What kind of person do you want to be?

 I have often asked myself this question. 

What kind of person do I want to be? At times in my life, I don't think I lived up to who I wanted to be. I went along with my friends, or I allowed the world to tell me what to think. As I grew older and started to investigate things for myself, I started to become more of who I wanted to be. I think we all go through this kind of journey. It is how we grow up and become who we are meant to be. As we grow, I think we change a little every ten years. 

  The experiences we have in life also can change us for the good or worst. It is our choice how we allow circumstances to change us. We can regret mistakes and close our self-off to learning more. We can learn from our mistakes and discover ways that it can make us better. I have done both lol! But I keep coming back to that same person that I always was just a little wiser every year. I just turned 42 and still have a long life ahead of me even though I might be halfway through it lol! I don't know exactly where life will take me, but I know that I will keep growing into the person that I want to be. I am not going to just wait for life to happen to me anymore. 

  I want to make life happen for me. Do the best that I can with what I have right now! And never stop improving on things and making my life better. Every day is an opportunity to change something about your life. I see a post today and the women said to make three goals for the day and do it. I think this is a good idea and can bring us closer to our bigger goals in life. 

  For me every day my three goals are the same and I do pretty well at accomplishing them. I am not perfect but every day that I practice being the person that I want to be. I get closer every day to my bigger goals. Just got to improve a little every day. 

  What kind of person do I want to be? I want to make my own choices, I want to create an income from home helping others, I want to achieve my health goals, and most important I want to be happy. In the past I spent too much time eating like crap and being unhappy. Not anymore! I had to nearly lose everything to get this. Sure, some days I get angry because I wish some things were different, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. I had to learn, and I keep reminding myself of that. Then just do what I can and don't worry about the things I can't control.

  Anyway, that is my 15 minutes today and a short post. These are my thoughts for the day. I hope that it can be an encouragement for you. I know it is for me and a reminder to keep moving forward. Life is what we make it, so let's make it a good one!

By Joanne Utke

What do you think? 

Are you the person that you want to be? 

 Let me know in the comments.

Thank you! 

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Master your day to live your best life!

 Master your day to live your best life now! 

        I have found that it is often difficult to even master the day, let alone the week or month. This can be really discouraging but it is all a matter of planning and discipline. I touched on this a bit in the last post about living your best life. Having a plan is key to mastering your day so that you are ready to face the next one. Discipline is really the key here! A good plan is only has good as the discipline to carry it out. When it comes to discipline, practice makes perfect, 

First you got to believe that you are worth it! You deserve to be more in control of your day and your life. Every day when you wake up say "I deserve the changes that I am making" or "I deserve to live my best life."  What ever it is, being positive and saying empowering things to yourself is a great start. You can't wait around waiting for people to cheer you on. You need to be your own cheerleader! This is something that I have learned in my life, if you don't take yourself seriously, no one will. 

Focus on what you can control first hand! You have more control over your life than you think. When you wake up put on your shoes and get dressed. Don't go straight to your phone! Spend time having a morning routine to freshen up and set the stage for the day.  I know from experience on the days when I stayed in my pajamas and slippers, I was lazy most of the day. Likewise when I get up, get dressed, freshen up, and put on my shoes, I am ready for the day. Bottom line is you need a good morning routine that gets you ready for the day. 

I mentioned in my earlier post about having a plan that way there are no surprises. You take the guessing out and know exactly what you need to do. I do well when I get up, and get started. I usually have the most energy in the first part of the day. So that is when I do my food prep for the day if I need to. I like to plan what it is I am cooking for my family this evening. For me the morning is a great time to prepare my salad and my dressing that way my meal is done before any one else's is. I fast for the first part of the day. That helps me because my morning is not wasted on eating a meal. It allows me to have more time in the morning for a good morning routine. It is also part of my healing plan so a win, win! 

Then around 12 noon every day I make smoothies for myself and my husband. This is easy and my first meal of the day. This frees up a lot of my time and fruit makes an excellent first meal. The point is it's my plan and it takes out all of the guess work. As well as gives me lots of time to get other things done. Every day we take my son for a good walk, that is a priority, and part of the plan for the day. And I set aside some time to get on the computer and do my online stuff. My point is make a list of your must do's actives and DO THEM! Yes it is going to take some discipline but this is how you master your day. 

I am not saying that I am perfect at this but these are all ways that I have learned to master my day. I am sure you do all of this already every day. You at least know how things go when you don't lol! I have learned a lot from my failures as well as my successes. I have already covered my top three practical ways to live your best life now in the past post. I don't want this post to be too much like that one. But these are just simple things you can practice daily to master your day and live your best life now!

More practical ways of Living Your Best Life NOW! 

4. Use your time wisely

Both successful and unsuccessful people alike have only 24 hours in the day. The difference is the successful people use their 24 hours more wisely than the unsuccessful people. There is certainly nothing wrong with relaxing and doing nothing for awhile. We need that time too! But we need to learn how to manage time wisely. For example I can't stand to watch movies during the week. Just takes so much time that I could be using for writing for my blog or planning my next day. Use your time during the week in a way that fosters success and allows you to get everything done that you need. I personally like to save any entertainment for the end if the day when I'm ready to relax. Relaxation and entertainment makes a good rewards for a productive day. Getting healthy and staying that way is a full time job in it's self. And you have to work on your business, take care of your family, run arands and sleep at night. There's no time to aimlessly scroll down social media or watching hours of television. Ask yourself if there are any unhealthy habits and activities that you can cut out in the name of more time and a better life? Set a standard for yourself and follow through. That's discipline! 

