A lot has happened in 2014 and when I come to think of it this might be the year that has been the most significant in my life up till now.

In the first 4-5 months of 2014 I was in a point in my life where I had no desire, no ambition and was living in this blissful imaginary haze.

Without a mission and purpose my life was dull and I was only getting worse, I needed a wake-up call and that’s exactly what I got.

It led me to reevaluate and rethink my priorities and my goals in life. It allowed me to step back to see what the bigger picture was for me; it wasn’t good. I could see my slow but sure downfall.

So I decided to change!

In that journey which is an ongoing process of learning and applying, I learned so many things which I would like to share to remember the blessing and lessons 2014 has taught me and also so that someone else can learn from them too.

We always have a choice

At times we feel like we have no control over our life and I am very familiar with that sort of feeling. I was once stuck in a routine where the only guiding light was my pursuit for pleasure, I resorted to temporary pleasures and lost track of time and money.

One day I realized the importance of a choice, how I always have it, it’s always within me; my ability to use it might have weakened but it’s still there; now I try not to blame other things for my lack of achievement. I recognize I have choices and if I make the right choices I will end up living a great life.

If I ever relapse or smoke a cigarette, I would know deep inside that I have the choice not to smoke the second cigarette and it’s this thought that empowers me.

Your real motivation should be you

You can try to change and do things for others but time will prove that when your motivation is not yourself you tend to derail easily.

When I was quitting smoking I knew that I wasn’t doing it for others.

I wasn’t doing it because my mom or dad wanted me to do it. I was doing it because I didn’t want to smoke anymore and it was time I took myself seriously and stop doing the things that didn’t serve me.

This helped me stay strong in times when I was weak. It helps me even now because I want to see myself grow and become the person I know I can be.

Don’t hesitate from asking

I used to be always afraid to ask, I lived my entire life trying to figure out things by myself but I realized that asking is not a weakness it can be a vital resource to help you learn faster.

Putting my questions out there allowed them to be answered. We can learn from everyone because everyone has something to teach, there is always a lesson that can be learned from their lives. We must make use of that.

Answers can give clarity to your understanding of how things work.

You live one day at a time

Yes we might live for 80 or 90 years but we get there living one day at a time, we shouldn’t let time intimidate us.

We’re always in control and we can choose to do things right one day at a time and those things compounded over time will produce exceptional results.

To live each day as it were our last. To do things that matter to us and to let go of things that no longer serve us.

Every day is a new day that holds endless possibilities, if we start looking for them, we shall find them.

Support is out there

Yes, we can do it alone but why make it hard for ourselves.

Humans are social creatures, at times we are weak and we need support and at times we are strong and we need to give support. This is the cycle of life.

If you’re struggling with something or dealing with something, you don’t have to go through it alone.

If you’re reading this that means you have internet, hence you have access to millions of people. Read my story to find how I found support for myself.

Failure is A part of achieving success

You will fail!

I don’t care who you’re.

Failure is not necessarily a bad thing though, it can give us tremendous insights and help us improve our way of doing things and that can increase our chances of success.

If they are three ways to do something and only one is right then by failing to achieve that thing twice you make sure you achieve it the third time.

Failure is a perquisite to success. You can overcome fear of failure and allow yourself to pursue you dreams without resistance getting in your way.

Success takes time, it’s never ever overnight

Progress can be invisible but it’s always there. Everything in life has to run its course.

Its simple small things you do daily towards reaching your goals that allows for success to manifest itself in that area of your life. One has to be in love with the process of consistently doing what needs to be done to achieve the desired results.

Don’t be in a hurry to achieve success for it’s the journey that prepares you for it, not the destination.

Consistency is the key to making and breaking habits

Habits are formed due to consistent repetitive behavior, hence when trying to make new habits or while breaking existing habits we have to make sure we’re consistently doing what we want to develop as habit.

The second thing is to know that habits cannot be removed they must be replaced. We cannot delete them we must replace unwanted habits with other wanted habits.

