Lean Into Your Faith

Have you ever taken the time to assess why we completely throw conscience to the wind before deciding to let doubt and negative thinking prevail? Is it possibly the result of a preliminary decision to allow your fear to rule instead of faith? I say, it’s worth investigating.

It’s not uncommon that the moment something new or ambitious presents itself there is that immediate feeling or thought: it’s either going to support navigating your faith or your fear. There is no way around it; faith and fear just don’t coincide. When this happens, instead of immediately making a running list of all the cons first, my suggestion would be to start with the pros. This sets a barrier that will start with positive thinking and will support our ability to lean into our faith.

By the time you've decided to approach this idea with an open mind, it’s amazing how all the potential benefits have an opportunity to surface. This gives way to you being able to see the viability of seeing the manifestation of this thing. Certainly, this doesn’t always mean that just because you lean into something with a mindset of faith, that there aren’t times when something just isn’t the right thing for you…but at least you gave the necessary time to access it.

No matter how often we might say to ourselves that we will not allow fear to run our decision-making, there are times when it will still try to creep in. If you have learned to make it a habit to live in fear — making it a way of life — you find these times becoming less and less.

Life can certainly test whether faith or fear wins. If you find yourself having to reprogram leaning into your fear first, just know, with time and intentionality this can be reversed. Faith will take you places, that fear only seeks to stifle.

The Purpose Driven Way

They say some of the happiest people on Earth are those living for their purpose. To say this, it seems that finding one or two clearly defined things is the end goal. I believe living a purpose driven life isn’t just about the fulfillment in a career path or spiritual journey. I think it’s more.

That more is in everything that a person endeavors to do, be and achieve. It’s a way of life. Taking an intentional and thoughtful approach to how you make every day count starts, I believe, with your frame of mind. When you align this with your heart, there is a powerful energy that resonates that helps you show up more present in the world.

Many times this translates into how you’re able to connect with the people around you and even strangers. You are able to appreciate nature more; the song of a bird, the beauty of a butterfly and even the strength in a tree. Making the connection between how you see these observations and the way you show up can oftentimes cause us to lean into evaluating our own purpose.

This purpose doesn’t have to be the exception to the impact we make in meaningful ways but instead inclusive of how we navigate purposefully in every area of our lives. The end result…the most rewarding experiences that you benefit from and those around you.

Patience May Be the Best Time Saver

The hustle and bustle of our daily lives can sometimes contribute to us not readily demonstrating patience as we should. Whether it’s feeling the need to make a decision hastily, engaging in a response before we’ve fully formulated our thoughts or agreeing to do something before we’ve fully calculated the cost. If patience was implemented, you’re more likely to have a better outcome and more likely to save more time in the end.

I can’t think of the number of times during my hectic days that I’ll feel an initial urge to get a task out the way, only to realize it was best that I had been patient and given it a little more thought. Certainly, it’s great to be able to knock things off our to-do list, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of giving it the dedicated time and attention it really requires.

Similar to this is the times where we may be irritated, anxious, upset or even mad and we find ourselves responding to these feelings. Instead, give some time to calmly reflect and determine how you truly are feeling. Oftentimes when you let some time pass you can communicate better how you really feel. If there was the chance it was a misunderstanding on your part or someone else’s, this can be flushed out better, leaving less chances for more offenses to take place.

Patience also plays a role in the time and consideration to whether we have the bandwidth or capacity to do something. Understanding that giving yourself an opportunity to evaluate what is required and whether you can handle it, is very important. Taking on things that you haven’t given the proper consideration to is not likely to yield the best results.

It’s certainly understandable why we want to respond quickly, make decisions on the fly and even have a resounding“yes” when people ask us to do something. It’s my belief that it’s actually better to give a bit of patience and thoughtful assessment of the decision, feeling and capacity you have to do something. You’ll find that implementing this will be more beneficial in the long run.