Living With Purpose

Tag Archive for Living With Purpose

5 Steps To Living Your Purpose

October 30, 2023 John Uncategorized No comments

You’ve nurtured your purpose for a long time. But you’re not sure if you’re really living it.

Let GenuLines help you take the guesswork out of this puzzle.

5 Steps To Living Your Purpose

You’re working hard to achieve your dream life. It could be that you’re aiming for a promotion at work.

Or you’re trying to get your business off the ground. If you’re finding success a bit of a struggle you may need to find your life’s purpose.

Finding your purpose is like finding a magic key. The key helps you align everything you do and focus on getting to your best life now.

Here are five steps to help set you in the right direction.

Look Within

Too many people look to others for the answers. Too many people follow a path that’s not theirs.

Only you can know what your dream life looks like. The answer to your life’s purpose lies deep within you.

You have to tune into it.

Journaling can be a helpful tool to allow your subconscious to speak your truth. Or meditation, or brainstorming.

The important thing is that you look into your own heart.

Trust Your Intuition

Learning to trust that inner voice that tells you that the conventional way of doing things isn’t right for you.

Whether it’s a college degree or a selling technique:

If it doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to do it!

Find your own way of living your life, and you’ll be much more likely to feel content and to be successful.

Get Friendly With Fear

Many people choose to live safe, conventional lives. They’re too afraid to do things in a different way or to take a chance.

Fear of the unknown is understandable. But you can choose to face your fears and to meet challenges head-on.

Deciding to live your own life according to your values and your passion means many things. One of them is being able to look fear in the face and step out of your comfort zone.

Don’t Be Bound by Your To-do List

It’s easy to become a slave to the never-ending checklist of things you need to do before you can live your purpose. You only get one shot at life.

Have a look at your current list of tasks. How many of them will move you closer to living your best life?

How many can you delete or delegate to someone else?

Know That You Already Have What You Need

One of the most important things to know is that you don’t need expensive courses or workshops, or the right suit or car.

You already have everything you need to start living your life’s purpose.

It’s all within you. What matters is what you do with it.

And today is the best time to start!

JohnK. 10-30-2023
chiforyourself,com

Overheard: “The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere”

~Michel de Montaigne

5 Signs You’re Living A Meaningful Life

May 1, 2023 John Uncategorized No comments

Living life is something we all do. But we don’t all live it in a meaningful way.

Life does leave clues, and GenuLines is on the case to show you if you fit the description..

5 Signs You’re Living A Meaningful Life

Have you been feeling restless with your place in life? Do you feel as if you’re wasting your life?

These are common signs that you’re feeling the need to live a more meaningful life. You may be doing this already but you have no idea that you are.

Today, GenuLines explores the five signs that you’re living a meaningful life. Let’s begin.

1) You’re doing what you love

Too many people ignore their passions. Your passion is your passion for a reason.

Follow and explore if you MUST do what you’re doing

2) You have your priorities in order

Living with purpose keeps your priorities in order; you know what’s important. You’re living in a meaningful life “sweet spot.”

And you’re spending less time doing unhelpful, unproductive, or unimportant things.

3) You know your purpose

This one tends to apply to far fewer people. Many don’t know or at least don’t think they know what their life’s purpose is.

4) You’re focused and driven

People who live meaningful lives and live them with purpose are in this category. They toughed out all the trials and temptations. and they’re living their lives with purpose and in a meaningful way.

5) You aspire to daily goals

This doesn’t cover everyone who lives with purpose. You may have more long-term goals in mind, but it’s a good way to start and a pretty common one at that.

Reaching daily goals makes you more driven to push on. Setting daily goals is a good start to training your body and brain.

You get used to working towards goals and achieving them.

This beats setting them and hoping for the best. If you want to see if you’re living a meaningful life, treat this article like a checklist.

Check off the things that already apply to you and see how close to living a meaningful life you are.

Where might you be able to improve? What new habit could you form to make you feel more confident that you’re living a meaningful life?

The intention today was to help you gain some perspective on your purpose and your life’s path. All the best on your journey!

JohnK 5-1-2023

chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present”

~Roy T. Bennett

What Kind of Mindset Do You Have?

