Archive for John

3 Benefits of Taking Risks In Your Life

September 8, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

3 Benefits of Taking Risks In Your Life

Are you familiar with the saying “You’ve got to break eggs if you want to make an omelet”? This is a colorful way of reminding you that risk is important in working toward success.

Think about it, if you don’t accept the risk of losing, you won’t have the reward of winning. It’s the risk that gives you the chance to come out on top.

Understanding this helps you see risk taking as positive and beneficial. It’s a behavior that can lead to success in life and in business.

To help you see this GenuLines is going to look at three specific benefits that come from taking risks.

Unexpected Opportunities

You often take a risk to get to a specific benefit. You do X to reach Y. But sometimes that benefit gets pushed aside by other, unexpected benefits.

When you take risks, your actions put you in situations that are not run of the mill or ordinary. Because of this, the reward of being in that situation is also not run of the mill or ordinary.

Taking a risk like this can lead to benefits you could only dream of.

Building Self-Assurance

One of the main benefits of taking risks is that you get better at taking risks. It doesn’t seem logical, but risky behavior leads to even more risky behavior.

Now, when we talk about risky behavior, we’re talking about positive behaviors. No one should ever behave in a way that puts them in personal danger.

That said, taking positive risks allows you to develop the ability to be able to judge the future risk. In other words, you get better at estimating the odds for success the more that you take risks.

Personal Growth

Oscar Wilde once said that experience is the name that we give to our mistakes.

The point here is that mistakes and failure lead to learning and growth. In a strange way, you need to first fail before you can succeed.

This means that if you don’t take risks, you can’t fail. Without risk, you’ll stay where you are.

And that is the ultimate failure.

JohnK 9-8-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”

~T. S. Eliot

Unlock the Power of Solitude And Own Your Alone Time

August 25, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Unlock the Power of Solitude And Own Your Alone Time

Self-reliance is a key to happiness and stability in your life. You can be completely happy on your own.

Even without validation, entertainment or help from others you can continue to function.

Now this might sound like a glum assessment, but every one of us is alone. As much as you might love others and feel they are there for you, when you close your eyes at night it’s you and you alone.

That shouldn’t be scary though – not if you’re okay with being self-reliant.

Yet lots of people struggle spending time alone. Here GenuLines looks at how to become better at being on your own.

Without becoming either lonely or bored.

Keep a List of Activities

One useful tip that can make a big difference is to keep a list of activities that interest you. This might mean for instance that you keep a running note of any books you want to read.

Or any films you want to watch. Or any computer games you want to play.

By doing this, you’ll then have a long list of things you’ll enjoy doing when you’re on your own.

Start New Hobbies and Activities

A hobby can be a regular activity that can make you far less likely to become bored. You’ll look forward to doing it.

And if you’re doing something like painting or working out, you’ll often be alone when you do it.

Writing is particularly good. It forces you to practice having an internal monologue.

This can result in you becoming better at ‘keeping yourself company’. Some people get the same result playing music.

Aim For a Gradual Increase In Alone Time

Another thing simple but effective thing you can do to become better at being alone is to practice. In other words, try spending more and more time alone until you start to find it less upsetting.

Start by taking long walks alone. In time you can build up to doing things like spending holidays on your own.

JohnK 8-25-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “I restore myself when I’m alone”

~Marilyn Monroe

Change Your Money Views With a Money Mindset

August 11, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Change Your Money Views With a Money Mindset

If you look at the profiles of wealthy people, you’ll find they have a different money mindset than others. They know the value of money, and they know the fundamental factors of how to make their money grow.

If you’re struggling with money GenuLines encourages you to learn from these people.

An age-old money idiom is to use compound interest in your favor. Benjamin Franklin was a big proponent of this principle.

He was quite wealthy for his time, so it’s likely he knew what he was talking about. But, it makes sense.

Your savings can grow on their own. So can the money that you earn.

