Tag Archive | Self-love

DAY 16: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Nov17

BeautifulQuestions of the day: Everyday you wake up, ask yourself these very simple questions-“How do I become the story I want told?”, “What must I do today to BE the person I’ve always dreamed of becoming?”, “How do I become the person who accomplishes my goals?”, “If I had only today, how will I live today to reflect my gratitude and appreciation for the gift and miracle of life?”, “How do I fulfil my purpose and serve my God and creator, myself, my family, colleagues, community, country, continent and planet?”

WWNetworkAfrica™ Reflection DAY 16: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Today’s focus is on key reflective posts that I’d shared on WWN’s Facebook page over the last few weeks. They engaged our members and led to interesting conversations on our forums and weekly conference training calls/webinars. I hope that by reflecting on them and taking action, your life is better elevated, enriched and empowered! These posts are all excerpts from my upcoming book: UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership. Enjoy!

1. “Your purpose in life is not to ‘GET’, your purpose is simply to ‘GIVE’ and share your God-given talents, abilities and essence. Your life should reflect an integrated ‘value-exchange’ with the world around you.

In the pursuit of your purpose, there will be pain, mistakes and storms, that’s merely life happening. It is in these oscillating patterns of highs and lows that your character is formed. Pay particular attention to your ‘lows’, if you allow it, phenomenal growth happens during these periods. Life is not meant to be perfect.

Life is meant to be LIVED! Bask in the sacredness, mystery and beauty of life. Pay attention to your PAINS and MISTAKES, they exist and happen to teach you something very important to your purpose. If you are willing, patient and courageous to own them, embrace them and solve them, WISDOM shows up at the other end.”

2. “The beauty with love is that every time you open your heart to love, you also take the risk of getting your heart-broken, and you may experience agonizing hurt, disappointment and pain in the process. Love takes courage, that ability to share all that you are and also, the faith that you’re better off for having experienced it, regardless of the outcome. To live is to love, unconditionally. Love is freedom, it gives you fire to create, to share, to heal! May love always find you ready, open and willing!”

3. “It is amazing what incredible things begin to happen, as soon as you step out of the shadows into your light and actually SHOW UP and start living YOUR life and not someone else’s version of your life. Until we own our awesomeness and our crap, we run the danger of living a life of denial, anguish and pain. Suffering disintegrates in the face of acceptance and forgiveness. The moment we stop resisting and choose to start living, we unlock our hearts to the fullness of life all around us.

4. “Whatever you seek in your relationships, have clarity on what you want! Then, simply surround yourself with people who depict and live it. If you seek love, surround yourself with people who are IN love and LOVING to each other. Everything and everyone is energy! Their essence slowly rubs off on you. Monkey see, monkey do, so find the monkeys doing it the way(s) you aspire to and then learn from them!

Take the time to analyze all the relationships you’ve been surrounded by from childhood till now. Whether you believe it or not, they affected your perspective. You may need to UN-Learn certain traits, behaviours and characteristics. We’re like sponges, we soak up past experiences, consciously or unconsciously, and sometimes live it in our present lives, often, outside of our own awareness.

We are often predisposed to and soak up good or bad things in our culture, upbringing, education, religion, environment, career…Become more aware of the choices you make and the belief systems you hold. Ask yourself key questions. Develop a mindset that reflects who you are and what you value. Face and resolve your ‘stuff’ and your ‘crap’. Begin to replace undesirable behaviours and strategies with healthier ones. You can create the relationships of your dreams. Not perfect yet perfect for you! Take ACTION today!”

5. “Have the courage to succeed and also have the courage to fail. Have the courage to celebrate the highs and also embrace the lows. There’s duality in nature. Our lives follow  synchronistic patterns of mountains, plateaus and valleys. Your gratitude should flow and grow in ALL seasons.

EVERYTHING happens to move you in the direction of your purpose. Feel all your feelings. Accept the totality of who you are, ONLY then will your heart truly break open to ‘see’ others as a reflection of you and finally experience yourself as a true reflection of God!

