Fulfillment Friday - AKA Personal Development

As you all know I have been reading The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson and have been trying to apply these principles to my daily life. The one thing that really stands out to me in this book is " What is easy to do, is also easy NOT to do". Today I had the distinct pleasure of being a guest at the Colorado Springs BBB Small Business Week Awards Luncheon. Their guest speaker was Weldon Long. A gentleman that before today, I knew nothing about. He has an amazing story.

Incarcerated for 13 years until the age of 39 with a 9th grade education, he decided while in prison to change his course of thinking and start living his dreams and aspirations that he had written down in his mind until he got out and could fully go after them. He talked today about how when you continually think positive things and live those future goals as if they are in the present, you will attract those things to you. This aligns itself with my personal philosophy of the law of attraction but also with what Jeff Olson says in The Slight Edge. Weldon talked today about how our "box" or our minds are filled up with the ideas and beliefs of others and it gets crowded with junk. When we can fill our box with positive notions and ideas of our own, we will reap the benefits of that. What goes in the box, eventually comes out of the box.

It is amazing to see the result of what small changes over time can be. This man who had every reason  to believe that he'd amount to nothing, made the CHOICE to change his thinking and do small things daily that would eventually change his life. He chose to do whatever it took, every day, to get there. Once I read the books I will be sure to blog about him again.

 I am excited to read his books after the others that I have in line in front of it! If you are looking for a good personal development book, pick up his book, "The Power of Consistency" and

The Upside of Fear. As I have said, I haven't yet read them, but after listening to this powerful speaker today, I will be sure to pick them up.

Learning is uncomfortable.....

After powering through seven chapters of The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson in one night, I figured that this picture was appropriate for today. Creating a life that feels good on the inside is just as important as working on your body to make it look good on the outside. Jeff talks in his book about how if you do one small thing each day to better your life, the compound effect is going to equal the big end result which is what we are all trying to work towards. 

People who know me know that I love to read and I do read fast, I read seven chapters in one day but it's because I want to immerse myself in the concept. I love the hard copies of books because I can highlight and write notes in the margin. I have a Kindle and I still use it but for this kind of personal development I really felt like I needed the paperback.

One of my favorite quotes so far in the book is, "Often, in the beginning, the success path can be uncomfortable, even scary."

This quote in particular is one of my favorites because it reminds me of one of my favorite professors in college Dr. Stein. She always told us that learning is uncomfortable and it should be. When you're changing and your brain is developing it's just like any other muscle in your body that is tearing and repairing and re constructing. Learning should be uncomfortable because that's how you know you're learning. It makes you aware of the situation. 

If we all just went along, day to day, never feeling uncomfortable then we are just a bunch of drones, living unexciting, dull lives that are meaningless. 

By feeling uncomfortable we acknowledge the process. We recognize that there truly is more out there to discover and that this journey we call life can continue to be exciting and new and adventurous as long as we feel uncomfortable! Have a great Thursday!