Time

Time…

What do you do with your time?  Is it productive?  Do you find yourself wishing for more time?  Try finishing the following sentence.

“If I only had more time, I’d…”

What kind of things come to mind?  Have you been longing to go back to school and get that degree or certification?  Perhaps you wish for more time to study a foreign language, learn a new skill or improve your health and get back into shape.  Or maybe you’d just like to spend more time with your loved ones.  It all equates to a need or desire for more time.

Don’t you find it amazing how some people seem to accomplish so much in their lives using the exact same amount of time we all have?  After all, every one of us is only allotted twenty-four hours in each day.  So how do they do it? 

Time is a precious and perishable commodity.  How we treat time can be equated to many aspects of life itself.  Mistreat it and it’ll slip away.  Make the most of it and it’ll pay huge dividends.  How have you been using your time lately? 

I’ve discovered a straight-forward, four-step process to getting more productivity from the finite allocation of time we’re all allotted each day.  See if you can find something from this simple approach that’ll help you. 

Assess your timeline.

Assess what you have or where you are in relation to what you desire and make a determination of what kind of time it’ll take to reach your goal or desired outcome.  Be honest and realistic.  Once you have a good idea of how much time it’ll take to accomplish your goal or objective, break up your timeline into monthly, weekly, and daily segments.  Defining an overall goal in terms of a total length of time it’ll take is necessary, but oftentimes it can lead to exasperation and an overwhelming feeling that it may be insurmountable.  If I had known that writing my first novel would’ve taken me two-and-a-half years to write, I may have been overwhelmed to a point of futility.  Yet, because I made sure to spend a few hours a week to write it, I was able to accomplish the overall manuscript…over time.

Define your goals.

It’s a universal reality that few of us truly define our goals with the clarity required to ignite a burning desire to pursue them.  However, once we do clearly define them, a passion ignites within us that’s difficult to ignore.  In a manner much like the timeline method, our goal should be defined as an overall objective, accompanied by milestones that offer clear indications of progress.  Without them, we tend to lose incentive and drive and have no clear indication of forward movement.  The chapters in my novel served as milestones for me as I wrote the ensuing storyline.  I was able to clearly see where I had started and could look back upon a series of chapters that provided added value to the drive and momentum that propelled the progress of my book forward to completion.  

Take action.

Get emotionally involved!  The fact that you’ve recognized the need to set aside time for your goal speaks volumes about your insight and ability to see things from a wide perspective.  The Latin phrase, “Carpe Diem,” or “Seize the Day” has been loosely translated to “Seize the Moment.”  Either way you slice it, the translation compels the reader or philosopher to “seize” time as we know it.  Any amount of time we allow to slip by is time never to be regained.  Taking action as soon as humanly possible allows us to make the absolute most of it.  It therefore goes to show that those who do, are the very ones who seem to make more of the time they have.  Capture the moments that collectively add up to the time that’s right in front of you to your advantage. 

Need an extra thirty minutes to make progress toward your goal?  Get up thirty minutes earlier than you currently do.  Watch thirty minutes less television.  Say no to the boys when they get together for a beer one weekend a month.  Put the kids to bed fifteen minutes early twice a week.  Get creative and watch the time add up!

Follow through!

Once you’ve assessed the timeline, defined your goals and objectives, discovered the time available and have taken action, make sure to follow through and stay consistent.  Because, another universal truth is that consistency will yield measurable results you can count on. Your time will not be wasted, but your consistent efforts will build a momentum of progress that'll reveal itself to a point where others will ask how you seem to accomplish as much as you do with your time!  

Until next time...

- G -

"The wise person recognizes the precarious nature of time and seizes moments that make the most of it."  

If you'd like to receive a notification anytime I publish a new blog (currently about every two weeks), visit my Facebook page: G. Gary Westfal, Author

Once there, click on "Get Update via RSS" on the bottom of the left column.  You'll be subscribed and will receive notification whenever I publish a new blog or provide updates to my novel Dream State.  And help me by recommending this blog to others and "liking" my FB page.