In time you’ll see a decent sum of money. And if you keep adding to the balance, that money will also grow along with it.

The situation gets a bit more complicated when you factor in taxes. Find a qualified person who’ll make sure you pay the lowest amount of taxes possible.

Wealthy people do this.

Another principle wealthy people adhere to is creating multiple income streams. The more income streams you have working for you, the quicker you’ll see results.

Pump up the income streams that are working well and dump the ones that aren’t.

When you’re doing well enough, make sure you don’t touch the principal. Set up your principal so that it earns the most it can earn and live only within the means of the earnings on that money.

If possible, add to the principal with as much of the earnings as you can afford, so that the principal grows. But do your best not tap into it.

If you find any shortfalls, consider taking on some temporary work. Once the principal is gone, it’s gone.

The final tip is to stay out of debt as much as possible. The debt will drain your savings and your portfolio.

There are smart uses of debt if the result of using that debt brings in more money than the debt itself. But, most debt is something to avoid.

You want to keep your financial outlook stable.

JohnK 8-11-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Wealth is largely the result of habit”

~John Jacob Astor

A Few Words About Trusting Yourself

July 28, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

A Few Words About Trusting Yourself

Trusting yourself involves having confidence and faith in your decisions. These are decisions YOU make on your behalf AND toward others.

And you want to base those decisions on consideration for yourself and the other person.

It’s a personal choice to trust yourself, and GenuLines reminds you to make that decision on your own. But keep in mind that there will always be people who belittle your opinions.

They don’t respect your values or the decisions you make. It’s essential that you don’t allow these people to influence your resolve.

Trusting yourself means that you stand firm in your values. You follow through and your decisions reflect your integrity.

Be persistent in pursuing your goals and aspirations. And do it without letting the opinions of others distract you.

You have to be strong enough to block out all the external noise and believe in yourself.

Trust yourself to do and act in the way that’s best for you. It’s not selfish to put yourself first.

Back up your convictions with strong, decisive actions and consistent improvements. Base your moves on your values and principles and you’ll be better for it.

JohnK 7-28-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part

Does The Time of Day Affect Your Motivation?

July 14, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Does The Time of Day Affect Your Motivation?

Do you get more done in the morning? Or are you the type who likes to work during the mid-part of the day?

Then again are you one of the night owls who does their best work in the evening or night? I worked late nights and even overnights for many years, though I didn’t always have a say in the matter.

GenuLines looks at this in light of these crazy times that might influence your choices.

Is there an optimal time for your motivation or does it vary from day to day? People who claim to be morning people say they love that time because it is serene and gives them time to think.

During the early morning hours, say before 6:00 AM, the phones aren’t ringing. The rest of the household is asleep unless there’s another morning person in the house.

But hey, they get it too! They’ll leave each other alone.

Different Strokes

Others need the hustle and bustle to get motivated. These are high action types who like to get thrown into the situation.

They love solving the problems that arise and the challenges they face. These types are often at their best in the afternoon.

The night owls wait for people to go to bed then retreat to their sanctuary. It’s a long wind-down period for them, and in fact, many of them will fire up the coffee to make it last even longer.

These are usually the light sleepers who believe they can get by with only three or four hours of sleep.

Believe The Science?

None of this is scientific. Most of us think it’s natural to give our best at the time of day most comfortable for us.

But it seems like there’s something to it, science aside. Think about the people in your living space.

Which periods are best for them? Ask your co-workers which period they prefer.

How about the people who live in their homes?

Some companies offer flexible schedules. So, people will try to get the time slots that fit the time of day they enjoy.

They feel they can get the most done. This is why you’ll find people swapping with each other when they don’t get the preferred time.

Whether there’s statistical evidence to support this is not the point. Most people find the period that works best for them, and they tend to stick with that for a good part of their lives.

This is the one time when going outside your comfort zone may not be a good idea. If the time of day is right for you then go with it and don’t fight it.

