How to Accomplish Becoming the Courageous Joyful Person You Aspire to Be

Live your best life with 7 tips to build confidence, awareness, and fulfillment.

I shied away from living my best life for many years. I self-sabotaged and played small. Having children of my own made me start to realize my own voice and self-worth, but sadly that was only the beginning of my journey to finding and stepping into my own self-worth. Now I play my edge, take chances, and live the life I truly love. I know I am not alone on this journey of self-discovery. Liberty Forrest, Author is quite an inspiration to me, along with many other writers here on Medium. It is so important to just continue to live, laugh, love, and learn all along the journey, surrounding myself with those who support and inspire me, and forgive myself for the mistakes I make along the way. It is never too late to start where you are and create the life you love.

Nothing traumatic happened in my childhood contrary to what you may be assuming at this point in my story. I grew up in a very loving supportive home. However, I was the baby in the family, and I now have grown to learn that I was never taught to make my own decisions or think for myself. So, I did not find my own voice until late in life. I learned from a young age to simply do what I was told and follow suit. There was seemingly nothing wrong with this, however, I did not learn to become my authentic self until my mid-thirties. Instead, I was stuck going through the motions and I feel many people are in that same predicament whether they realize it on a conscious level or not.

It was not until I began my yoga teacher training that I truly started my journey inward, showed up in my own life, and found my voice. It was an incredibly empowering feeling. It also was scary. I lost some friends and relationships shifted, including my marriage, which eventually ended in divorce.

You can read a few of my stories here that help provide a bit of background and further insight into the story of my life and how I became the person I am today. I run my own coaching business empowering and inspiring others, a model for jewelry, clothing, and hat companies globally, and speak on topics such as emotional intelligence, relationships, and personal development. I would not be where I am today if it were not for finally leveling up, breaking free from the bondage of fear, and finally living authentically.

Now back to the tips I promised you and why they have influenced my life. I am thrilled to have broken free from my self-sabotaging ways and I am now coaching others and empowering them to live their best life. There is nothing gimmicky about this. Take or leave what works for you. It is a simple formula, the trick is to put it into action.

Live your Best Life with these 7 Tips to Build Confidence, Awareness, and Fulfillment:

1. Create a vision. How can you get where you want to go if you don’t know where you want to go in the first place? Your vision is like your roadmap. Be very precise with details. See yourself as if you have already accomplished all that you desire. What will that look like to you? How will it feel? Who surrounds you? What will your wear? What will you drive? Now that you can envision it, write it down. Then revisit it often.
2. Observe free from judgment. Build present moment awareness. Take notice of how you feel. Allow each emotion to flow freely through you without judging, simply allow it. Notice how you feel around others as well as how you make others feel. Notice who inspires you and who drains your energy.
3. Practice self-acceptance and acceptance of others. This sometimes requires a deep level of honesty and forgiveness. You cannot forgive until you are truly ready, and you only have to tell yourself you forgive whomever you need to forgive. Holding grudges will only hurt you in the end and in many cases can cause physiological harm if we do not learn to let it go.
4. Practice Self-care and prioritize commitments to allow time for rest. This was a difficult task for me, especially with young children. Sometimes busy is overly glorified, but we cannot fill from an empty cup. When I took time to analyze what worked and didn’t work and what might be more efficient, then I learned how to delegate tasks and have my family members help me out more. I learned not to procrastinate on the most important tasks and what I needed to crank out first so as not to create added stress for myself. Then I could take time to do little things like practice yoga or enjoy a long bubble bath that brought me enjoyment so that I had more patience when caring for my children.
5. Journal. Writing my desires, my feelings, a list of needs, a list of strengths, sometimes I journal what I am grateful for. Sometimes I will write a mantra that I need to hear that day to create extra confidence. Writing is a wonderful way to rewire our subconscious minds. Napoleon Hill encouraged a technique called Autosuggestion which was to visualize your desire than to write it down with deep conviction of it coming true. He believed that the brain could not differentiate between the thought of it happening and the reality of the visualization. By changing our thinking process we can literally change our outcomes. Journaling, practicing positive affirmations and Autosuggestion are all very positive practices.
6. Face Your Fears. The truth is fear is natural for most people who live trapped in an ego predominant world. However, when I learned to rise up into a more soul-based world where ego is still present, but love dominates everything shifted. I found spirituality through yoga. It is a little different for everyone. Some people find it through volunteerism, some through religion. Others find it through a traumatic awakening. But when I ascended into a soul level, I wanted to serve others over myself, I yearned to learn more about myself, especially my flaws where my ego wanted to hide all those terrible things. I am drawn and motivated by love I am no longer restrained by fear. I now have the courage to try new things even if that means failing a few times in the process. The only way to grow is to keep trying and to learn through the process.
7. Strive for a baseline of contentment. I realize by sheer law of energy that anything that goes up must come down. So, it is impossible to stay on cloud 9 or complete ecstasy or a state of happiness all the time. Just as no one wants to feel contempt, grief, or loneliness all the time. Contentment is a wonderful emotion that is easy to maintain and if you think of a seesaw as an emotional scale as soon as you feel yourself tipping in one direction try to re-adjust to level the seesaw back to contentment so that you are in an even temperament. This way I do not expend a lot of energy trying to level my emotions. If I get triggered by a negative thought I self-soothe to get back to my state of contentment or at least closer to it by listening to music, going outside, practicing breathing techniques or getting on my yoga mat. Please know what techniques work to bring you back to your state of contentment. And remember, this is an inside job — no one else is responsible for your emotional state of mind.

“If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance.” ~ Napoleon Hill

In Conclusion:

The following tips will help you set long and short-term goals to achieve all that you desire.

• Vision
• Observation
• Practice Self-Care and Prioritize Time
• Acceptance
• Journaling, Auto-Suggestion, and Positive Thinking
• Facing Fears Head On
• Striving for a Baseline of Contentment

I hope these tips help build your confidence, awareness, and fulfillment as they did mine. We are not meant to merely survive this world, but instead to thrive. Make a commitment to yourself. It is small changes each day that add up to great results. The key to success is sustained action and consistency. Believe in yourself and know that you are worthy of all that you desire. Get excited and feel the momentum build. Go kick ass in 2022. Support your friends and family and you will be supported in return. Live from a place of soul over ego and love over fear.

I would like to give a shoutout to my friend for this recent gem by Liberty Forrest, Author that talks about the importance of forgiveness and letting go which I deeply believe in. I hope you also find it inspiring and helpful.

Thank you so much for giving your precious time to read this. I value and appreciate you. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Please subscribe to my email so that we can stay in touch.