Monday Mindset: Morning Positivity
For more adorable and funny comics, check out http://falseknees.com/
Waking up this morning, my SO had sent me this comic she used to start up her day. It made me smile and, in turn, I sent it to my colleagues who also loved it. As a result of this one simple image and thought, my work day had gone swimmingly! I felt I had started on a good leg it created a domino effect which improved my overall day. The affect a positive mindset has on one’s day invokes an unconscious mental shift. How much of a shift does it create? If this post isn’t enough to prove it, I decided to start this new series called Monday Mindset! Each Monday, I want to help provide a shift to your mindset of “I hate Mondays” to “I love everyday, especially Monday!”
The Five-Minute Review
Changing up your morning routine is rough. The most likely scenario is getting up 30-60 minutes before you’re meant to leave. This isn’t including the days you sleep a little bit later and have to rush out in a shorter time then expected. How can this morning routine be changed a bit just to make it that much better of a morning? Take five minutes to write in a Five-Minute Journal!
The Five-Minute Journal was a big catalyst to changing my everyday mindset and goals. I was usually the type of person to just get up and go. Now, I get up earlier and take the time to outline my day in five minutes or less. What each page requires is the date, a nice quote/challenge to keep with you for the day, 3 things you’re grateful for, 3 things that would make today great, and a daily affirmation of how you wish to be that day. In just 5 minutes, you have set these thoughts into your mind for the day and started the day positively! Once written, you’ll go through the day normally but since you put these goals and affirmations into your world, somehow you’re closer to the goals you set then when you woke up in the morning. If you didn’t, you can end the day right with 3 amazing things that happened today, no matter how small, along with how you could have improved your day, because self-reflection is important!
Now, I know that some of you are late sleepers. If you are, take the book with you! I bring it with me everywhere to make sure I start my days off right! It may feel weird at first but you’ll come to realize that writing down your goals is more beneficial because it sticks into your mind once written.
Finding Your Way
Now, writing is something that many people loathe doing these days. If this is you, I would recommend you either get an app like Todoist or any other habit/note tracker to help set your goals and habits for the day! If you don’t like writing it down but would rather find some other areas to start your day right, I would recommend meditation. It would be 5-15 minutes out of your day to relax and focus your mind. I personally use the Calm app to get me into the right state of mind throughout my day. However, you find yourself finding positivity for the day, find something to start the day right! Don’t believe me? Try it out tomorrow morning. Have an image or quote for the night before to wake up to in the morning and see if looking at it first thing helps start your day right and makes your day better! Already do this? Let me know what your tips and tricks are for getting the day started right!
Hear Your Inner Music
When was the last time you listened to yourself?
The distractions of today keep you in an endless loop of being “busy” all the time. Being controlled by thoughts and emotions creates a disruption to the real you.
Take some time to listen to the music your life plays. It’s a unique album filled with soundtracks playing your life’s tune. Let it spin without scratching the record or stopping the beats. Take a moment to sit and listen. What is your life trying to tell you? Should you take that leap? Should you live those dreams? What do you TRULY want? Sit and listen to it.
Meditating provides a method to listen to yourself. During a session, you’ll have the ability to become in tune with the rhythm your body plays. You feel the sensation if your skin—the aura that is your soul radiates out to the world. As you breathe in, you notice how your body is feeling at the current moment. As you hold the breathe, you recognize what is going on inside and accept it. As you breathe out, you release the negative thoughts, emotions, and sensations that have accumulated without your permission. Be in the moment with who you are, the thoughts floating around, and the emotions you feel. Acknowledge it and regain your composure.
Listening to yourself everyday will create a change in your life. Do it in the morning to assess how you’ll go about your day. At night, take some time to reflect on the day. Understand what you can do differently tomorrow to change the pace towards the direction you want to head. Listen to the music in your heart. Dance with it. Don’t let it play on its own.
via Heard
Replace Everything BUT Yourself
Everything Is Replaceable Except You
The World of Things
Everything we have right now can be replaced within a year. If we break a phone or have our contract up, we get a new one. If a car breaks down, we buy another or find another means of transportation. We dislike our job and we go and find another. If you lose a friendship, you gain another. You (hopefully) change clothes each day. Almost EVERYTHING can be replaced these days. But, the ONE thing you can’t replace is yourself.
Why EVERYONE is Unique
In the history of this world, you have had an experience UNLIKE anyone else. Every moment of your life, even as you read this, is unique. No one will read this at the exact time, place, location, age, gender, race, etc. as you. YOU made that moment happen. Your whole life experience in relationships, jobs, talent, etc. are entirely different from anyone else. Even twins are different since birth. If you think about it, it’s because of our ability to think. We create a world of possibilities within our minds. Each mind creates many different thoughts and opinions that even AI can’t reach.
