Day 12 of 31 days to resetting my life challenge

Day 12 assignment is to write a letter to your Lizard Brain. Your Lizard Brain is resistance. For example: fear, procrastination, and making excuses are just a few. “The lizard brain is what stops you in your tracks and keeps you from moving forward.”

Here’s my letter to my Lizard Brain:

Dear Lizard Brain,

It’s me! I’m really enjoying this life changing challenge taking place within me right now. And I just wanted to let you know that I’m not going to let you get in the way of this. Procrastination and letting myself get distracted has been your way of interfering with my self development, my growth, and my success. Those days are over. I’ve always known you were there just wasn’t what to call you or what your forms were. Now that I do know- I know how to handle you. Once I know how to do that…you are in trouble. So, I know you will always be here, but you need to know that you will remain uneffective and have no purpose in my life any longer.

Sincerely,

Daphne

Day 10 of my 31 days to resetting my life challenge

Yesterday was a little difficult for me. I woke up feeling like I didn’t want to be here. Sometimes bad times will do that to you. But I have some great people in my circle who are encouraging, and just there when I need to talk. It’s funny because most people aren’t use to seeing me break, I’m always the strong one, encouraging and helping people, and for the past few months, it just hasn’t been that way.

Well today we had to pick one thing and do it from our life cycle. There are so many things I want to change about my life right now, that picking one place to start was quite difficult. I mean…7 areas to change things and I have at least 5 in each area. LOL Really? Just one? LOL So I decided to start with something that wasn’t too difficult, would benefit me in other areas, and I could start within in the next few months. I’ve decided to go back to school. I have been thinking about it for awhile now, and I was even going to change my field, but the more I’ve been doing this challenge the more I’m finding out about myself…So I am going back to school sometime in 2012 and I’m going to take classes that will enhance the areas I’m already experienced in. No sense in learning something new, and I may not like it, I might as well expand on what I already know and enjoy doing!

Sometimes the things we want to do aren’t always the things we are called to do.

31 Days to resetting my life challenge- Day 9

Well Day 9 was yesterday, and let’s say I got to DREAM a little bit. The assignment was to create a life map. It literally took me all day to complete my map but it was well worth it. It helped me realize even more things and realign my life structure.

I’m realizing that you are never too old to change your life around. Mine began 9 days ago. I’m so glad I came across this challenge and I’m only 10 days into it.

With the life map we had to take 7 areas of our life, and write down the things we wanted in those areas. For example: Education mine was to at least go back to school and finish up my Associate’s. I really want some type of degree. I’m very experienced in a lot of areas but I have been feeling extremely incomplete lately and I really believe it has something to do with not having some type of degree. I did realize that instead of going back to school for something totally different, I’m going to go back in an area that I’m already experienced in and get a degree. Might as well continue to use the skills I already have for what I already enjoy doing. I may go back for something totally different, and not like it at all and then I’ll feel like I wasted even more time.

Day 10 we had to choose one thing from our life map and make the first step in reaching that goal. I have so many…but I’m going to start with back to school, so I’m going to do some research today and make steps to get back in school in 2012.

Live your DREAMS

Day 8 of my 31 days to resetting my life challenge

Hello everyone. I first want to thank those of you who are following my journey. I really appreciate the support. I’m really enjoying this challenge. It’s really helping me to realize some things about myself and dig deep. If you would like to take the challenge please visit Happy Black Woman and get started!

Day 7 was a rest and catch up day. I can’t believe I made the whole week. I sometimes have a bad habit of becoming distracted when I’m doing things…especially for myself. So for me to make this a priority that I’m doing my challenges daily, is very important to me.

Day 8 we had to write down all the things that we are grateful for. We were suppose to carry our notebooks around with us all day and whenever we thought of something we were grateful for we were suppose to write it down.

I’ve been going through some really trying times since June of this year, and in writing down the things I’m grateful for, I must admit…this part of the challenge was extremely difficult because I honestly couldn’t find many things that I am grateful for at the current moment. But I can say the things I am grateful for are important to me and in anyone else’s life. I’m currently grateful for my children, my dad, my health, my sanity, God waking me up every morning, good friends, and having a roof over my head.