JohnK 7-14-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation” ~A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

June 30, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

You want to change and control your behavior. This is a big part of personal growth and development.

Or you might want to learn more self-control.

You want to better manage your time, lose weight, or manage your money. You can do any of these things when you change your behavior in some way.

But changing your behavior is harder than most people think. which is why so many people have a hard time sticking to New Year’s resolutions. So, what’s the best way to learn to control your behavior?

Let’s take a closer look at all the things that influence your behavior.

What Controls Behavior?

We know certain things are bad for us or not in our best interest, but we keep doing them anyway.

There’s not a person among us who doesn’t know that getting enough exercise is important for our health. Yet we’re currently facing an obesity epidemic.

So, knowing what you need to do is not enough in itself to change our behavior.

A Goal

Having a goal is an important component to changing behavior. Without a goal, there’s no clear destination to work toward.

A goal provides you with motivation and a clear path forward. Having a goal makes your behavior more important to you and helps it clarifies what you want to achieve.

Goals should be realistic and attainable. And you should set a time frame for achieving them.

A Plan

Now that you have a destination, which is your goal, it’s time to develop a route, which is your plan. To get to where you want to be, you need to determine the precise steps you’ll take.

Your goals dictate your eventual, final behavior change. And your plan includes all the incremental changes you’ll put into your life to form a daily routine.

This is the game plan toward changing your behavior.

The Right Mindset

A realistic and specific goal and a plan for achieving it are both necessary for behavior change. But without the right mindset, you’re not likely to reach permanent change.

You have to believe that you can change your behavior. Know that you have the power and will to make this change that you believe to be important.

Controlling Your Emotions

Your emotions also play a significant role in your behavior. When you’re upset, depressed, or stressed, you can neglect the behaviors you know are good for you.

You’ll lean toward the ones that make you feel better. We use our behavioral choices to help overcome negative emotions.

Learn to identify and then control your emotions. This is essential for controlling your behavior.

Otherwise, you’ll find your best efforts at behavioral change sabotaged by negative emotions.

Putting it All Together

So, if you want to change your behavior long-term and enact real change in your life, here’s what you want to focus on. First, you need a decisive, realistic goal about what you want to change.

Then you need a plan for a gradual working toward this behavioral change.

You need to track and adjust your attitude and mindset about this new behavior. Be sure to keep your thinking positive and goal oriented.

Also pay attention to your emotional state.

Learn to handle emotions in a productive way. Don’t let them get in the way of your efforts

Combine these points and move closer to making lasting behavior changes.

JohnK 6-30-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior”

~Maxwell Maltz

You CAN Break Bad Habits

June 16, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

You CAN Break Bad Habits

Have you been trying to break a bad habit for a long time? You read about how to do it and give it a try.

But, time and again, you keep repeating the same bad habits.

Are you eating the wrong foods? Are you smoking and can’t seem to kick the habit.?

Before you start working on how to break your bad habits, GenuLines suggests you think back to how you started them.

What kind of mindset did you have at that point? Were you a teenager who wanted to fit in?

You could also be overeating because you’re stressed out about your job.

Once you’ve identified how your habits started, it’s time to determine how important they are in your life. The correct answer would be, “they’re not important.”

But, they are important, or you wouldn’t continue those habits.

Try to list why they’re important. In other words, why do you need to continue with your bad habits?

If you get to this point of clarity you’ve turned the corner on breaking the habit. The reasons are important but don’t dwell on them and beat yourself up.

You can’t do anything about the past. It’s best to move on and try to stop continuing the habits.

The Key to Change

Stop bad habits by replacing them them with good ones.

If you’re a smoker and you have a craving for a cigarette, go out for a jog. Jogging can work for bad diets as well by taking your mind off your cravings.

You can deal with poor eating habits by having accessible fruit and vegetables.. Ideally, you want to have these ready-to-eat, and place them right next to junk food.

Of course, getting rid of the junk food in the first place is a great way not to have it within reach.

The next step in breaking habits is to realign your mindset. You need to focus on what you’re gaining by not continuing the bad habit.

For instance, if you’re having a problem with alcohol, try to keep focused on the way you feel without alcohol. For most people, that’s better.

You can break bad habits. It does take some effort.

But, your life will change for the better, if you’re willing to put in the effort.

JohnK 6-16-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Don’t let your sins turn into bad habits”

~Saint Teresa of Avila

Article image by Artem Podrez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-burger-smiling-4728880/

Prioritizing Your Life 101

May 5, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Prioritizing Your Life 101

When living your life for obligations and commitments, it can be difficult to prioritize what is truly important. Without priorities, everything becomes essential and urgent, or nothing does.

Learning to prioritize is an essential life skill that you need to learn, regardless of your age or what you’ve already accomplished in life.

Without priorities, life becomes a series of reactions and aimless wandering. With a focus on what’s important, though, you can achieve your goals and live the life you want.

For active prioritization to help your life, GenuLines suggests envisioning what you want and where you want to go. Without a clear goal, it’s difficult to know how to get there.

Vision, therefore, becomes an essential first step to prioritizing.

A popular way of prioritizing your daily and weekly tasks is to rank each regarding urgency and importance. These are two separate qualities that are important to understand.

Urgency means how quickly it needs to get done, while importance is what is meaningful for your happiness.

Here’s how tasks might look using these categories:

• Important and urgent tasks are meaningful to you and have time constraints that require immediate action. These types of activities are often unexpected, which contributes to the urgency factor.

Without proper planning, though, lots of things can end up in this category.

• Not important but urgent tasks are usually the mundane tasks that keep life moving forward. Emails, meetings, and appointments that represent obligations end up here.

Having a lot in this category means your life may be running you instead of you running your life.

• Tasks that are not important or urgent are ones you can consider eliminating from your life. If your job or personal obligations fall primarily in this category, it may be time to reevaluate how you’re spending your time and what is important for you moving forward

• Not urgent but important tasks represent areas where you should be dedicating your time and prioritizing tasks best. These represent tasks that say you are in charge of your life and doing things that matter to you.

Being clear about your goals and values will help you spend more time in this last category and remove the clutter in your life that’s leading you astray from your goals.

And understanding how to categorize your activities can help you recognize how you are spending your time to determine if it is in your best interest.

Yes or No

Remember that everything you choose to say yes to in your life is a potential opportunity for you to say no to something else. Saying no to unnecessary obligations in your life gives you more time for those things that are important to you.

Saying yes to what matters means you are spending your time on things that are a real priority for you, not something else.

It’s important that your priorities are not just for your long-term goals but also for the day-to-day activities that drive our lives.

It can be hard to avoid distraction, but being clear about your priorities each and every day will help you achieve your dreams in the long run.

Reflect often on areas where your activities are not matching with your outlined priorities, and make adjustments to eliminate distractions in your life.

By choosing your priorities, you are designing your future, your vision for yourself. If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will do it for you, and that’s no way to control your life.

If you want to start living the life you want to achieve the goals you most want, make yourself and your tasks most important.

JohnK 5-5-2025

chiforyourself.com

stick man hears about prioritizing Overheard: “Action expresses priorities”

~Mahatma Gandhi

Taking Chances On Your New Career

April 21, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Taking Chances On Your New Career

When you were starting out, you might have believed you landed the right job. It seemed to match your goals, your interests—your idea of success.

But now, you’re starting to wonder if it was the right call.

You think about changing careers, and GenuLines knows that often means starting over. That’s a scary proposition.

Especially if you’ve been in a certain position for several years.

After all, you’re moving up the corporate ladder and earning a pretty decent salary. Starting over is sure to mean a cut in pay and that can be a negative for you and your family.

And there’s more to consider than the pay cut. It also means starting over as far as the pecking order or seniority you gained over the years.

