and heartfelt risks is worth the chance!
If the timing is right, be brave, and don’t look back (at least not at your decision right away). You’re wisely guided internally.
It’s easy for any of us to wrap our identity in jobs and titles and rationalize why we can’t leave (they’re handcuffs whether they’re golden or not).
In my case, I grew up and worked in the most politically powerful and driven metro mover-and-shaker Washington DC culture, where people will run circles around you if you don’t pull over or speed up.
And I’m convinced it’s the area where the corporate rat race phrase came from 😂.
In my corporate work, I quickly learned that everyone working for someone is replaceable. And lessons learned yearsss later, that letting go of the fear of losing a job is so freeing and liberating. And not something to be scared of. It’s the ticket to your personal happiness and success.
When I was laid off after six years of success at a corporate job, I was literally in shock. I mean, one day your job existence is there, and then POOF!… the next day you wake up and it’s gone.
If you purposefully stay in the mindset of choosing to design your quality life, then you’re always nimble and heading towards your north star pointing passion purpose in life.
The uncertain journey isn’t prescriptive, all roses, or without doubt, but your creative purpose is in there and you can eventually do what you love and love doing (or else why pursue?) even if you’re not creative.
We all have a passion purpose in life. In This One Life.
Plus, in control of your own destiny, you will never be bored! Getting there may take some years, wrong turns, and grit (almost an inevitable formula for the best things in life!), but it’s so rewarding and worth the effort.
If you’re starting over, that’s a sign of growth into your purpose. New starts can be a deliberate choice, but often you’re blindsided with a job or relationship loss or change, health scare, or an unexpected move.
Anything can happen suddenly, even though it could be years in the making. You could become a 10-year overnight success (or land your dream job) with a new starting point or unintended re-route.
When there’s a fresh new beginning, your senses are heightened and you soak up more like a sponge. You feel life (and alive)!
The alternative is staying on the comfortable course. When life is busy, in the messy middle, that is when you can grow comfortable… until you’re not. Life doesn’t work the way it should. You feel stuck. And maybe discouraged.
Those are times you look deeper inside yourself and into what else you got in your bag o’ tricks. And you’ve got so much more than you know today! You just have to start digging for your today passion purpose in life that can change tomorrow.
It’s actually more methodical (than scary) and sensible if you think about it… you only get this one life to do what you want with it. Look at those on America’s Got Talent.
They’ve worked so hard for decades on their talent that they started from nothing but an idea and a dream. And they’ve failed forward plenty. But they didn’t give up.
…And they know each fall and fail is one step closer to success. And when they end up on the AGT stage, they never look back. And their big break success takes off.
Starting over may be just what you need to go to the next level in your unique part of this life.
After you meditate, think, or pray about it, and you get a form of A-ha confirmation that excites you and makes sense to you for that next step, then you and the shining Galactic Universe celebrate with a burst of fanfare (a new kind of Big Bang theory 🎉).
And when you go all in, they and all your support fans in your life will go to town to help you in your belief. You figure out your unique unstoppable path. And what you were destined to do.
So these are the steps I would recommend (and I did to find my self-taught writing passion):
2. Discover Your Hidden Talent(s)
Maybe you have started an interest years ago that you never fully saw into fruition, and now is your ripe time. Or you want to know what your hidden talent is if you have uncovered it… you DO have one (and probably more than one).
That I’m certain of!
If you want to know what that is, then I encourage you to keep looking and more deeply as it’s there on the tea leaves and in between your yoga poses if that’s your jam.
You can also find it in your hobbies, interests, and activities you’ve dabbled in that excited you for a day or a season. Those outlets and past times made you feel good, and maybe even felt a sigh-of-relief from life’s busyness and stressors.
We all find time to do the things we want and love, even if we’re SUPER busy. It doesn’t have to be just one interest, as it can be a category especially if you’re a Vata and like to multi-task…
Such as, when I was in corporate work, I’ve always had a side interest in scrapbooking, painting art, and creating (anything) where I got lost in my project…
This is my graphical representation of the show 🍰
And that’s what The Great British Bake-Off (or The Great British Baking Show in the U.S.) past and present contestants do. They have day jobs and baking is their side gig or hobby, so they are on the show happy to be there. It’s another outlet for them.
OK, I have to pause the serious reel here for just a minute ⏳… I was laughing so hard over the baking show comedy last week in the current episode series. Are you familiar with the show?
