Balancing Personal Growth with My Daily Obligations

I am still trying to figure this one out. First, what do you do in order to ensure that you are paying close attention to your own personal growth? Nobody wants to be stuck in a rut. We want to know we are going somewhere that we want to go and not just anywhere the wind blows us.

The only way that I can see myself balancing personal growth with my daily obligations is to always be writing things down. And then getting up! When I have an idea or something I appreciate, I take note of it. I grab my iPhone and write myself a Note. I stop and tweet about it. I put it on my calendar. I record it in a journal. I scribble on a piece of paper and file it in a folder or even just throw it in a pile (that I intend on sorting through on a regular basis, of course!) If it can be done right now, then I do it as soon as I think of it.

I try to take time to read a book. Sometimes this means marrying your reading to one of your obligations. For example, when the girls had dance class, I would make a point to have my mom watch the other one for just 90 minutes so that I could take that time to sit in the library or in the drivers seat of my car to read about something that I thought was important.

Take time to listen to yourself and listen to other people. Try to find ways to simplify your life when you become aware of what you spend most of your time communicating about. Think positive and talk positive to yourself and to other people. Your mindset will help you to stay active during the day and sleep with ease knowing that you did the best that you could and that you enjoyed it. To an optimistic person, when you have bad thoughts, you take the opportunity to learn and about yourself and visualize how you might take the next opportunity to apply what you have learned from your past in a positive way. Each new day is a new adventure in the journey towards finding yourself and finding balance in your life, making the most out of your challenges, opening to change, and stretching your abilities.

Productive!

"What could be more powerful than the intellectual capacity of the adult brain combined with a child's unawareness of limitation?" ~Roy McConnell

What does being productive mean to you? Does it mean that you do more of the things that people notice and mention to you afterwards? Does it mean that you make your quota and exceed that at work? To me, it means having an awareness of all of the things that are important to me and taking regular action on them. Taking some kind of action is not always productive, though.

For example, if I keep reading listings of apartments every single day, and I never take action in the other parts of my life to arrange my financial situation so that I have a down payment and first months rent, then my circumstances will never allow me to move. I will never make it to the desired outcome unless I have total awareness of the changes that need to be made in all areas of my life in order to make it possible.

Therefore, in order to truly be productive, we must have an outcome-based awareness and focus about the project or situation. That way, we can take every step necessary in between here and getting what we want with confidence that we are effectively getting closer and closer to our personal goals.

First, you have to know exactly what your REAL personal goals are in order to be productive without burning out. You must have a deep soul connection to what you are doing; you have to believe in your work on a spiritual level. You must visualize yourself crossing the finish line. What is that going to look like? How is that going to feel after all of your focused hard work and effort? It feels AMAZING!

My current career goals are to be regularly making more than enough money to support my family by writing and performing music, by helping other people, and by getting involved in projects that make the world a healthier place. So... That means I'm going to have to take action by doing the research and work necessary to see what's out there and to make my personal work and goals known to the rest of the world. This is a long and arduous process. It might take years. I've been working at it for 8 months now, and I'm already seeing a large return for my investment in myself. Soul-based work is coming my way now in ways that I would have never thought of myself.

Keep investing your time and energy into your personal goals. This might mean that you have to change your priorities and eliminate things from your life that are draining your time and energy outside of the spectrum of the desired outcomes that you want to see in your life. It may also mean that you have to quit investing time into relationships with people who keep you thinking smaller about your life than your inner child really wants you to. If the people in your life don't see you IN it, then they are never going to see you TO it.

Listen to your heart on this. You know who and what really puts the plug on your spring of creativity and energy. Start clearing obstacles one by one by first becoming an observer in your life. Try to notice what makes you excited and joyful about today and the future. Try to notice the language people are using around you and talk and interact more with the people who are naturally curious and equally excited about your big ideas and aspirations. Take full responsibility for what you let in, then it will be much easier to have full responsibility for what you put out.