Please visit my All American Warriors! bog at: http://allamericanwarriors.blogspot.com/ 

Please visit my website: www.gwestfal.com

Children

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."   
- Albert Einstein - 

Imagination leads to insight, which leads to introspection, which leads to discovery, which leads to change!  Real change takes place when we allow ourselves the liberty to put aside bias and preconceived notions long enough to be fascinated with what our innermost selves are telling us.  

www.scientificreflections.com

I’ve said it time and again…Don’t be so judgmental about the things your mind, or your imagination, is trying to reveal to you.  Doing so only prevents us from realizing the truest potential for happiness and fulfillment we can expect to discover in this life. 

One of the most difficult things to do is withhold judgment and yield to the variety of possibilities and discovery that lie within.  Most of us are programmed to be skeptical, judgmental and cautious early on.  Oftentimes, our cognitive filters prevent us from accepting the raw information provided by our imagination.  We selectively accept or deny information based on learned perception.  In other words, if it makes sense, we retain it.  If it doesn’t, we’re quick to write it off as “unrealistic” or unobtainable.  The result is a tragic disruption of the natural flow of ideas, imagination and insight that point directly toward the full experience we expect from life.  Don’t allow it to happen!  Instead, listen to the sounds, grab the images, and feel the richness that is literally already a part of you! 

If you have difficulty connecting with your seemingly elusive insight, you’re not alone.  It may take some time to recognize the creative activity.  But when it happens, you’ll know it…and your world will come alive as it did when you were a child listening to fairytales and stories.  You’ll begin to see things in their raw form and will be fascinated by the simplicity of it all.

Look closely at the wonder and amazement of a child as they process the sheer amount of information and sensory input of life.  You can tell the young ones anything!  When you do, their imagination comes alive and conjures images and limitless possibilities.  We tend to lose that as an adult.  We become jaded, skeptical, and realistic…what’s that about anyway?  What exactly is “real?”  I’m here to tell you that “real” is anything we decide to make it.  Are your dreams real?  If they’re not real yet, then begin to imagine them to be! 

In one of my earlier blogs, I wrote about the law of attraction and how a simple mindset change can begin to bring new things to us.  Allow your imagination to show you things and begin to make them real in your life!  Once they reveal themselves to you, crystallize them in your mind.  Begin to feel the passion that excites you about what you see.  And focus on it with all you’ve got.  Call it into your life, believing that it’s your destiny to have it, to hold it, to experience it!  And don’t allow anyone to convince you that it’s unrealistic.

Napoleon Hill once wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”  What is your mind telling you to believe?  What are the possibilities that abound that you’ve placed aside?  Refuse to accept it!  Pay close attention to the wonder of your imagination!  Can you imagine what life would be like without the many things that were once but a glimmer of an imaginative thought in someone’s mind?  Pick literally anything that is a convenience, a conveyance, or a contraption and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Imagination in its most basic form comes from the storytellers.  J. K. Rowling immediately comes to mind because her story is so fascinating and profound.  Had she not thought of the Harry Potter series, we would never have such wonderful stories to share with each other, especially our children.  The stories themselves are a testament to the wild imagination she has and the manner in which she can tell it.  Had she not had the courage to yield to her imagination and call it forth and care for it and work for it, we would never have had the pleasure of knowing such possibilities could exist.  Such stories are inspirational and ignite an unending array of other inspiring aspects that perpetuate far beyond belief. 

Make time to dream, to be still, to listen to what your imagination tells you.  When a thought crosses in front of you that you would otherwise have discarded, ask, “what if” instead.  Your imagination will begin to unfold even more…just because you asked. 

Pay attention to the wonder of your vivid imagination!   

- G -

If you'd like to receive a notification anytime I publish a new blog (currently about every two weeks), visit my Facebook page: G. Gary Westfal, Author

Once there, click on "Get Update via RSS" on the bottom of the left column.  You'll be subscribed and will receive notification whenever I publish a new blog or provide updates to my novel Dream State.  And help me by recommending this blog to others and "liking" my FB page.