…If not, I’m gonna give you a 30-second program interrupt and let you in. 😊
The comedy is there in every episode (it’s not hard to find like your hidden talent can be, haha.) Gut there’s a funny sound bite clip from one show episode that I’m reminded of where the contestants are tasked with making baklava and phyllo dough during Pastry Week.
One of my favorite contestants from the season episodes, is Giuseppe who mentioned he had never made either before because it’s a hassle and easier to just go out and buy.
It’s funny on two levels because 1) with his lovely and classic Italian accent, it sounded like another English word to Matt (one of the tent sidekicks) he was talking to, and 2) because the challenge was for him to make the painfully hassle-filled baklava under 3 hours, and cut in a star design. 😅 Continue reading “Passion Purpose in Life Tips + Orange Star Chocolate Oat Cookie”
7 Habits of Highly Effective People are habit principles you can use in most aspects of your life. I learned this from teacher and author, Stephen Covey who taught from his principle book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Planning events is all about habit creation that builds confidence for the next event!
I can’t think of anything more work adrenaline-filled than putting on a moving-part event production. That’s how I felt when I would plan and then orchestrate large events with over 100 guests, where the habits from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People were put to good use.
Setting up event success meant planning milestone meetings with chefs and managers (and plenty of meetings with myself) with a 5 P’s mantra: Proper planning prevents poor performance.
That’s not a personal mission statement, but it’s a success value statement. In my event planning, I learned many powerful lessons that can be applied to personal change and growth.
On event nights, the party starts at the ready time or at least the staff and I have to be ready.
That’s when we know whether the prep work laid out hours beforehand pays off with a successful event. And this actually starts weeks and sometimes months in advance by planning menus, setup, and details with planners and chefs.
Each event is like its own wedding event even though it may have fewer mini-events and agendas.
The first two habits (of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) always took center stage to anticipate changes:
1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
During the parties, when there were too many moving parts, being in the moment, keeping focused on the guests, gauging the temperature of the room, and checking in on the party host (be proactive) was part of event success (begin with the end in mind).
And in your daily life, you probably don’t plan events (or not in a live event space today anyway)…but most of us plan our daily event schedules.
So most of us are planners. On the calendar, you can (and may already) practice be(ing) proactiveand begin with the end in mind habits.
One effective way is, if you only have an activity that requires a bi-weekly (or bi-anytime) habit… and to succeed with those tasks, you could fill the non-weeks or time with another activity so that your mind has to search for the “either/or” activity.
If you don’t create a weekly placeholder activity then you could unintentionally forget/skip the bi-weekly intended one. The mind needs a replacement to substitute.
If it’s an every other day activity, then you could fill that same activity time for another activity, that follows a daily habit (or the habit stacking concept most of us have come to love and know from the more recent Atomic Habits by James Clear).
It’s much easier for the habit to stick (and for consistency to happen) when you have an “automatic” method programming your mind.
That’s easier and in event planning, that’s the “you got this” feeling in event planning when you’re on top of everything and proactive. You’re not writing everything down in those critical seconds needed to make a decision.
Most professions have these “make or break” moments. For a surgeon in a hospital emergency room, if the doctor has to look up procedural answers then, that’s not a good sign.
And in event planning that I know, being reactive with situations is crushing and it can be a snowball effect where the plates come out late or cold. And there’s a complaint about the room temperature and drinks.. and in those humbling times, you can’t wait until the end of the event, that’s only a matter of time.
To get to the proactive level takes planning, proficiency, and experience that creates confidence. And that starts from building consistent habits.
Consistency is the end-all, be-all that builds progress, and confidence and works for every important habit that I can think of at least. You consistently follow a habit. And when a better habit idea comes along, you replace that habit.
But consistency isn’t without downfall. It can be at odds with creativity, so consider looking at them as the yin-and-yang, or the sugar and the salt in baking that give the balanced spice in life.
And using solid principles like that from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can improve your effectiveness.
They can help you in life’s productivity and also deeper areas like finding your life’s purpose, a proactive choice that can easily get los in life’s busyness and commotion of what’s seemingly urgent but not important to you.
You’re headed in the right direction when you keep developing yourself and pivoting. You keep practicing new skills, putting one step in front of the other and looking at your compass.
The Universe is constantly guiding you and offering an invisible hand to help you and give you a hand up.