But, I’m Too Old

Another factor for a career changer is age. Say you decide to switch in your forties or fifties.

You’ll have as little experience in your new career as someone starting out and younger.

It can be a tall challenge, but there are positives that you should consider too. The first is that money isn’t your only consideration.

Sometimes, getting out of a bad situation is enough to overcome a smaller paycheck.

You can make extra income, either by selling online or doing work for others. And It’s not necessary to work at a physical location to earn some cash.

If your new career is completely new for you it can be exciting as well as scary.

Think back to when you started your original career. Any new achievement made you feel like you could rule the world.

If you don’t have experience, remind yourself that you do have work and life experience to bring to the table. If you have any management experience that can carry over, too.

And you know how to handle adverse situations better than your younger colleagues.

Staying in a career that you’re tired of can make you bitter and take years off your life. While you think about switching, remember others have done it and they’ve made it work.

JohnK 4-21-2025
www.chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “It’s not too late to be what you might have been”

~George Eliot

Article image by JONATHAN PAGAOA: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-a-pair-of-dice-on-the-black-background-14997903/

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

April 7, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

Big Goals. Large visions for your life.

Any major success you move toward. It’s no doubt going to take a lot longer than you think.

It’s part of life.

You get a good idea about something you want to be, do or have. And the idea captures your mind and emotions.

The honeymoon phase is awesome.

You daydream and brainstorm your exciting new idea and its world of possibilities. You’re energized and GenuLines is ready to help you take on the world.

But if you’re new to all this keep in mind that you have some work ahead of you. Scaling a mountain isn’t quick and easy.

Looks Are Deceiving

Sure, from a distance, the mountain may not look that big. It looks like pretty smooth terrain and a manageable grade when you stare at it from a distance.

So you sprint to your starting point.

That’s when the work begins. And reality starts to sink in.

MOST people don’t make it far enough up the mountain to put skin in the game.

They quit early enough that the pain of investment isn’t harsh enough. The sting of quitting isn’t harsh enough.

But if this goal is something that you REALLY want then your first step is the “investment phase”.

You have to put in enough effort to reach a point where quitting would be more painful than continuing.

Once you reach this point, you gain a whole new perspective. The struggle doesn’t go away, but it takes on a new form.

You find a sort of peace and “sense of knowing” during your struggle.

You know you’ll make it to your goal though you don’t know how long it’ll take. But it almost doesn’t matter because you no longer count the cost.

You’re only focused on the path.

This is an easy metaphor to understand. But it applies to anything in life.

Make it a point to nurture your dreams. Have big visions and give yourself permission to dream even bigger.

Then, make CERTAIN you stay with it. Get to the point where turning around is no longer an option.

Even though it’ll likely take far longer than you think to reach your peak.

JohnK. 4-7-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”

~Robert Collier

Article image by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yelling-formal-man-watching-news-on-laptop-3760778/

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Chi For Yourself

Raising Consciousness..Living Genuinely!

Archive for John

3 Benefits of Taking Risks In Your Life

Unexpected Opportunities

Building Self-Assurance

Personal Growth

Share this:

Unlock the Power of Solitude And Own Your Alone Time

Keep a List of Activities

Start New Hobbies and Activities

Aim For a Gradual Increase In Alone Time

Share this:

Change Your Money Views With a Money Mindset

Share this:

A Few Words About Trusting Yourself

Share this:

Does The Time of Day Affect Your Motivation?

Different Strokes

Believe The Science?

Share this:

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

What Controls Behavior?

A Goal

A Plan

The Right Mindset

Controlling Your Emotions

Putting it All Together

Share this:

You CAN Break Bad Habits

The Key to Change

Share this:

Prioritizing Your Life 101

Here’s how tasks might look using these categories:

Yes or No

Share this:

Taking Chances On Your New Career

But, I’m Too Old

Share this:

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

Looks Are Deceiving

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