The Key to GREAT Change in Your Life! – Matthew Kelly
“All great change begins with imagination, all transformation begins with a vision.
Take time each day to visualize the person you are capable of becoming. If you cannot visualize the better person you wish to become, you cannot become that better person. The more specific your visualization, the faster and more effectively you will be transformed into that better version of yourself. Visualize particular ways of acting in certain situations. Imagine a situation with a particular person where you are normally impatient. Visualize the perfect way to respond to that person, over and over again in the empty moments of the day, and before too long you will begin to respond in the way you have imagined.
All great change is first an idea in our minds. The first expression of every great achievement in history has been in the wonder of the imagination. Visualize the changes you wish to achieve.
If you do not, you will not.”
5 Questions That GUIDE Humanity – Matthew Kelly
“I believe there may be only five questions that truly matter. Five questions that humanity has been asking consciously and subconsciously ever since human life first began. Although we may be unable to articulate them, you and I are constantly wrestling with these questions. Whether we are aware of it or not, our existence is the search to answer these five questions. I believe we are seeking the answers to these questions directly and indirectly every day of our lives. How we answer these questions can determine the shape, the form, and the direction of our lives.
These are the five questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Where did I come from?
3. What am I here for?
4. How do I do what I am here to do?
5. Where am I going?
Spend a few minutes thinking about life’s big questions today and every day.”
Living a Meaningful Life
“You cannot live a meaningful life by filling your life with meaningless things and activities.
The secret to living a meaningful life is to strip away everything that is meaningless. Strip away anything that is trivial or unnecessary and everything left will be meaningful.
If living a meaningful life depends on filling our lives with meaningful activity, ask yourself: Who are the people, things, and activities that help you weed out the meaningless from the meaningful.
Who helps you prioritize what matters most and gives you the courage to say no to what matters least?
We say we want to live more meaningful lives, but we keep saying yes to meaningless things. Start saying no to meaningless things.
Fill your life with meaningful relationships, experiences, work, and things… and your life will become more meaningful.
It has no choice.”
The Measure of Your Life Will Be the Measure of Your Courage – [Courage Series Part 3]
“Who are the people you most admire from history? Take a moment to wander through the pages of history— your family’s history, your nation’s history, human history—and extract from those pages the men and women you most admire. What would they be without courage?
Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Jane Austen, Ada Lovelace, Martin Luther King Jr., Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Oscar Schindler, Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, Henry Ford, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, DaVinci, Newton, Jobs, Churchill, Galileo, Mandela, Mozart, Edison, Van Gough, Gutenberg.
Who would they have been without courage? How would their lives have been different without courage? How would our lives be different if they had lacked the courage to embrace their destiny? How would the world be different?
Their lives can be measured in courage and yours will be too. The measure of your life will be the measure of your courage.
Nothing worthwhile in history has been achieved without courage. Courage is the father of every great moment and movement in history. And courage will give birth to the next great season of your life.”
What are You Afraid of? [Courage Series Part 2]
The Most Dominant Emotion in Society
“The most dominant emotion in our modern society is fear. We may not like to admit it, but we are afraid. Afraid of rejection and failure, afraid of certain parts of town, afraid of certain types of people, afraid of criticism, afraid of suffering and heartache, afraid of change, afraid of losing the things we have worked hard to buy, and afraid to tell people how we really feel… We are afraid of so many things. We’re even afraid to be ourselves.
Some of these fears we’re aware of, while others are tucked away deep in our subconscious. Either way, they play a very large role in our choices and actions.
Fear is a great limiter of life. Fear stops more people from doing something with their lives than lack of talent, resources, or opportunity. Fear has a tendency to paralyze and imprison us. Don’t let that happen to you.
It’s important to remember that fear is just chemicals. Sometimes it’s a good thing, protects you from danger. But when fear keeps you from living life to the fullest it’s a bad thing.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the acquired ability to move beyond fear. It’s time to start acquiring that ability.
In Part Three of this series, we will explore how different your life would be if you had a little more courage.”
What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?
Everything Requires Courage – [Courage Series Part 1]
“Everything in life requires courage. Whether it is playing football or coaching football; crossing the room to ask a woman on a date or rekindling a love that has grown cold; whether it’s your first day at school or your first day back at school after twenty years; starting a new business, battling a potentially fatal disease, getting married, struggling to overcome an addiction, or sitting humbly with your God in prayer—life requires courage. It’s a prerequisite. Courage brings us to life and makes everything else possible.
So, what are we waiting for? You only get one shot at life. What would you do if you weren’t so afraid? Whatever it is, take one small step toward it today, then take another step toward your hopes and dreams tomorrow.
Life favors the courageous. So, summon a little courage. You will be amazed what life will give you in return for a little bit of courage.
In Part Two of this series we will discuss fear and how it paralyzes us.”
Fact Check: Is Life Supposed to be Comfortable?
“If you want to destroy people, make them comfortable. Give them every comfort they desire. Love of comfort poisons the soul by reducing our ability to hear truth and align our lives with it.
When we hear truth, we have one of two reactions. If we are living the truth we hear, we delight in the splendor of it. If we are not living that truth, we become uncomfortable, because unlived truth is always an invitation to change.
And let’s face it, there is plenty of truth we aren’t living.
A lover of comfort closes himself off from truth because it isn’t comfortable. He will even avoid the truth that he knows will liberate him from his addiction to comfort.
Don’t get too comfortable. Life isn’t supposed to be comfortable. Constant comfort isn’t good for us. Allow it to serve when you need to be restored and rejuvenated, but don’t become a lover of comfort. Comfort will destroy you long before the difficulties of life.”
7 Ways Less Is More
“Simplicity is good for the soul. We complain about how complicated life has become, but we continue to complicate our lives. The two main ways we complicate our lives is with things and commitments. So much of our anxiety comes from these things and yet we cling to them and multiply them as is they were prizes to be cherished.
Here are seven examples of how less is more:
1. Less television means more time to read.
2. Less comparison means more contentment.
3. Less stuff means more space.
4. Less talking means more listening.
5. Fewer commitments means more time just to be.
6. Less complaining means more gratitude.
7. Less clutter means more clarity.
Less is more means different things to different people. Find out what it means to you, try it, and take note of how it changes your life.”