Suffering ends when we stop fighting our reality and we begin to practice the beautiful principles of Surrendering, Allowing and Accepting that we are ENOUGH! We already have ENOUGH! And that we are WHOLE. The purpose of life, therefore, becomes the healing and transformational journey of ‘Returning to Wholeness’ and embracing who we always were and always will be: beloved children of a loving God, created to love and be loved, UNCONDITIONALLY!”

6. “A simple formula for getting what you want? Simply ASK! If that fails, try this instead: ASK AGAIN! (Not necessarily of the same person(s)). And do it with more preparation and reflection, a little better and wiser each time. Soon, that shut door will be opened.

Develop the skill-set of humble, purposeful, diligent and joyous ASKING irrespective of the outcome. Celebrate the truth that what you need will manifest exactly when it should and not a moment sooner or later. It is who we become in the process that is more important.”

7. “Little things can shift the trajectory of our lives. Do good! Look good! Feel good! Dare to ‘see’ yourself in a beautiful, brand new light. Enough of the ‘woe me’ stories, it is finally time to tell yourself and the world new ‘WOW me’ stories! You are the director of your life’s movie. If you don’t like what’s playing out in your reality, simply yell: “CUT!”

Then use the power of imagination, re-write the script and re-shoot. Every day is a new opportunity to play out the scenes you want. Give it your best shot today because you never know when the higher DIRECTOR will say “CUT” to your life! Everyday you wake up, is a day you may have died. Don’t waste your time. LIVE life to the fullest, all you really have is NOW!”

Join the conversation on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WWNetworkAfrica

————————————————————————————————————-

The preceding is a guest post from Juliet ‘Kego, MBA –Poetess, Strategic Interventionist, Wealth Management, Development  & Leadership-Consultant at Whole Woman Network. Juliet is the author of the upcoming book: ‘UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership.” Her mission is to raise a new generation of Transformational, Ethical & Creative African Leaders.

She is an avid Life Connoisseur and a passionate advocate of WomEntrepreneurship, Leadership & Human Potential Development, Investment & Financial Literacy for WoMen. Her mission is simply to engage, educate and empower WoMen & Youths, regardless of their levels of income or background, to return to ‘wholeness’ and live Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier, Daring & Meaningful Lives using Faith-based, Scientific and Universal (Common-Sense) principles! Follow her on Twitter: @julietkego

Related articles

DAY 15: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Nov16

SuccessQuestions of the day: Every single encounter is an exchange of energy and values. How are we choosing to exchange our essence with the people and world around us? Are we in the driver’s seat or are we letting life jerk us around? Are we choosing to take action and change the trajectory of our lives if we do not like we’re at or are we attached to being ‘right’ and miserably stuck in our ‘safe’ world. Are you ready to take a good risk and bet on yourself, on your dreams, on your passions and on your purpose? 

Are we taking back our power and acting in consonance with we say we are: co-heirs and beloved children of a loving God and creator or are we choosing to be dis-connected from our source and dis-empowered as we stumble through life?

FutureAre we owning who we are or are we exchanging our core and settling for the fallacy for who the world defines us to be?

At the core of our transformational Training, Leadership and Coaching programs at Whole Woman Network, are principles of Self-Love, Self-Accountability and Self-Leadership. You have the unique gift and ability to co-create your life and design your destiny. Own  and embrace it!

WWN Reflection DAY 15: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

We are now officially past the half-way mark on our 30-day challenge, hurrah! Take some time to celebrate YOU, the changes you’ve embraced, the action steps you’re taking and the new person you’re becoming.  14 days ago, we invited you to join us as we share simple reflections and hopefully engage, educate and empower you to take ACTION towards a Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier YOU! Again, we ask you that even if you’ve heard, seen, read or felt these words before, open up your hearts and minds and experience them all over again. Dare to see yourself in a brand new, beautiful light!”

HappinessLet’s revisit the questions we asked you on day 1 of the challenge: What 3 area(s) of your life do you wish to improve the most? What 3 area(s) would have the most impact on all other areas of your life?