October 19, 2020 John Uncategorized No comments

Your mindset can take you to great heights. Or, it can keep you mired in the depths.

Today GenuLines steers you around the negative mindsets and on the path to genuine living.

(You can listen to this article by clicking on here)

What Kind of Mindset Do You Have?

Your mindset is what compels you to take a certain action or leads you back off from acting on something. It influences how you see yourself and those around you.

Different types of mindsets can mean different things to each of us. And they can say a lot about how and why you think like you do.

Each has benefits and drawbacks.

A numbers game

The number of mindsets that exist is dependent on how much you generalize them. Finding your type is key to understanding how you operate in every area of your life.

There are two main types of mindsets, Fixed and Growth. Each has benefits and downsides.

If you have a fixed mindset, you tend to believe your skills or qualities are set and you resist changing them. These include your intelligence level, and your personality or character.

This can cause you to limit yourself and focus on proving yourself to others.

Some of the sub-mindsets of a fixed mindset include these tendencies:

· Fear

· Laziness

· Envy

· Greed

· Short-term thinking

· Anger

· Tendency to follow

Characteristics include:

1. Blaming others for things that are wrong

2. Lazy habits

3. Relying on addictions

4. Insatiable and always want more

5. Self-absorbed, with little thought of others

6. Limited initiative to achieve

7. Obsessed with what others are, do or say

8. Waste time

9. Come across in a negative way

With a growth mindset, you tend to believe in a basic set of qualities. You feel you can cultivate and develop them through effort, strategy, and help from others.

Some of the sub-mindsets of a growth mindset include:

· Social

· Business

· Dreamer

· Gratitude

· Confident

· Creative

Characteristics include:

· Willing to help others

· Solve problems

· Think big and know what you want

· Feel gratitude for what you have

· Eager to learn

· Dedication to achieve and grow

· Able to change and develop skills

· Embrace challenges

· Learn from failures

What type of mindset is the basis of your thoughts and actions? Do you believe that this is how you are and can’t change?

Do you believe you can change, and things can be different for you? The good news is you can change your mindset to one of growth and abundance.

JohnK 10-19-2020

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance”

~Samuel Johnson

Can Vision Boards Help You Believe in Yourself?

July 23, 2019 John Uncategorized No comments

It’s called a vision board. Its purpose is to reinforce some message about yourself or your goals.

But, does it really work?

Today GenuLines looks at the question from both sides.

Can Vision Boards Help You Believe in Yourself?

While “vision board” is not an official definition, it should serve to give you the concept in a nutshell. Are vision boards an effective tool towards helping your self-development?

First, we look at how they work. In general, you place information and pictures on your vision board.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

These represent various aspects of your life. They can be personal, professional, or both.

You could have separate vision boards for personal and professional purposes as well.

Vision board pros and cons

One of the most significant benefits of a vision board is you can refer to it whenever you need inspiration. Or if an aspect of your life changes in some way.

You can update the board to reflect those changes.

Another pro (but possibly also a con) is that you can put whatever you want on a vision board. That’s great, but if it doesn’t help you with your goals, it may not be as beneficial to have it on the board.

In fact, it could hinder your progress since it takes up prime real estate on your board.

Remember that nothing is set in stone on your board. If you find something on it that isn’t working, take it down.

Vision boards are not for everyone

Some people find them to be a waste of time. They spend lots of time finding items to place on the boards and then never refer to them again.

It’s time that could be better spent elsewhere.

One use of vision boards is to place accomplishments on them. It’s easy to forget about events that happened earlier in our lives.

Keeping spots on the vision board dedicated to them will serve as reminders.

Don’t believe that you’ve forgotten about your accomplishments? Think back to what you accomplished in high school and college.

Or when you started your first job.

Having a handy reminder of your accomplishments boosts your self-belief. Each accomplishment will help you remember what you went through to get it.

This can help move you toward future accomplishments.

There are no right or wrong answers when creating a vision board. It just needs to work for you.

If it doesn’t, you should figure out why and adjust as you see fit.

JohnK 7-23-2019

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: “Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements”

~Napoleon Hill

Appreciate the Small Things And Find Contentment

July 16, 2019 John Uncategorized No comments

You’re intent on finding happiness, but what about contentment? You hear about appreciating the small stuff and feeling happy.

