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Making the Most of Your Life - Starting at the Bottom

Guest post by: Terri Levine

Article Overview: Whether you are building a house or building a business or building a life, the first step is to build a strong foundation.

Making the Most of Your Life - Starting at the Bottom

Even the most successful people want more out of life. Who doesn't want more time, more money, more job satisfaction, or better relationships?

Whether you are after more financial and business success, more family time, expand your business, or whatever it is YOU want, the starting point is with yourself. Having a strong, personal foundation is the basis for amazing growth in whichever area of life you wish to grow in. When the going gets tough, if your foundation is weak, you will crumble. Having a strong foundation means you can weather the storms of life as they hit, so to "build" a fantastic life you need to start at the bottom and build a dependable "base".

Here are some tips for building a strong foundation:

1) Live a life based fully on integrity so that others will trust you and only speak highly of you. This reflects in all your relationships, be they business or personal.

2) Forget the Past. Don't harbor grudges. Make sure you fully "complete" your past so it doesn't impinge on your present and ruin your future. Much baggage carted around simply weighs us down. Learn to let go and move on.

3) Live according to your true values. Walk your talk. Be yourself. Honor your dreams. Be upstanding and stick by what YOU know is right even if dozens around you don't agree.

4) Meet your "needs". Identify and fully meet your own needs in life. If you keep pushing them aside, they will haunt you into your future and you will merely live a life of regrets and "if only's".

5) Keep your standards high, in all areas of life. Choose standards that bring out your best, that make you feel good about yourself, that help you progress in your chosen endeavors.

6) Place boundaries. It's easy to be stepped on and used if we allow it. Set up boundaries that are appropriate and adequate to protect yourself without hurting or offending others. Your time, your feelings, your wishes, etc. are also worthy of respect. It may be something as simple as having a certain time of day off each week. Keep that time sacrosanct.

7) It is important to be tolerant of other people and situations. Losing your temper solves nothing and makes matters worse. On the other hand, you should aim for a life that requires no tolerations. What are you tolerating now that you really don't have to and shouldn't have to?

8) Honor your family and understand the role they play in your life when you are around and when you are not. Find time for them. Show them your appreciation. A family that nurtures each other is the strongest foundation known.

9) Choose to mix with people who support you and bring out your best. Do not mix with people who laugh at your dreams, who scoff at you, or who bring you down in other ways. Mix with people and events that develop the best in you, that make you feel great about yourself and what you do.

10) And finally, one of THE most important foundation blocks for a better you and a better life is simply coming from a positive place. This doesn't mean turning into a Pollyanna, but it does mean looking on the bright side. It means thinking positively and looking for what is working RIGHT in your life and focusing on getting more of that rather than looking at what is wrong with your life and focusing on that. You do attract more of what you think about!

Having a solid personal foundation frees you to be more of who you want to be. You are free to move forward and go after your dreams, because many of the above "building blocks" are the very things that will stop us in our tracks if we haven't dealt with them. Imagine living a life without any of those hang-ups. Imagine what you could and would accomplish if your 'foundation' was solid.

Take some time and list all the areas in your life that represent cracks or weak spots in your foundation. How can you strengthen them? Then make another list of all the things you can do when your personal foundation is unbreakable. You can be creative... with a solid foundation beneath you, the sky is the limit!

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Article Tags: balance, building a life, life coaching, strong foundation



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