  • Faith & Spirituality?
  • Health & Wellness?
  • Family & Relationship?
  • Career & Business?
  • Beauty & Self-Image
  • Fun & Leisure
  • Personal Development & Growth
  • Financial Well-being & Prosperity?
  • Community & Social Responsibility?
  • YOU! Your Dreams, Passions and Purpose?

DreamAs long as you are taking consistent action, you are making progress towards your goals. You may not see the results immediately, however, after a period of time, they will begin to manifest in your physical world.

At an unconscious level, as we change and build new habits and values for the better, our entire neurology also changes and most often we begin to see these results in our reality within a minimum of 90 days. Dream big and take bigger action steps. In the conjugation of life’s verbs, ‘TO DO’ is far more powerful than to say, to think, to dream, or to plan. Take ACTION today, period!

The choice to either change/grow or sit on the toxic fence of life is yours. That’s the beauty of life, the ability to exercise our power of choice. Use it well, do not waste this gift of starting afresh every day, with new awareness and insights. Having it all does not mean being perfect, rather, it about authenticity, it is about being real. It is about being the best you in this moment and trusting that as you grow and know differently, your choices will reflect your new values in life.

Tragedy and PurposeAs long as we are committed to sharing, healing, creating, learning, growth and fulfilling our purpose in life, our journey becomes an interesting experience and we begin to see life as a visual mosaic of vibrant colours. One of our greatest gifts becomes our ability to shift how we see, feel, taste and hear our inner music lost within the clutter of noise constantly bombarding from the outside world.

Suddenly the people/situations/things/words/events that seemed challenging to us or were triggers to our vicious patterns of pain, hurt, anger, guilt, despair, depression, shame etc. simply lose their power and we embrace life and its ups and downs for what it is: life simply happening. We cease to take things so personally as we see other people as reflections of us and embrace connectedness in our joys, triumphs, passions and even in our pains.

2 ThingsHow we choose to experience our time on earth becomes clearer the more we realize that indeed everything works for good. It is our duty to pay attention to the patterns and the cycles of our lives. The more we become present and pay attention to our patterns of words-thoughts-actions, who we surround ourselves with, what we read and listen to, the more we master ourselves and lead ourself to become the magnificent beings we are.

So reflect and take action on your learnings. Focus on each day and give it all you’ve got. Do everything with a little ‘extra’, you are blessed with a well of unconditional love. Tap into it! It is the little things that matter because those little habits of excellence when cultivated are the difference between and ordinary and EXTRA-ordinary life!

Create and live your best life NOW because life is simply a series of NOWs and all you’ll ever have at each moment of life is NOW! Have a fabulous and  awesome weekend and a blessed week ahead. Set your intentions and then take congruent ACTION to manifest them! Look good, do good and feel good!

Join the conversation on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wholewomannetwork

————————————————————————————————————-

The preceding is a guest post from Juliet Ume, MBA –Strategic Interventionist, Wealth Management Consultant & Leadership-Coach at Whole Woman Network. Juliet is an avid Life Connoisseur and a passionate advocate of WomEntrepreneurship, Leadership Training, Investment & Financial Literacy for women. Her mission is simply to engage, educate and empower women, regardless of their levels of income or background, to return to ‘wholeness’ and live Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier Lives using Faith-based, Scientific and Universal (Common-Sense) principles! Follow her on Twitter: @wholewomaninc, @julietumeinc.

 

DAY 10: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Nov10

ApologizingQuestions of the Day: Who are you in your relationships? What do you allow or let go? How authentic are you to your values? How courageous are you in treating yourself with acceptance, love and respect?

How true are you in speaking your own truth? Do you realize that until you love and accept yourself as you are, it is difficult for someone else to love you?

Are you strong enough to teach others how you want to be treated? Or are you afraid to own your own half of the bargain? What does agape love mean to you? What does unconditional love mean to you? What does acceptance and forgiveness mean to you?