The healthy and growth mind set knows that a re-route is to help you move up in the climb of your life and get off the roller coaster ride.
If you begin thinking with the desired outcome end in mind, then your process in the middle is improved when you set your eyes on the end goal.
You can better Ready, Fire, and Aim.
And when you stay focused and open to feedback using habits #3 and #4 from seven Habits of Highly Effective People:
3. Put first things first
4. Think win-win
These days prioritizing what’s important is more blurred than in the past.
Most of us live a double life to some degree with our digital lives and real lives, so putting first things first (habit #3) is not the easiest thing and can be complex.
Both lives are authentic. Your sweet spot is what makes you stand out and the skills that you’re good at that are relevant.
The biggest competitor you could run into for a win-win approach (habit #4) can be yourself and your moods (we used to blame much more on others). We’re now a more openly aware and collaborative society.
Being able to give is a gift. It’s a win-win.
There’s a cosmic exchange when you give your energy away in optimism, and then the world dances. When you give your time (service) or money (generous giving), that can also create buzz and impact for your endeavors.
When you can start looking at how you fit in the world, not selfishly, but what you can give in the abundant overflow you’re given in personality, gifts, and talents, then you can grow to your highest and best use purpose (habit #2).
In self-awareness, then you can create a continuing growth environment (kaizen is the Japanese word in business terms) for you and others around you (habits # 5-7):
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw
“You have two ears and one mouth,” I remember Author Stephen Covey saying in his workshops.
Listening is more importing than talking.
Habit #5 summed up: Hearing, selective listening, and active listening are 3 different processes. The first is naturally automatic, the second is tuning in/out when multi-tasking, and the third is focusing, taking notes, and coming up with unique ideas from what you heard in your frame of reference and experiences.
In my event planning days, if a client had an issue, it was best to listen to them, then give them available options based on what they communicated (habit #5) and let them decide which options to take (habit #6). Seasoned event planners know how to do that every time, and let those dialogues roll off their tongues (habit #7). And that way the client felt in charge and if things didn’t go as planned, then they owned part of the outcome. That’s the behind-the-scenes smoothness in event planning.
And that helps in most ways when you work with others. If you fill them in with communication nd what you’re up to, there’s a greater chance they can fill in and help in ways you wouldn’t even know how, now.
Habit #6: 1+1=3 or synergy is exponential growth that happens when you have collaboration. And when you keep adding/evolving collectively to what you’re doing, then you’re getting better. By default, you’ll avoid the things you didn’t like or “been there done that,” and keep seeking newer, better ways for yourself. That leads to growth and…
Habit #7: Evolved learners focus most of their time on the present moment and not on the past or future that hasn’t happened.
They know where they’re at and that the past brought them to where they are today. And without the past, they would not have learned (from their history) what they need to do to improve.
And when you get out of the negative emotions of that headspace or focus on the happy memories, you can feel good and alive.
When you can reflect, you can see why things happened and how they helped you even though it didn’t seem that way when you were learning the lesson.
Everything happens for a good reason (believe that!) and sometimes that takes a little longer to realize… and, at every turn you are gaining a little more confidence in who you are becoming.
And you gain a clearer vision for the future and better strategies that you can better evaluate from time to time.
In events, dessert were always a must. Baklava was on the Mediterranean-Lebanese restaurant menus. We didn’t make baklava in-house, but you can with this low-sugar recipe. 🥮
Make phyllo dough from scratch! It's not as difficult as it sounds... and dare I say fun!
Course Dessert
Cuisine lebanese
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2tbspolive oil
1cupflour
1cupwater
pinch of salt
honey
chopped nuts
dates, orange, and cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
Making phyllo is a lot like making homemade pasta, but much thinner.
Make a mound and a hole in the middlle where you can add the olive oil and slowly add water. Knead for about 5 minutes and then form a dough disc. Let rest.
Roll out as thin as possible and then you can slip into the pasta maker if you have one, adjusting until you get to the thinnest setting (e.g. 1). It will look opaque but the hope is that there will be no holes.
Cut into strips that you will use as layers for the baklava.
For the baklava, you can brush honey and top with chopped dates and nuts (walnuts or pistachios work well) on every other layer if you make 7 layers ending with the top layer with honey and nuts. Sprinkle each layer with cinnamon and orange zest if you like (good for Ayurvedic Vata balancing!).