One can argue that history repeats itself, that patterns happen throughout time. That may be true, but everyone’s overall experience are different. We may experience SIMILAR situations, but never the SAME EXACT moment.
Think of all the conversations you ever had. They are irreplaceable. A conversation between you and another person happened at a unique moment. We’ll never get back each passing second. Stare for a second, you’ll see one go. Then another. Then another.
We will never get the moment of the NOW back. NOW is important to living. If you’re living in the past or future, you’re wasting time not being present to the moments that happen at this very moment. Take a second to not think and look around you. Take a breathe and feel how the breathe goes in, then out. You’ll notice how important the NOW is.
If You Don’t Like Yourself, CHANGE YOURSELF
Stop rejecting who you truly are. Personally, disliking yourself leads down a road of more darkness and negativity unlike any other. If you stop thinking so negatively and begin to be positive towards yourself and those around you, a change happens.
For example, I used to HATE working at Dunkin Donuts in High School. Everything about it sucked. I worked after school and on the weekends along with helping my mom deliver newspapers at 2AM then heading to work right after. Every time I came in, I did my job and waited to leave. I left when my shift was over without a care in the world.
At one point, I hated this way of thinking. I decided to change it up. For one week, I’ll be nice to everyone and go above and beyond to see if there’s a difference in my job. Within a week, the customers seemed happier, the job went faster, and regulars even requested I make their coffee/sandwich sometimes. Overtime I came to consistently give my all in the work I did and with a smile. Changing to a positive outlook will open up a a new world where even the worst people have a hard time getting mad at you. It gave me the social skills to even write these blog posts I do today.
If you really don’t like who you are, you’re missing out on a great person. You can replace everything in your world as much as you want. At the end of the day, you’ll still find an emptiness inside. You’ll only begin to be fulfilled once you look to better yourself and those around you. Some days will be tough, but the more you give, the happier you’ll be at the end of your life.
Don’t hate who you are. YOU are unique with a world no one other than you has ever experienced. Love who you are, change the parts you don’t like, and keep moving forward. You deserve to be the best version YOU want to be. Keep moving forward.
via Replacement
You Are Cordially Invited to Attend Your Life!
“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
— Lao Tzu
Dear Reader,
You are cordially invited to attend the ceremony of living YOUR life!
You have the opportunity to live the life you desire; yet, you choose to live a life of mindlessness instead of mindfulness. Take a moment to be in the now. I encourage you to take a couple of minutes to close your eyes and take 5 deep breaths. Sit with your back straight and relaxed. Chest out like a gorilla (not too much here). Breathe in for 5, hold for 5, and breathe out for 10.
Taking the time in your day to breathe mindfully invokes a change within you. You begin to feel happier, more at peace with yourself. Life situations begin to slow down. Remember, you live this life through your decisions and actions. No one else controls your body and mind. The main factor stopping you is the excuses. Keep in mind that how you react to anything matters most. You can either yell or stay calm.
I don’t know everything, I just know that you have the choice to live a life you desire through all the situations life throws at you. I’m just here to give you a push in the right direction. Work hard in silence and let your success make the noise. Know that there is more to your life. You can do it, I believe in you. I hope to see you in the life you’re meant for.
The Now.
Your Now.
Your Life.
via Invitation
January 2017 —Positives Gone, Happiness Stays
Have you ever woken up to something, somewhere calling out to you?
I’ve always associated myself with the past. Justified it in many ways of using it as a tool to grow, a place to learn, and to cope with myself. I told myself that all I can do now is be positive! I realized that was wrong. The past is just what it is, past. We will never get our time back. As I write this—as you read this—each millisecond passes, we lose time. My positive attitude is personal. It helps in working hard and staying focused. It is not how I should face my past.
I decided that 2017 is the year of change. I have grown in 2016 not through reflection, but by action. My growth was due to changing my outlook. I stopped looking behind me and worrying about what’s in front of me. I started taking more risks, reading more books, and creating more opportunities.
The new year has begun. Each day has been energizing. It won’t last forever but I plan to hold the energy in front of me as I begin this new marathon of life. I’m directing this energy positively.
- Launched http://www.motivatingmango.com/
- Scheduled to learn from a knowledgeable trainer on Friday
- Learned the basics of JetPack
- Set a mastermind for Sunday
- Scheduled specific days for posts (Monday/Wednesday/Friday for this blog)
I also set an impossible list for the first quarter of 2017.