Do you know your deal-breakers? Are you consistent in establishing who you really are? It takes courage to stay and fight for your vision of love and it also takes courage to let go and walk away when that vision is no longer worth fighting for.

Only YOU can make a choice that better reflects your innermost values. Begin topaz attention to your most important relationships: with God, your creator and with yourself. Everything else flows from this.

Are you sitting on the toxic fence or have you really DECIDED? When you decide and commit, the universe makes way for you. And if you’ve given everything you’ve got and it still doesn’t work out, perhaps God has a better plan for you and you need to experience the pain in order to let go.

At the core of our transformational Training, Leadership and Coaching programs at Whole Woman Network, are principles of Self-Love, Self-Accountability and Self-Leadership. You have the unique gift and ability to co-create your life and design your destiny with God. Own it!

WWN Reflection DAY 10: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Today’s focus is on RELATIONSHIPS. Whatever you seek in your relationships, have clarity on what you want! Focus on what you want and not on what you don’t want. Then, simply surround yourself with people who depict and live it.

If you seek love, surround yourself with people who are IN love and are faithful, caring, trusting and LOVING to each other. Everything and everyone is energy! Their essence slowly rubs off on you. Monkey see, monkey do, so find the monkeys doing it the right way and model/adapt/learn from them! Stop arguing for the limitations in your relationships and begin to focus on your vision of your relationships (and take aligned action steps to bring it to life). The blame game kills a relationship. Until you take responsibility for co-creating your relationship, you may keep repeating the undesirable outcomes. It takes two to dance relationship ajasco! 🙂

Take the time to deeply analyze and reflect on all the relationships you’ve been surrounded by from childhood till date. Whether you believe it or not, they affected your perspective and choices. You may need to UN-Learn certain traits, behaviours and characteristics. We’re like sponges, we soak up past experiences, consciously or unconsciously, and sometimes live it in our present lives, often, outside of our own awareness.

We are sometimes pre-disposed to good or bad things in our culture, upbringing, education, religion, environment, career…Become more aware of the choices you make and the belief systems you hold. Ask yourself honest questions.

Develop a mindset that reflects who you are and what you value. Begin to replace undesirable behaviours and patterns with healthier strategies. You can create the relationships of your dreams. Not perfect yet perfect for you. You know yourself better than anyone else. Know who and whose you are. Be CONGRUENT in your private and public lives.

You have a choice to either be ‘RIGHT’ or to have a happy and healthy Relationship. You have a choice to either blindly follow the dictates of the world- family, friends, media or you may choose to build and develop your own unique relationship style that works for you! Until we allow ourselves to be fully vulnerable, accepting and forgiving, we cannot experience the fullness of love. Love is not an absence of hurt, disappointment or pain.

Love is simply LOVE, PERIOD! It just is…As the saying goes: Follow your heart and take your head with you! You need both to navigate the waters of life. Past“Happily Ever After” is a facetious term. It does not mean our relationships are free of challenges or stormy waters, it simply means we CHOOSE and FIGHT to be happy regardless of the storms.

It has little or nothing to do with choosing to stay or leave a relationship, rather, it is your ability to live and honour your own truth and values about love and life! The moment you stop being you is the moment you really DIE. Are you being YOU in all your relationships?

Wherever You GoIf you do not look inwards to fix the pains that show up in your current relationship, they may follow you wherever you go. You may physically ‘leave’ a relationship and yet carry with you its poison(s).

The purpose of pain, therefore, is to direct our attention to something that needs to be resolved, a skill that needs to be built up, a talent that is long-buried, a boundary that needs to be set or simply, a reason to reflect on our past and present choices, so that we are empowered to create a more compelling and beautiful future for ourselves.

Intimate relationships (good or ‘bad’), are ultimately, gifts to us because they allow us to really know and understand ourselves. They push our limits and boundaries and compel us to ‘see’ who we really are, who we’re capable of becoming and finally, who we DECIDE to be. Relationship is like a boat that requires the two people in it to row their own share, in oder to arrive safely at shore. Even in stormy waves, as long as each partner carries their own weight, it is easier ton thrive and have joy and fulfilment in the journey.