Today is Day 9 of the challenge and it’s going to be interesting. We have to create a life map.

I hope you will join me in this challenge and continue to support me in mine.

~Daphne S. Ali

Day 6 of 31 days to reset your life challenge

Day 4, 5, and 6 was a three part process to writing your own personal mission statement. This definitely took me some time because I’ve always been one to try and ignore my mission in life and make it what I thought I wanted it to be.

Day 4 we had to list all of your values and then pick the 10 most important.

Day 5 we had to envision our values in action. We started by rating our 10 top values on a scale of 1-10 on how we felt we were acting out that particular value in our life. Then for each value we had to list out at least three actions that we are currently take or that we should be taking in order to honor and fulfill that value in our lives.

Day 6 we had to write our own personal mission statement. Mine is below… I’m sure by the time I finish these 31 days it will change…

I value my family, beliefs, creativity, achievement, image, social change, and children. I appreciate good music, good food, traveling, fine art, and fashion. I especially value honesty and loyalty. Before I die I want to have a positive impact on not only my own children but other children as well. I want to continue to be a role model and inspiration for children and women. As a writer, motivator, and big sister, I will use my life experiences, talents, skills, and knowledge to introduce others to their abilities. In my journey I will not neglect those people and things that are most valuable to me.

Day 3 of the 31 days to reset your life challenge

We were asked to write a love letter to ourselves. I can’t tell you how much fun this was for me to write and I’m going to do it more often. I won’t share this letter until it’s time to have it emailed to myself in 30 days.

I really would like to suggest that anyone who is looking to really find yourself you take this challenge. Once I’m finished, I’m going to do it with my children as well.

31 Days to reset my life Challenge- Day 2

Day 2 we were asked to take a life assessment…we are to tell what we like and what we dislike about different areas of our lives.

Here are mine:

Lifestyle: I like my comfortable way of living. I don’t try to live beyond my means and I have taught my kids to do the same. I dislike the fact that I’m not where I intended to be at 38 years old. My life is nothing like I planned it to be at 18. But for that matter, whose is?

Work: I am currently unemployed and have been for 4 years. I am actively seeking to get back into the workforce at the present moment while continuing to build my businesses so hopefully one day I won’t have to work for anyone else for the rest of my days. What I dislike about working is not being home when my children get home from school.

Education: I graduated high school and have some college and went back in my 20’s to a school for Business Management at a Business College. I dislike that I’ve never gotten my degree. Something I plan to change soon.

Finances: As of today 10/21/11 I don’t like anything about my finances. I’m going through a really hard time right now financially so I have nothing good to say!

Health: As far as I know I don’t have any health problems. I dislike my current weight and would like to lose about 40 pounds and tone up.

Family: My kids are my world. They are understanding, supportive, and right there for their mom. Dislikes: I wish some of my family members were closer and I wish a few other things were different when it comes to my family life.

Relationships: I like my ability to communicate with friends, spouse, etc. What I dislike is non-communication.

So these are my likes and dislikes! Hopefully by the end of these 31 days a lot of these things will be different.

Day 1 of my 31 days to reset my life challenge

I think this challenge came across my path at the perfect moment. I have been refocusing, decluttering, and going through some extremely difficult times in my personal life. My bestie posted this link in on her wall last week and I started following Happy Black Woman. As I was navigating through the website I came across the 31 days to reset your life challenge. It’s a free virtual personal development exercise. I have since asked a few of my friends to participate as well.

So here it is: Day one we were asked to choose a notebook and why, I choose a notebook I already  had because I’m having some rough times financially and I’m learning to only purchase what is necessary right now. The notebook has stripes with several different colors and a base color of chocolate. I try to live my life in color and brown is one of my favorite colors. I choose this notebook because of the colors and because it was FREE.

My mantra: Trust Yourself. Think for Yourself. Act for Yourself. Speak for Yourself. Be Yourself. Imitation is Suicide! – Marva Collins

My song: is Diva by Beyonce

This is my theme song!