At What Cost?

How long does it take you to go shopping?  Do you take time to write down a list? Do you look at the ads when they come out to see the sales? When you finally decide what you want, do you think of the cost?  Of course you do!  That is why we are always using coupons, and searching for the best sales because we always want to spend the least amount we need to.  Why do we do this?  Sometimes it’s because we have a tight budget, but I think that in our minds we are always weighing out the cost verses the worth.  We are asking ourselves the question, “Is this worth the cost?”

I love this quote because it helps me think about the cost of our decisions.  Do we spend time to think about what it’s going to cost?  I think that so many people think that when you have to follow your heart that you do it in an instant.  Following your heart is living in the moment, going from one thing to the next because that is what you’re are feeling.  It’s not always that way.  Planning your life to make your dreams come true is a great thing.  The misconception that people have with this idea is that once you start thinking about following your heart too long, it gives your brain time to accept logic and once that happens, you’ll never act on what your heart is telling you.  In reality, what happens is it allows doubt to settle in.  You start thinking about how your dream is not logic, or how you will fail.  You doubt yourself.  Don’t let that happen!

You need to hold onto that warm great feeling you have every time you think of your dream.  Hold on to that happiness, that hope that it gives you.  Don’t let anyone talk you out of it, including yourself.  The minute you don’t choose the path that leads to your dream, that is when you decide that the cost is not worth your dream.  When in reality, it becomes the higher cost, because you will wish for the rest of your life that you had followed your heart.

Don’t make that mistake.  Live your life the way your heart imagined it

Your Greatest Work

How much do you like your job? Is it just a job or do you really enjoy what you do?  Steve Jobs said this quote.  

The greatest work you do in life will always be the things that you are passionate about.  I know I’ve talked a lot about passions before, but bear with me for just a moment.  Ask yourself this question, “What do I like to do?”  Take a moment to think of a few things.  Now that you have those in mind, think of why do you like those things. Is it for fun? Entertainment? Or does it just make you happy?

Of course it makes you happy. That is why they are your passions!  If you think that one of your passions aren’t suitable for a job, then keep looking. Perhaps you haven’t found a key passion in your life. I know it’s hard to imagine that working at a computer all day, or working at a grocery store fulfills your soul, however, you never know until you try it or the people that you will meet.  Most people think that living your passions has to be something big, such as becoming an actor, businessman or author.  It doesn’t have to be. It can be through small ways of being a student’s favorite elementary school teacher, to creating beautiful landscaping.

There was a business man that came to my classes and told us the story of how he became involved with the medical field and found his passion within it. Growing up he never liked any science or biology classes.  His heart was intent on building a business and so he put all his energy into learning everything he could about it.  He started with a small business at first, then moved to other bigger ones.  As his career went on, he stumbled across this medical business that was failing and through turning it around found his love in helping people medically.  And now that is where he focuses his life around.

The last part of this quote talks about how your heart will lead you to what your passions are.  This is such a perfect example of how this happens.  We may not know all of our passions in life, or what we’re meant to become unless we believe in ourselves and follow our hearts. That is the only true way for full happiness. Nothing is too small to count and nothing is too big or too far out of your reach. Never stop your search for your greatest work ever.

Believe In Yourself

I know the phrase "Believe in Yourself" is heard often, but every time you hear it, what do you think? Do you believe the person? Or do you hear it often enough that you shrug it off? 

What does this phrase mean to you?

It didn’t mean much to me when I was younger. Whenever I heard it I always felt like it was insincere.  Now that I’m older I know that the people really meant it, but I think because I heard it so often, I didn’t take it seriously.  The reason I picked this quote is because over time I have learned to love this phrase.

Take a second to think about the meaning of the words. Believe in yourself.  Do you believe that you can do things? Do you trust yourself when making choices?  That is what this means. It means to believe that you are making the right choice. It means that you need to trust in what your heart wants and believe that you can do whatever it’s telling you. 

                                                                                                      

Feelings and intuition are all a part of following your heart and believing yourself. Your heart tells you what it wants you to do through these deep feelings and first impressions. When someone invites you to a party, what’s your first thought?  Whatever it is….that is your heart.  When you are learning about nurses and you have a huge desire and pull towards nursing, it’s because that is what your heart is telling you to do.

Once you recognize what your heart is telling you, that is when you need to believe in yourself and go for it! Don’t let anyone hold you back. Your mind, or logic, will try to play its sob story of how it’s not going to work out, but you can’t go a long with it.  Now I always feel like I need to put a disclaimer, that it is always good to take in consideration all the views points, but don’t throw away your hearts idea just because it doesn’t seem logical.  MOST dreams are not logical.  Do you really think that the entire team of NASA thought it was logical to land on the moon?  No…but they did it.  Do you think that it was logical for someone to talk to another person across the world through a device smaller than an average hand? No, but yet the technology exists.  Never say you can’t do it, and never doubt yourself.  That is what kills dreams. 

I have started to believe in myself a lot more about the things that my heart is telling me and not all of them is logical, but they make me happy.  That is why I’m following that path.  I’m believing in myself and trusting in my decisions. I promise that you will be able to find that happiness too.

Start believing in yourself.