At one point or another your life will change. This change can be a positive experience because you have grown as a person and have reached another level of success in life, or it can be a change that will ultimately reveal the real you and cause you to grow as a person to enable you to enter into the next season of your life. Nothing in life stays the same – it is not meant to. We all must change and move forward and not become stagnant where we are.

Sometimes life will throw you a curveball that will put you in a position where you have no idea what lies ahead. Curveballs can turn your world upside down or they can enlighten you and bring wisdom to understand the future. The affect curveballs have on your life depends on the choice you make – it’s your choice. You can choose to be safe and not take the risk that comes with change and be happy with things staying exactly the way they are now, or you can embrace change and be open to new experiences and opportunities that will surely come. If you are not a risk taker, you prefer to not rock the boat or should I say you ‘don’t want to fix’ what isn’t broken. If you are a risk taker, you see change as a means to an end. Change to a risk taker is an open door that leads to endless possibilities that will positively impact their destiny. Risk takers believe that they are strong enough and resilient enough to handle whatever happens in the future.

Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed and re-arranged to move us where we are meant to be. We should not fear the curveballs that enter our lives. In fact, curveballs can force us to know who we are and what we can rise above and still come out of it with our personal character and dignity intact.  Our life is a reflection of the choices we make and we are accountable for our response to even the events we had no control over. The next time life throws you a curveball, don’t back away from it. Stand in the batter’s box and swing your bat with full confidence that you have made the right choice and see that what was meant to harm you will become the source of your success!

In this world there are some things that you can only do alone, but to reach your full potential, you will need to rely on your relationships with other people.  Almost everything of great significance in history has come from teams of people working together.  Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon, but it took hundreds of thousands of workers to get him there.  It would have been impossible for him to achieve this great feat on his own.  Any successful person will tell you that they did not reach their goal alone but that someone along the way gave them some help. Someone, whether a parent, a coach, a great teacher or mentor, played a vital role in their success. The point is that when we succeed, we succeed not only because of our individual efforts, but also because we had help along the way.

Regardless of your personality type, relationships are a key ingredient of creating and enjoying great success. You can’t rise to your full creative potential by yourself. You need others who will support you, give you feedback, and make you more than you can be on your own. There are some people who think that they made it this far because they were just so smart, but there are a lot of smart people out there.  Or, they think that they are successful because they worked harder than everyone else.  Honestly, there are a whole lot of hardworking people out there as well. The truth of the matter is that if you and I are going to accomplish anything significant, we need each other. We can try to do something great alone, but when we put our hearts, minds, and hands together, it’s like laying a foundation that is destined to hold up a strong and mighty tower – one that is solid and built to last a lifetime.

It is wisdom to have people in your life who can motivate, guide and protect you as you build your dream. This person or group of people would have already proven themselves in their own right and therefore you can trust them implicitly. You need someone who has the knowledge and experience you need for the future problems and situations you are sure to face. A mentor can help answer the questions/doubts you have, or possibly guide you on where to find answers.  If you allow them, they will help hold you accountable when they see you falling off track and be present with a listening ear whenever you need help.  A mentor will keep you from becoming burnt out, overwhelmed or frustrated.  Don’t let your ego, pride or embarrassment keep you from seeking a mentor in life. Take a look around you. Every house, school, church and building you see took a team to build. Every business you see didn’t just suddenly appear – someone made that happen and they didn’t do it alone. There are those that are always willing to help and share if you just have the courage to ask.  Remember, we are better together!

What do you see when you look in the mirror?  Is the reflection one of high self esteem and confidence, or do you see a person struggling with thoughts of envy, self doubt or even wishing that you were someone else?  Are you constantly beating yourself up and thinking that somehow you should be more, do more, be better, and you don’t measure up in your own mind?  Low self esteem or feelings like you are not good enough, are experienced by people of all ages in all walks of life.  Negative thoughts about yourself prevent you from living your life to the fullest and need to be dealt with and rejected and not lived with and accepted.

It doesn’t matter how much you have already accomplished in life, we tend to look at other people’s lives and think that they´re better off that we are.  We feel dissatisfied with who we are and what we have, or don’t have, but the fact of the matter is the people you compare yourself to compare themselves to other people too and I can assure you that the people who seem to have it all do not. The next time you find yourself wishing you were someone else for the things they have, stop for a moment and wonder what you may not see.  We can’t see behind closed doors and we haven’t walked in the other persons shoes.  We view life through a lens tainted with our version of what happiness is. When you look at other people through a lens of compassion and understanding rather than jealousy, you are better able to see them for who they are—imperfect human beings going through the same challenges that we all go through.

What’s important to consider is perhaps there is someone who wishes that they were you!  Blessed is the individual who can stop and say, “My life is awesome. I may not have everything I want, but I have everything I need.”  Gratefulness leads to contentment.  Contentment creates harmony and balance.  Isn’t that what we really desire? B e kind and gentle with yourself.  You’re doing the best you can.  You don’t have to beat yourself up over not “getting there” fast enough.  As long as you can come away at the end of the day knowing you gave it your all, that’s all anyone can truly do.  Work each day on becoming the best you can be. The only way to see a good reflection when you look in the mirror is to know that you are enough just as you are and self-love will be a little bit easier every time you remind yourself of that.

Who doesn’t go through failures, setbacks, and challenges? Life can be tough and even unfair at times but a strong person knows that no matter how tough it may be, they must rise above the difficulty and keep moving forward. They remember times in the past when they had every reason to quit but they survived by thinking positive thoughts and doing everything they could to find the help they needed. It’s easy to become over-whelmed in this life but it’s not the load that breaks us, it’s how we respond to it that makes the difference.

It’s easy to tell someone else to hang in there and to keep a positive outlook when they are going through tough times but when it happens to you, keeping your chin up isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don’t look back at it too long. Mistakes are life’s way of teaching you. No one wins all of the time, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth.  If you are to grow, you must be capable to overcome setbacks, disappoints and pain without becoming bitter but better.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it’s necessary that you encounter some defeats so that you can find out who you really are, what you can rise from and how you can come out of it. You will never know how strong you are until you are placed in a position that the only choice you have is to be strong. The key to not being defeated is to make a decision that you are never going to stay down but always get back up again. What defines us is how well we rise after falling.

Every struggle in your life has shaped you into the person you are today. Be thankful for the hard times in your life; they only make you strong. Just as muscles are built by overcoming resistance, you either let your challenges in life break you or use them to become a mentally stronger person. You may not be able to control everything that happens to you, but you can control your thoughts about what happens. Pat yourself on the back that you have already come through a lot in life and know that you will get through whatever is coming.