Negativity is root of all evil

Negativity breeds negative situations and negative outcomes, it robs us from allowing to immerse ourselves in something fully.

It does not allow us to believe in our self completely.

It increases depressing thoughts and does not allow us the inner peace we all deserve. There is no need for us to be negative because it simply does not serve us.

Look around you, there is plenty of negativity already there; let’s not be part of the problem, let’s be part of the solution.

We shouldn’t ignore our negative attitude or our negative behavior, we should deal with them and slowly eradicate them from our lives. We must realize the importance of thoughts.

Any skill can be learned with enough enthusiasm and DETERMINATION

Any skill is learn-able with enough determination and enthusiasm. Determination will help you attract the right opportunities to learn, you will attract people and things that will help you with your purpose.

We should never feel discouraged, regardless of what situation we’re in, we can always learn, if only we’re determined and focused on what we want.

Never settle!

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body

Reading is one of my most favorite things now.

Before I decided to change, I hated books but ironically a book was what came to my savior and from then on wards I immersed myself in the habit of reading all the books that would peak my interest and this habit of mine has given me tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding.

It has changed the way I live, perceive and think.

It is my daily inspirational dose. It is part of feeding my growth mindset. Reading is essential for the mind because our minds desire new ways of thinking and other ways of perceiving things so it can come up with its owns better understanding of life and its various elements.

Walking daily has great benefits

In the last two months I have been trying to develop certain habits some of them were:

Walking Daily.
Daily Exercise.
Eating at least one fruit daily.
Reading at least ten pages of a book daily.
Meditating daily for at least 5 minutes.
Reading my affirmations at least 10 times a day.

One of my favorite habits from the above has been Walking Daily.

It has allowed me to take some time out of my daily busy life and just do something I enjoy. I walk almost 2.5 KM every day. It has improved my health and stamina, not to mention, it allows me to live each day more actively and energetically.

It’s a great positive start to my day. Plus the beautiful sights I get to see are priceless.

Affirmations are essential for changing the SUBCONSCIOUS

Our subconscious knows only the language of repetition and our subconscious has the ability to attract events and people in alignment with what our dominant thoughts and words are.

Affirmations are simple sentences that feed your brain with things you want yourself to know and truly believe.

One of my affirmations is: “I believe in the positive outcome of every situation in my life”

Repeating this daily has helped me stay calm in tough situations; it has helped me attract more positive situations and has fed my subconscious with this vital belief.

So if you want to change the way you think, you must change the things you say!

Quieting the mind allows the soul to speak

I am talking about meditation. It’s amazing how powerful such a basic simple concept can be.

Meditation allows us to take a break from life and do absolutely nothing. In this nothingness we find what we have lost: The ability to focus and concentrate but most importantly it teaches us to live in the moment.

When was the last time you were able to focus on something without getting distracted with other thoughts for longer than 5 minutes?

I am guessing never. Simply because your brain has no discipline it does not know how to focus on one thing and one thing alone.

Simply sitting and inhaling and exhaling has helped me increase my emotional intelligence as well as has allowed me to recharge myself, not to mention the amazing sleep I get if I meditate before sleeping (Zzzzz).

Focus is essential to getting things done

Focus is the catalyst for getting things done. Focus is a skill that has to be developed and if it is practiced enough it can help us do much more in less time. It can make every moment of our time count.

It can allow for us to be in flow state. Hard work and consistency without focus are not very effective.

One of the best ways to develop focus is to meditate daily as well remove any sort of resistance in getting things done

Money doesn’t buy happiness

Before my transformation I was relatively much better financially. I had money to spend and could afford my habit of impulse buying but that never made me happy, it did give me a small shot of dopamine but that was it.

From that experience I concluded that money cannot buy happiness, I now have relatively less money but I am far more happier. My days are not much affected by how much money I have in the pocket due to the fact that the things that make me happy now are mostly free.

Although I do believe money is a great tool, which can give us the freedom required to pursue our dreams but nonetheless it is not directly proportional to happiness.

Relationships are the joy of life

Often times we neglect relationships because we are either too busy pursuing what we want or simply have other priorities but I have learned that relationships are what makes our lives joyful.

Simply because our relationships allow us to share and cherish each other achievements, they allow for us to care for each other and to help each other which I believe is a fundamental part of living a joyous life

It is to give to others in form of help, compliment and love etc that allows us to be content.

Family above all is a principle worth living by.

Motivation is something you find afterwards

How many times have you heard people say, “I can’t seem to find the motivation”?

I hear it every other day, it’s simply because people expect to be motivated before they work, that can be the case sometimes but that’s not something dependable.

Motivation might be their someday’s, while most of the time it won’t be, therefore you shouldn’t let motivation stop you from doing what needs to be done.

Motivations comes after you show up, after you go to the gym, or start working; it is something you find when you’re actually doing it. You find the reasons for it then.

You cannot expect for motivation to find you while you sit on couch and sigh about the thought of going to gym or doing work.

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Be Generous

In fact when I had money, I was selfish; it is now that I don’t have much that I like to give all I can.

We individuals underestimate the difference our pennies and dollars can make.

I make it a point to give something every day, whether it be single penny or more, whether its money or just one toffee. It’s the smiles I get for such an act that make all the difference, it’s the heart my simple act of generosity brightens that makes my day,month and year.

Comparison will rob you of joy

We humans have a tendency to compare ourselves to others but this is not something I would ever encourage simply because of the fact that we are all unique, we are different; what works for others may not work for us, they may have money but no family, they may have good looks but may be a bit dull, they may be very sharp but might be very financially weak.

I hope you get the point. Don’t steal joy from the moment by comparing yourself with others.

Learn to accept yourself as you’re. We humans are not perfect, one has to remember to give oneself that margin.

Appreciate others truly from the heart.

Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.

Show up first and the inspiration will FOLLOW

Inspiration is what you get when you see things and people doing something you would like to do and see how they have received results which you would like.

Do you think you can ever find something like that while sitting on your coach? You have to show up to do that thing you want and its only then that the motivation and inspiration will find you and motivate you and inspire you in ways you didn’t expect but the key thing is: Showing Up!

Waking up early can enhance productivity

Waking early is one of the other habits I have developed, It has changed my lifestyle in so many positive ways that It’s hard to write about all of them but the most major contribution of waking up early has been to my productivity.

In the morning I am able to write much more and with more creativity as compared to any other time of the day or night.

It has allowed me to go for walks early in the morning and see the sunrise something I just love.

The more you give the more you get

This is just a simple rule of life, one which I have found out that all successful rich people know.

By give I don’t mean necessarily money although it can be one of the forms in which you give but giving is much bigger, it is something of value that you give to the other person for free without any expectations of getting something in return.

Giving allows us to become truly happy, it is an act of kindness that can create an endless ripple and transform society.

Nothing is more vital than living in the moment

When was the last time you were truly living and experiencing the moment? Free from any weight of the past or any anticipation of the future.

Never I presume.

Simply because in our society we are bombarded with so many things that we are always thinking either about what’s going to happen or what has happened. What kind of life is that? When we don’t appreciate and live in the current moment.

It happens very often that we recall an event where we think we should have said or did something else and most of the time the reason why we hadn’t done what we wanted was because we were too busy then either reminiscing about the past or anticipating the future.

Love is the answer.

Love is something all humans can relate to and desire. It’s the one thing that can unite us all in harmony and peace.

We want to love and be loved and when I say love I mean unconditional love. The kind of love that breeds good relationships and encourages affection and kindness. It’s when we love that we can truly make a difference without the component of love, nothing can reach its full potential.

We must stop complaining, criticizing and condemning what others do and we must find more to appreciate and encourage and love each other for.

Love can fix the most rotten relationships.

Mind you love is a verb; it is the act of doing something kind towards others. It is something we all must practice in our lives. To love everything we come across.

To spread the message of love to everyone we meet.

It is when mankind as whole starts loving that we will be truly united and world will finally be truly peaceful.

In the comments section, share a few things you learned in 2014.

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