5. Keep educating yourself

Read something on time management to enrich your knowledge on the subject. The more you know, the better choices you can make. Watch YouTube videos, follow people on LinkedIn that know what you want to know. Also the best way to learn is too teach! That is why I suggest starting a blog or write articles on LinkedIn. Choose topics that interest you. Study it, talk about it and write about it. You will become even more knowledgeable about the subject. 

6. Write it all down! 

I mentioned this before but keeping a journal can serve as an important tool of success. Everything from meal planning, task organization, daily journaling, favorite quotes, blog ideas, book titles, I could go on. You get my point! Writing it down is a great way to remind yourself of what needs to be done. It also is a tool that can help keep you on track. Or take a step back to see where you need improvement. Like keeping a food journal so you can step back and see where you need to be making changes. 

Anyway these are all things that I do. I am a big believer in getting better every day. Always improving on things. As long as we do this we can be at peace knowing we are on the right track that leads to personal greatness! 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read it. I pray this was a reminder to you and help along your life journey. 

By Joanne Utke

Thank you! 

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What does it mean to live your best life now?

     If you see this in LinkedIn or seen my first entry, in the 15 minute a day writing challenge, you know that my motto is LIVING MY BEST LIFE NOW, or BEST LIFE NOW! I created this to remind myself that life is too short for stress, anger, resentment and just being unhappy! In this post I wanted to explain what "BEST LIFE NOW" means to me. Maybe it can inspire you to live life more in the now rather than in the past, like so many of us seem to do. I've been heard saying "the past is gone, the future doesn't exist yet, all we have is right now!" 

     In the catholic tradition we have a prayer called The Hail Mary, which I love. This prayer has given me much comfort throughout my life. In this prayer we say, "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." We say "NOW" because that is the first most important time of our lives. The choices and decisions we make now will affect our tomorrow! The only way to change the future is to make those necessary changes right now. We are reminded to ask God for that guidance, willfulness and diligence in making the right choices, now. We say "death" because that is the second most important time if our life when we look back on our life, judge our self and go on to our eternal reward or punishment. 

    But what do I mean by Living your best life NOW? I mean not waiting to make those necessary changes in your life. Often, we wait until you "feel" like it. It's about not waiting until tomorrow to make your life what you want. Have you ever fell into the Monday complex? I have for sure that's how I know about it. You know you got to lose weight or start eating healthy. Here's the scenario, it's Friday but you say, "I will start on Monday." And then on Wednesday you realize that you didn't eat as healthy as you know you should have. So, you tell yourself, "I'll start on Monday." Before you know it the month, or year is over, and you are no closer to your goals than you were on the first Monday you said you would change. 

    This is a never-ending cycle of what I call the Monday complex! We will do ourselves well to get out of that way of thinking. The important changes that we need to make life better are just too important to wait, we need to do it now! This doesn't mean that the results will happen instantly or that it won't take time to get where we want to be in life. It just means we start now, not tomorrow! We don't procrastinate on a better quality of life or making those business calls that you need to make. 

    This is a cycle that we could avoid if we just LIVED OUR BEST LIFE NOW! Sometimes on YouTube I listen to a lady entrepreneur names Mel Robbins and she is big on not waiting until you feel like it and just doing what you need to do now.  She says, "you're never going to feel like it!" This is true you will never feel like exercising or eating a salad instead of tacos. No one wants to do the work that it takes to have the best life possible. We just want it now without the work but that is not what I am talking about. Sure, it would be great if we could snap our fingers and the work is done. But not how it works in the real world. 

     Life is what we make it, no one else! We need to begin the work now; we need to make better choices now and not wait for Monday to feel like it. This is what I think about all the time, so I decided to dedicate this post to it. We don't even know if tomorrow will come so why not live our best life NOW? And live life to the fullest and have the best quality of life we can. We don't have time for stress, anger, resentment, and being unhappy. I always tell my kids that if you want to be happy, be happy! Happiness is a choice that we make right now no matter what life throws at us! If you think life has to be perfect until you can be happy, you will never be happy. I am not saying to be happy about the horrible things happening in your life or the world. I am saying to find peace and happiness in spite of that stuff.

    That is a choice I had to personally make for myself. I realized that I spent way too much of my life being unhappy and not seeing the good in what was happening in my life. I chose to be happy in spite of it and my life has been much better for it. I still have a lot to work on but these days I want to make my life my best life, and I don't want to wait for it. I touched on this in my previous challenge post. I am 42 this month and if I die at 82, I'm already halfway through my life, and most people don't get that much time so what am I waiting for? I want to make my next 40, 50, 60 years my best ones! I would never want any different for anyone else. Let's LIVE OUR BEST LIFE NOW! 

    Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you are taking the 15 minutes a day writing challenge. You can start a blog or just crab a pen and paper. Get your thoughts down, at the very least it will be something to leave the kids. Maybe it can help someone think a little differently. It can certainly help you stay gowned and on track with your goals. It is not good to keep it all inside. Comment below to tell me what you think. As always God bless! 

By Joanne Utke

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