- Experience Automattic
- Improve in WordPress
- Meet an inspiration
- Book a trip to another country
- Budget more
- Begin working in Open Source
- Enhance my blogs and websites
- Improve in a new language
It’s a step in the right direction. I used to set small of goals. It’s time for a change. There is a change calling for evolution. An evolution of self. A new self that looks forward always, helping those along the way that need it. I may not be ready for this new chapter; however, this story book has many chapters. This one is trimmed with gold. I can’t let it go to waste.
Reflection: Judgment, Others VS Self
The Flame
We judge ourselves by what
we feel capable of doing,
while others judge us by
what we have already done.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Kavangh, 1849
Quotes are the phrases that some random person will say it to you that change your life. Once spoken, there’s a click in the mind that ignites a flame of change. It burns as bright as you allow it. It can ignite a fire large enough to turn itself to ash or it can dim out to nothing. When that flame ignites, keep a level head. Look forward and move towards the dream. You can look back as long as you don’t get caught up in that past. Stay in the present working towards the future. Let the past be a reminder of once was but never will be if you keep working.
The Others
We live in a world based on other’s opinions of us. Social media has disrupted the flow of human interaction. Many people base themselves around their social media. It’s a new kind of crowd sourcing where we must speak to the world in any of these platforms to show the world how awesome we are! When in reality, we all go through the same rounds of emotions. The struggles of life are inevitable. Then we look for validation and support from others.
There’s people taking selfies in areas where they should be focusing in the moment. They are more concerned on showing the world what they’re experiencing than fully immersing themselves in what they’re doing.
This is not to say that all usage of social media is bad. I’m leaning more towards over-consumption and overuse of social media stimulates unhealthy actions and thoughts. Having grown up in this digital age and working in IT now, it’s easy to see how technology has taken over. What once was a tool has now become a lifestyle. If we don’t tell the world, how will anyone ever know? We need to preserve every single memory.
As mentioned before, others judge us by what we have done. We want to show that we have done great. That we have done great and are continuing to live a fulfilled life. Many crave positive judgement from others and any negativity is lashed back with negativity. When we make mistakes, we’ll tell the world through our perspective and find validation from friends and family to validate what we did is right. No need to change it, we didn’t do anything wrong! But we did. That’s where we need to rearrange our thoughts.
The Self
What are you capable of doing? What do you do when no one is watching. When the social media is turned off and the phone is silenced, what is being done in your life to make it better? Ever since I began this change 5 months ago, I challenged myself each day to these and many more questions.
You see, I used to judge my self heavily through others. I got to a point where EACH LIKE on any of my social media made me EXTREMELY happy. That was wrong. I felt sad whenever a post/image didn’t get more than 75+ likes. It was bad. Overtime my girlfriend noticed and snapped me out of this cycle. The cycle of feeling empty and seeking validation from others. That the world owed me.
I began a new change. It had to find a method to stop my bad habits and begin new ones. I had to give back to the world that I owed for giving me life. Where do I start? I started by making sure to have non zero days.
The point I’m trying to make is that you have to make yourself, promise yourself, that the new SYSTEM you live in is a NON-ZERO system. Didnt’ do anything all fucking day and it’s 11:58 PM? Write one sentence. One pushup. Read one page of that chapter. One. Because one is non zero. You feel me? When you’re in the super vortex of being bummed your pattern of behaviour is keeping the vortex goin, that’s what you’re used to. Turning into productivity ultimate master of the universe doesn’t happen from the vortex. It happens from a massive string of CONSISTENT NON ZEROS. That’s rule number one. Do not forget.
—/u/ryans01
If a day was not great, I make sure I did at least one productive thing towards my overall goal. I have created the string of consistent non zeros to get to this point. It started small like making my bed, doing some pushups, and cooking some food. It exploded to going to the gym, reading books, and making the effort to learn new skills online. All of it lead me to my current journey, Automattic.
Ever since the discovery of Automattic a few weeks ago, I have learned more about WordPress than I ever thought I would. I go to bed each night with a sense of accomplishment. A knowledge that is farther than it was this morning. Helping on the forums gives me complete satisfaction, especially when a situation someone once had is resolved. It’s like customer service through the Internet, my two favorite things! When I was a kid, I used to join a lot of forums online ranging from anime to coding to photoshopping. I enjoyed learning from others. I then gave it back to those who were new. I realized that I always enjoyed helping others but felt much more safe doing it behind a computer since I can rationalize my thoughts better before speaking it out. I believe that when I get to be a Happiness Engineer, I’ll fill the role with great pride. I’ll return my thanks to the company by living up to their culture and values each day. Why? I know my value now and that a company like Automattic is where it would thrive best. Watch me.
CK Allas 