Today GenuLines asks you to turn your aim from happiness to contentment.

Appreciate the Small Things And Find Contentment

Most emotions are transitional, meaning you’re never in one state for long periods. People labeled upbeat actually do have moments of sadness or depression.

And even depressed people may not feel depressed all the time.

Think about a major event such as a war. When two countries are fighting, both sides lose lives.

It’s bloody, and it can last for several years. But, when the war is over, the countries are euphoric.

There will be no more bloodshed because of the war, and people can return to their lives.

But nothing that has changed in the world except that the war has ended. In other words, the sun still sets each day.

People still have to manage their lives.

The euphoria from the war ending doesn’t last long. Months later, the war is still over, but the euphoria has died down.

The same is true in a smaller way when you’re ill. For instance, suppose you have a stomach bug that leaves you uncomfortable and in pain.

When the bug passes you feel wonderful.

Yet, you don’t feel any better than you did when you weren’t experiencing the bug. It’s relative to the bad feelings.

That’s how emotional states work. They go from one to the other on a constant basis.

Appreciating the small things in life may lead to happiness. But, it’s likely you’re content more than you are happy.

Contentment can feel like a neutral state, leaning on the side of happy. There isn’t anything wrong when you’re content.

But, there’s also nothing ratcheting up your happiness.

Consider contentment before happiness

Striving for happiness can be stressful. The antidote? Gratitude. You’ll feel content without having to always push toward happiness.

Time spent in contentment means you’re doing something right.

Think about the people you love. And think about all you have, such as your health and a good job.

Imagine life without them and you’ll really appreciate contentment. That thought may even make you happy, if only for a short time.

JohnK 7-16-2019

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: “A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment”

~Proverb

Teaching Kids to Deal with Adversity

June 4, 2019 John Uncategorized No comments

Parents want to shelter their kids from adversity as much as possible. They see the world as dangerous, and going into protection mode is understandable.

But kids need to learn how to deal with adversity. Sheltering them can prevent this from happening.

Below are some GenuLines suggestions for showing kids the way through adversity.

Teaching Kids to Deal with Adversity

Can you teach kids about the difficulties ahead of them? It’s a delicate balance between knowing what to tell them and what to keep from them.

After all, many societies use movie rating systems to limit certain children’s viewing.

But they learn a lot from older siblings. And they learn from classmates in school (who also have older siblings).

They also take cues from parents who let profanities slip out, as hard as they try not to.

ids know more than we give them credit for, and they can handle much more than we want to believe. They watch the news and see stories of violence, terrorism, and other horrific events.

Even if you keep them from watching, they hear about the events in school. There is simply no way around it.

When kids know they can talk to their parents, they can handle most situations. It’s better to learn from the source, i.e., parents, rather than from outside sources such as friends.

Chances are the information from friends is not reliable. That’s one reason kids tell outrageous stories when they get home from school.

To help kids deal with adversity, be sure the set the stage for their behavior. If you lose it during your own challenges you can be certain they’ll do the same.

Stay as calm as possible and look for solutions. The kids will take your lead on this behavior as well.

Kids should also learn to help others at an early age. This way, they won’t be afraid to rely on others when they need help.

When they get older, they may be willing to reach out to friends or family members. Of course, they should try to take care of certain situations on their own before reaching out.

Again, it’s a delicate balance and a learning process.

Every family situation is different. Each may call for different ways of handling them.

The variety makes a step-by-step process tough if even possible. Early exposure to life’s situations is key.

This will pay dividends for them when they’re adults.

JohnK 6-4-2019

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

~ Chinese Proverb

Complainers Can Learn to Appreciate Small Things

April 2, 2019 John Uncategorized No comments

Complainers complain. It’s what they do. Are you dealing with such a person? If you are, consider the points in this GenuLines post and apply them to your situation.

Complainers Can Learn to Appreciate Small Things

Do you know a chronic complainer? Someone who never seems to be happy about anything.

They find everything wrong with what others do. If there’s a new idea, they’ll knock it down.