Please visit my All American Warriors! bog at: http://allamericanwarriors.blogspot.com/ 

Please visit my website: www.gwestfal.com

Dreams...

Dreams, Vision, Introspection...and Courage! 

Ask anyone who has achieved a level of success and they will tell you they had the courage to follow their convictions and were not afraid to be different.  Success, by most measures, is typically identified as something that's fairly difficult to come by or unique in some form or fashion.  As vague as the definition may be, one thing is certain - most of us clearly recognize success when we see it. 

Got a goal?  Are you in pursuit of success?  Demonstrate the courage to be different! 

Photo courtesy of velvetoversteel.blogspot.com

When you follow your convictions, people notice.  When people notice, your path becomes better defined and begins to take shape.  As that happens, the seeds of your vision take hold and become rooted in those very convictions.  The decision to take the first step demonstrates your courage and is driven by the belief you have in yourself, your ideas, and your motivations.  The result is a personal transformation, manifested by the courage to follow through and pursue your dreams. 

One of my dreams is to be a published writer.  I spent nearly three years writing my first manuscript.  In order to accomplish that, I had to have the courage to be different.  I had to become personally different if I were to have any hope of finishing my novel.  Writing had to become the priority around which the rest of my life revolved.  The decision to write was the easy part.  The follow-through would challenge me from time-to-time.  But my convictions and beliefs provided the impetus to push past temporary distractions in order to complete my goal of finishing the novel.  My rewards lie just beneath the surface of self-discovery and were beyond even what I could have ever imagined them to be. 

I experienced personal growth the moment I began writing that continued to expand my imagination with each session.   I discovered that I had an ability to see things through the eyes of my characters and to effectively articulate the essence of an ensuing novel.  Details sprang forth as I feverishly typed them onto the page.  I witnessed story lines unfolding before me in settings I had never before seen or imagined.  Writing became a personally-satisfying, almost spiritual experience for me.  I had, in essence, become a writer! 

I began to truly discover writing when encouraged to do so by my fiance.  I spoke to her often about my dreams.  I tend to dream lucidly and reportedly seemed to have a lot to “say” while sleeping.  Those dreams became the basis and served as a beginning to what has become a passion for me to principally write about.  With her support, encouragement, and understanding, I embarked on a journey that took all of the elements of passion, desire, creativity, organization, and the willingness to be different to determine if I had what it takes to be a writer. 

They say if you want to be a writer, then you have to write!  Sounds simple enough to apply to most anything I can imagine, really.  If you want to be an artist, then you should probably pick a paintbrush or pencil.  Want to be a musician?  Pick up an instrument…you see the parallel, I’m sure.  My point here is that, if you have a desire to do something new, refreshing, different, unique…then have the courage to acknowledge it and be ready to demonstrate the courage it takes to drive through the obstacles and distractions that will inevitably find their way into the path of your goal.  The alternative is to do nothing but resolve to observe the success of others. 

What lies just beneath the surface of your self-discovery?  For me, it was an unknown passion for creative writing.  For you it could be much, much more.  Open the window of your mind and take a look at the true desires of your heart.  Don’t be too quick to discount things that cross the thought paths because they can provide important insight on something you may not have thought about before.  

Be ready to demonstrate the courage it’ll take to place your desires above what used to be “ordinary life.”  I can assure you, your courage will pay huge dividends and result in a life far from ordinary!  Instead, get ready for extraordinary! 

Until next time...

- G -

Courage...feel the fear and do it anyway!

Courage is the not the absence of fear, but the presence of action in the face of fear!

If you'd like to receive a notification anytime I publish a new blog (currently about every two weeks), visit my Facebook page: G. Gary Westfal, Author

Once there, click on "Get Update via RSS" on the bottom of the left column.  You'll be subscribed and will receive notification whenever I publish a new blog or provide updates to my novel Dream State.  And help me by recommending this blog to others and "liking" my FB page.

Please visit my All American Warriors! bog at: http://allamericanwarriors.blogspot.com/ 

Please visit my website: www.gwestfal.com