As long as both partners are sincerely focused on the bigger picture, their action steps will flow seamlessly, from this foundation of trust, communication and commitment. Ultimately, it is freestyle, as what works for A may not work for B. We are human  and also social beings, sometimes different dynamics occur based on peculiar situations, such as health challenges(mental-physical-emotional, spiritual), economic realities, cultural and environmental dictates, upbringing, education, religion  and other meta models.

One of my favourite quotes that I find most succinct and insightful on the nature of partnerships in relationships is by Ify Olejeme Odunlami: “Equality in a relationship lies in the understanding that this is a partnership. Every couple makes their own rules. Kitchen and cooking is not what determines equality. Some men love to cook just like some women do. Some women are breadwinners.

If you want a happy home, broker your terms. In the end, it’s about supporting each other. If you have superior earning power as a woman, go out there and make money for your family, don’t let your hubby slug his way into a heart attack. If your wife is overwhelmed with her work , chip in so that she can have more time to spend with you and the kids. Happy family first.” ~Ify Olejeme Odunlami (as shared on her Facebook page, on 12.08.14; accessed on 12.11.2014)

Another relationship quote that I find inspiring  and tend to repeat quite often, is by Ernie Pavan, co-founder of Human Potential International, HPI:

“Relationships with Spouses (existing and/or ex) and Closest Family Members, Colleagues & Friends, are our biggest opportunities for transformation.

In the world of perception is projection, they become OR represent our deepest, innermost pains, fears, challenges, nightmares (or luckily, our goals and dreams), manifested alive. So become more present. Pay ATTENTION to your life!

We come together, not by accident, but rather through a deliberate divine synchronism, to perhaps celebrate, share, heal, create, connect, build, unlock or become aware of something important in our lifetime.

Fix your pain and life will open up. If you’re willing to find and solve your pain, (and what your pain is doing or not doing for you), you will find your power, passion, purpose, profit and path by simply replacing the role of your pain with a healthier strategy, behaviour and/or choice.

The reason your pain exists is to draw your attention to something important for your growth and to increase your ability to become a beacon for others around you.” ~Ernie Pavan

I hope you all have a great week ahead and I leave you with these words to reflect on and ponder upon for the week: “Dance even when there’s no music; smile even through your tears; take action even when the world holds you down; rejoice even when it all seems bleak. You create your own rhythm, you create your own atmosphere….Create beauty even in your ashes!” ~Excerpt from my upcoming book: Unlocking Your HeArt of Leadership~

Join the conversation on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wholewomannetwork

————————————————————————————————————-

Juliet Ume in polka dot topThe preceding is a guest post from Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, MBA –Co-Founder and Executive Director of Whole Woman Network. Juliet is the author of the upcoming books: “UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership”  and “Today, I Will Not Bow”.  A self-described Life-Connoisseur, who loves life and the whole human experience, Juliet was nicknamed a ‘reminderist’,  [one who reminds us of that which we already know; that we are not fractured or broken and NOW is the perfect time to replace that fallacy with a new, beautiful truth: we are worthy, complete, whole and our life journey is to return to wholeness]!

She is a passionate advocate of WomEntrepreneurship, Leadership, Investment & Financial Literacy for women and youth (especially girls). Her mission is simply to raise a new generation of  transformational leaders in Africa by engaging, educating and empowering women, regardless of their levels of income or background, to return to ‘wholeness’ and live Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier Lives using Faith-based, Scientific and Universal (Common-Sense) principles! Follow her on Twitter: @wholewomaninc, @julietumeinc. Enjoy some of her portfolio of poems on her Floetry Blog and follow her daily reflective posts on Facebook.

Her message is simply: “To use the power of written-spoken-sung WORDS to connect, heal, empower, change and transform our inner and outer worlds. Words have power in the meaning and interpretation we choose to give them and all of life is synchronistic poetry in motion! Are you telling empowering stories about yourself and others?”