They’re also the type of person who will interrupt others to make their point. They’ll do that because they know best.

But at some point, people start to ignore them. And they’re high on the list if cutbacks should ever hit the company, too.

Complainers have forgotten how to appreciate the small things in life.

They don’t realize that it’s difficult to get a new job and it takes much more time than it used to.

They don’t appreciate that they have a job.

Sometimes, chronic complaining can be a result of complacency. Since no one is listening to what the person says, it’s just easier to complain.

No company or situation is perfect, and sometimes it’s best when problems are out in the open. But there is a time and place for complaints and a correct way to air them.

If you have to complain offer up several solutions to the problem. That’s a productive use of complaining energy.

Call it problem recognition with applicable solutions.

There’s a critical difference between you and a chronic complainer. You appreciate your job or your situation.

Help the complainer

If you want to help a chronic complainer, point out the problem using a subtle approach. Instead of telling the person they complain too much, show them how to be grateful for the little things in life.

Remind them that you feel appreciative of the fact you have a job, etc.

Relate a story- may be about how your last job search was difficult. It took you months, and it made you realize that jobs are not easy to find.

Also, talk about how you appreciate your home life and your family and what it means to you. That’s a subtle approach.

The person may start to understand there is much to appreciate in everyday life. You can show that complaining is ineffective and may lead to problems down the road.

Aim to get friends and colleagues to relate to the same gratitude for work and family.

The chronic complainer may start to see it pays to be appreciative.

JohnK 4-2-2019

chiforyouself.com home

Overheard: “Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.”

~Proverb

Action Steps For When You Don’t Trust Yourself

March 12, 2019 John Uncategorized No comments

Many people don’t trust themselves for one reason or another. If you include yourself in this group ask yourself why.

Today GenuLines helps you break the issue down and begin to change. Once you discover the problem, you will be well on your way to learning how to trust yourself.

Action Steps For When You Don’t Trust Yourself

Start with your childhood. No, this doesn’t mean you have to spill your guts to a shrink while lying on a couch.

Those early years can give you some clues into why you don’t trust yourself. Could be your parents were distrustful of themselves.

Siblings or other relatives might play a part. The purpose isn’t to blame them.

Recognize that it happened and use it to move forward.

Not trusting others can be habitual. It isn’t too much of a stretch for that mode to extend to you.

Start putting trust in other people and they’ll likely appreciate you for it.

Are you an overly sensitive person? If so, this could cause you to be mistrustful of yourself.

A sensitive nature can cause you to take others’ remarks out of context.

It’s not wrong to be sensitive. You only have to realize that it can cause you to misread what others are saying or feeling.

When trust doesn’t work

Putting your trust in others is going to backfire sometimes. Some people aren’t trustworthy.

They may even put on a front that they are. You should accept this as a part of life, and try not to project experiences from a few onto other people.

Otherwise, you are going to continue to maintain your wall.

This wall will make it difficult for you to trust others as well as yourself.

Another reason for not trusting yourself is that others don’t trust you. If you are not trustworthy, how can you expect to trust yourself?

You may not even realize this is happening.

You may think you are doing right by others when in fact, you aren’t. Ask friends and family to assess whether you’re trustworthy.

That can be a hard pill to swallow, but you’ll get great insight. Try not to get upset if people tell you that you aren’t trustworthy.

It’s a learning experience.

JohnK 3-12-2019

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: ” Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow”

~Horace

Sending You Peace In The Season of Peace

December 25, 2017 John Uncategorized No comments

It’s the time of the year when the word “peace” makes its big appearance. We see it on greeting cards, on holiday wreaths, and in department store display windows.

CHI FOR YOURSELF has its own take on peace. This graphic pretty much says it all.

Enjoy the season!

Be well,

JohnK 12-25-2017

chiforyourself.com home page

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“Big Ups” For Big Love And Scott Stabile

December 18, 2017 John Uncategorized No comments

The CHI FOR YOURSELF interview with Scott Stabile offered us plenty of inspiration with a nice helping of humor. If you weren’t with us on the call you can hear the conversation by scrolling down the page to the audio player. Scott Stabile is the author of BIG LOVE: The Power of Living With a Wide-Open Heart.

Talking points from the show: