I know this is the most cliché things to say but it is CRAZY how fast time flies! The year is coming to a close, we’re getting our 2015 plans in order and we’re off to celebrate the holiday season with our families and loved ones. It’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year.
Over the years, I have always talked about the importance of writing things down. Whether it’s your goals, the vision that you have for life, your daily gratitude lists or journal entries reflecting your thoughts, writing things down has more power than one may believe.
For one thing, writing an idea or goal down is the first physical manifestation of that idea coming into existence in the world. All things begin in thought form, but no one can see your thoughts. Wouldn’t that be crazy if they could? But I digress…
You can see your thoughts and ideas written down which not only motivates you to accomplish that vision but it’s also the first step to making that dream in your head an actual reality in your life.
Here’s another benefit of keeping a journal where you keep track of all of your dreams, goals and journal entries – you get to look back at your journal and see how far you have come. You have an eye witness account of what you achieved, what you did not, what you learned and how you have grown. Sometimes we can move so fast in life, going after the next thing, that we forget to take some time to reflect on the successes, lessons learned and personal growth.
I admit that I am one of those people. I noticed that although I have dozens of journals over the years where I have written everything down from my goals to my vulnerable moments in life, I never have taken the time to go back and really read through them. So I did exactly that over the weekend.
I wanted to look over my 2014 journal because this year has been filled with highs, lows, lessons learned, wisdom gained and goals achieved. I have had my challenges just like everyone else, but with each challenge there were wondrous successes. For that, I am grateful. In this essence, I wanted to share with you my top 10 lessons and thoughts that 2014 has taught me. I really had a list of about (30) but I narrowed it down to the best ones.
My Top Ten Lessons of 2014
- Life goals are filled with remixes and that’s OK. I noticed that I would start off with one goal and oftentimes my goal would change because I would change, the circumstances would change or my desire would change. Life is filled with surprises so it’s totally fine to welcome the remixes that life throws your way, just keep on going until you achieve whatever it is that you want to.
- Working backwards works. I’ve said it before I will say it again – you have to know where you want to go in order for you to start working to get there. My journals are filled with my ultimate dreams and lists of my optimal life which I would then use to break down my 5-year, 1-year, quarterly and monthly goals. Start with the end result in your mind and think of what you need to start doing now to get there.
- Failures are not as bad as you may think. Prior to this year, I struggled in finding the core strengths of my business. I had to experience a few “failures” in order to get where I am today. I am clear on what I need to do in order to grow my business where I want it to be. Fear of failure is a problem that many of us struggle with but I have learned that our failures are often the womb for our greatest successes.
- You cannot expect the outcome of success without being committed to the process. This is a huge one for me. At the beginning of my journey of success, I always thought that I would be a millionaire by now sitting next to Oprah Winfrey while sailing my yacht somewhere in Capri. Ha! In order to get to the end result of your success, you have to endure and persevere through the process.
- I am giraffe walking around a lot of turtles. Bishop TD Jakes shared this amazing quote, “When you are a giraffe and you receive criticism from turtles, they are reporting the view from the level that they are on.” Recognize the turtles in your life but know that you were meant to be tall and you will endanger your position if you try to lower your perspective.
- Dreams without goals remain dreams. The goals that I set, define and achieve are the backbone to everything that I have accomplished in 2014. It’s important to know that your destiny is in your hands instead of thinking that life is something that happens to you. Goals make life happen for you and if you do not have goals then there is a very little chance of manifesting your dreams.
- Both prosperity and poverty come in small increments. When we think of prosperity, we may think of a grand, opulent life that perhaps we may never be able to reach. I have learned that prosperity is something that you work on daily, little by little, discipline after discipline, little achievement after little achievement and it grows slowly from there. This principle applies to poverty as well, falling off little by little, lack of discipline little by little.
- You can’t change the seasons in your life but you can change yourself. This is perhaps my biggest lesson of the year. We are not in control of when the opportunities come or when the seasons of life will change but we can control our growth and development. We are in control of preparing for the opportunity and for the seasons to change, but the only thing we can ultimately change is ourselves.
- Profits are better than wages. “Wages will make you a living. Profits will make you a fortune. The rich invest their money first and spend the rest; the poor spend their money first and invest the rest.” This quote by the late Jim Rohn changed my life. Again, we my think that we gain financial independence by making more money, not necessarily so. It’s what you do with the money that you do have. Listen to Jim Rohn’s audiobook “Financial Independence” for more details.
- Rather the pain of discipline than the pain of regret. Discipline never seems fun because the rewards of lack of discipline are immediate while the rewards for discipline are often delayed. Discipline is going to be a major factor in how far you go in this thing called life, decide to discipline yourself now in order to have a long-term reward later.
Whew – that was plenty wasn’t it? If there is anything else that you learned from this list is that keeping a journal is necessary and I hope that you include doing so in your 2015 goals. As for me, I am going to take the next few weeks to tie up some loose ends as I have plenty good news to share with you in the New Year. I will speak to you then and I sincerely want you to know how grateful I am for you and for letting me in your life to inspire and motivate you to give birth to your dreams and embrace your legacy. It’s an honor that I will never ever take lightly.
I hope that you have a very Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy