Real Change

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical." ~ Sophia Loren

Some years ago, the city of Atlanta (Georgia, USA) had a problem on its hands. A busy street on the southeast side of downtown had become quite notorious for crime, prostitution and drugs. Such a shame because Stewart Avenue was a functional and friendly area many years prior to that.

As time progressed and attitudes changed, this once nice place to live became a haven of trouble. Things got so bad, the city of Atlanta made the decision to clean things up. Their first step was to take Stewart Avenue and rename it Metropolitan Parkway. The name was chosen to highlight wonderful institutions of higher education that held the street as their address (Atlanta Metropolitan College and Atlanta Technical College).

There you have it, change the name and all is better right?

Not hardly, change takes a lot more work and effort.

This stretch of road still has many issues and change that needs to occur. It is something very similar to what needs to happen inside each of us. When we make a decision to correct a behavior or obstacle in our life, change has to happen on the inside. We can not simply change our hair-do, clothing style or name; we have to change our attitude within. It takes determined work to make real change in our life.

Think of it as a house which has developed a termite issue. You can repaint the walls inside and out, but if you don't take care of the actual problem inside the wall, there will be continued destruction. Old habits and old destructive friends have a way of sneaking back into our lives very much like a termite inside the walls of a house.

When you decide to make change inside, the choices will be tough. You will need to leave old friends behind. Even the National Football League here in the United States provides lessons for new rookie football players to help them with these changes. Some of the lessons are to disassociate with some of your old friends that may try to hold you back.

The same can be said for anything you do in changing your life.  There are those that wish to remain behind and will instinctively try to keep you down with them or cling to you like termites in the foundation of your house.

Real change requires more than a name change, more than a new coat of paint.

Real change requires effort to change what is inside of you.

Once you find and create real beauty within, real change will occur on the outside.

Stay inspired my friends.

Don't Worry, Be ...

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength."
- Corrie Ten Boom

As you go about your day, things will happen which causes worry to come upon you. It might be little things like 'did you leave a light on at home', 'should I have brought an umbrella along' or other small nuisance types of worry. These are the nagging little issues which fill the voids in our daily thoughts. There are other types of worries which impact us in much bigger ways.

Those are the types of worry that directly impact your ability to function on a daily basis. There are a hundred and one kinds of examples we could discuss. Many of you probably have one or two of those at this moment in time. It could be money, health, sex or job worries. Anything that affects your day, that impacts your ability to fully function to your best.

Yet when worry consumes your life, it can be a detriment to your quality of life. It is said in an article from NetDoctor, that "many people openly confess to being worriers. They usually make the announcement as if to suggest the world is divided into the virtuous, who fret over everything, and the feckless majority who are laid back to the point of decadence."

Much of this worry will lead to bouts of anxiety and when diagnosed is a very debilitating disorder. Anxiety can be treated and is not meant to be taken lightly. Treating anxiety is best left to professionals. What I can say is for constant everyday worry for worries sake is not productive.

The time comes when you need to apply energy consumed by worry to one of making change and improvement. Once you have identified the issue causing you worry, take a breath and look for solutions. Certainly there will be things out of your control but you do have control of you. Look for advice, look for information and look to change the situation.

Do not let worry steal your strength today. Make a change in your life and let tomorrow bring a new and brighter day.

Stay inspired my friends!

Celebrate the Possibility

"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there." ~ Monica Baldwin

Each day you wake, the existence of possibility rises with you.

What happened yesterday is over and a new beginning starts to spread out before you like rays of sunshine. Poetic, maybe not; but the idea is you have an ability to make the day what you want it to be.

We get to choose how we are going to respond to life by choosing our attitude.

The path we are going to take is also ours to decide. Some make the choice to remain under the covers, feeling safe within the warmth of their bed. Yet there is an old saying, "The bed we make is the one we must now lay in" holds true. The bed you lay in will only result in ruffled bed sheets, nothing more. What happens out in our day will flow past us if we remain secluded and don't take part in it.

Arise in the morning and choose to believe in the possibility of the day.

So much could happen.

So much will happen.

You only need to allow your belief to spread like sunshine over all that you do. Stay inspired my friends.

Celebrate the Adventure

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure." - William Feather

Life itself gets treated many times as an inconvenient passage to something else. There are people who drag themselves along a path of existence with little enjoyment. They complain and worry about all that is wrong with their life never experiencing much of the joy around them.

Yet life is an adventure with many twists and turns in the tale.

We live life in both the good and the bad, never fully knowing what is around the next bend. The path taken could be one of broken rocks and holes scattered about. Or you can find yourself upon a smooth and flat road which eases your travel.

Along any path will be great adventures of love won and lost, success and failure along with thrills and boredom. All of this is part of life, of the great experience we each will have during our years of living.

And 'living' life is the adventure, celebrate it and embrace all that happens along the way.

Stay inspired my friends!