I give myself permission to succeed

There are some great thoughts/sayings that I will always remember.

"Success is living in joy and following your dreams"

If you pursue what you want, and you appreciate and love life, you are a successful person. Whether that be becoming a multi-millionaire CEO, striving to become a famous musician, opening your own restaurant and building it into an icon in your neighbourhood, or aiming to one day write columns for The Times. We all have dreams and the fact they exist means they are possible to reach.

"Failures only occur if we consent to them. Success only happens if we participate in it."

I'm listening to a Pat Mesiti workshop, "The Purpose Of Prosperity" where he says the above line. People keep doing the same thing, which isn't working, and expecting something different to happen.

He says that everyone needs to give themself permission to succeed. I like that one. So I'm giving myself permission to be really, really, successful in:
1. Being happy and optimistic and focusing on the good in everything and everyone
2. Giving myself me time so I can meditate, read books, attend workshops and listen to inspirational programs.
3. Partake in hobbies and leisure activities such as cooking, bushwalking, the beach, spending time with friends, and creative design.
4. Looking after my body, exercising at least 3x a week, eating well and drinking lots of water
5. Enjoying uni, studying well and completing all assignments on time
6. My job and career development
7. Being a fantastic, patient, loving, thoughtful, considerate, affectionate girlfriend to Rob

I spent last night at Susan's speaking to her and Tanya-Danielle about life and becoming free from our own resistance and head sh*t. It is amazing how little we compliment and commend eachother. How little we say or hear a really sincere "Well Done". Last night I was telling the story of my past and how I've turned my life from 0 to 7 (and I'm striving for 10). My aim in life is to give and bring joy and I believe a career helping others is the most fulfilling. TD said to me "Wow, you're going to go far". It was the first time, for as long as I remember, that I genuinely heard a beautiful compliment like that. I decided right there and then, that I'm going to pro-actively compliment my friends in the same way. TD believes in the concept of 'Pay It Forward', which I also want to adopt. She speaks to organisations and groups for free as long as they donate to the Breast Cancer Foundation of WA. I only wish that all successful people had the same mindset, especially those in the Spritual and Personal Development area.

"The day that will change your life forever, is the day you make the decision about your life that you will change"

Such a simple line but it is so very true.

Words to live by

"What I think and feel and what I get are always a match. And so, if I want something different than what I've been getting, I have to, somehow, generate different feelings."

This year, 2009, has been and will be one of personal growth and self-development for me. Last year was sorting out a life which certainly wasn't going in the direction I wanted it to, and I did really achieve that. And now I'm going to capitalise on it.

I really am very lucky. We tend to focus on our lack of things, and what is going wrong in our lives. A year ago. I would've said "I'll be happy when I'm at uni studying my degree, in a Marketing job, in a happy, fulfilling relationship with Rob, at my ideal weight and fit and healthy, and I have my license". So I'm there now, and suddenly I need more. The morale of the story is, life isn't a destination, its a journey. And when you learn to love your life as it is, you will have a lot more chance of achieving those constant desires and goals that you set for yourself.

I had two interesting conversations with two sets of wonderful friends on the weekend. On Friday I spent the evening at Susan place, having dinner with her and Carrie. We are massive advocates of the Law of Attraction; these girls introduced it to me. We have wonderful, positive uplifting conversations, about everything we have achieved, when we get together. Now I'm introducing something to them. Neither have read any of the Abraham-Hicks books. I'm just about to begin my fourth, The Astonishing Power of Emotions, and I've already got the fifth one lined up. Meanwhile, the three I've already bought and read, I've leant to three friends. If there is anything I am most appreciative of discovering, it's this collection.

Susan was telling us about her neighbour, Tanya-Danielle Gillis, a life coach who has been working with her on the "blockages" in her life. Susan has a very good practice which TD taught her. Writing down your list of achievements. Not just in life, but your daily achievements. Those things you completed during the day which have helped you complete the minor and major tasks you set for yourself. In TD's latest e-newsletter, she says "We need to re-focus our mind on our strengths rather than what we haven’t achieved". Susan currently has private sessions with TD. This is something I would love to do as the best investment is in yourself. So once I achieve the financial abundance and freedom that I'm heading towards, it'll be the next step. Have a look at TD's website, Cares For You. It's very inspiring and she has archives of hew newsletters and self-development articles she has written.

At breakfest on Sunday morning, Sarah, Amber and I were talking yet again about the Law of Attraction. About how you have to find a way to appreciate what you have, and feel fulfilled and good where you are, to improve any situation in life. While you are feeling awful about something, you are dooming yourself for more of the same.
We then headed to Planet Book Store where I couldn't resist purchasing Ask & It Is Given, after so much talk about it.

It's a tricky one, but you have to learn to talk yourself out of the victim, self-doubt mode, and find the positive in the situation (because there always is one). Sarah is hating her job right now, and its kind of consuming her happiness. It doesn't matter that she has just bought a house, her debt is reducing and she's on good money, she has wonderful friends and family, and she's engaged. It reminds me of me. Even though I have so much to be happy about my time is spent stressing about money. I'm going to give this self-talk a go..

I am on a decent income and it covers all of my expenses and still leaves me with money for pleasure

My attitude towards money is improving

I am appreciative of everything in my life that money has bought me

I have learnt an important lesson and I am more sensible with money now

I am reducing my debt with every month that goes by

I know that I'll find more ways to attract more money

I'm on my way to being financially free

I love to imagine all of the things I'm going to buy in the future

Underlying purpose of this journal

So as I'm beginning my web-journey, I'll tell you a bit about myself.

I am a typical Sagittarius. Frank/blunt, down-to-earth, outgoing, honest, generous, love change (hate routine) and I must be challenged. "Fiery" is an endearing term often used by my closest and dearest friends, and by all ex-partners. Although I will never completely change my more negative traits, I can happily say that over the years I have been able to reflect on the effect they've had on my life, and learn from them. I'm becoming a better person.

Two things which I am extremely passionate about, and you won't go a day without
hearing me mention, are health and fitness, and the law of attraction.

I am not an overly anal, obsessive, vegan anorexic. I've just identified that I want to live a very long life, and to do so, I must look after myself now. From the age of 16 to 23 I gained and lost the same 10-15kg almost every year. Not the healthiest way to treat your body.

Then came the concept of "The Secret". It was the first time I heard the idea that your thoughts and what you focus on determine what will happen in your future. I wish I'd known it 7 years beforehand, because I spent the most part of 2001-2004 a very unhappy girl, who did some very silly things and lived a very colourful life. I focused on what was happening around me, and things just got worse and worse. In early 2008, I went through my lowest, most depressive and self-destructive 4 weeks ever, and it was then I decided I had to change the way I dealt with life and the direction I was heading.

So, its 12 months later. I now work in a job in the industry I want, heading down my dream career path. I'm studying a uni degree I love (my 4th attempt) and I have my honours and post-grad planned already. For the first time ever last year, my weight remained around 55kg. And I have a relationship with an amazing person and it's going very well. I also got my license last year, something I'd been putting up off 7 years!

I achieved more last year for myself than I did in the previous seven years. And it's because I finally asked myself, "What do I want out of life? Where do I see myself?" Once I had answered those questions, and it really wasn't hard, I wrote it down, stuck it in my diary, and focused on it. Whenever I felt down I read those goals. I really thought very little of myself for a good number of years, which I think is why I had four failed relationships. Now that I really love myself, and put myself first, I can allow others to love me too. I feel really optimistic for the future, and blessed for everything I have in life. Once you realise that YOU are the most important person in your life (not your kids or your partner or your parents or your friends), and you must always follow your own heart, everything seems to start to make sense.

Having done a complete 180 for myself, I now want to put the law of attraction to the test. This journal I guess is a log of how the journey goes. I believe 100% that you can create your life the way you want it, as I've already proved it to myself, and so now I've got bigger, better, more fulfilling goals in sight. To be continued..

A passion reborn

I've finally done it। I've registered the domain, I'm designing my website, calli.net.au, and I'm writing the blog to document the journey that is this site and is my life.

My internet journey started back in 1996, when I was a wee 12-year old, completely bored by my education and desperately looking for a distraction. Back then, the internet consisted of webpages with simple text, and chat rooms. I'm the creative type, so naturally seeing all the pretty colours and images used by kids my age in other countries, I decided to create my own site. If we jump forward to 1998, I had created over 10 different sites, made friends with over 30 people from around the world, and registered my first domain name, delish.net, which started a craze on the internet of other teenagers creating their own communities online. I ran delish.net for two years, where I suddenly lost interest.. most probably to my growing interest in the opposite sex. The only remnants I now have of those cyber-friends from my teen years are two girls on Facebook, Cecile and Maureen, and Randi, owner of laundromatic.net (hosted at delish.net in its early days). Good on you Randi for your continued passion for that site. God knows how you kept it up when you started college. I hear those frat parties are quite the ball.

Life tends to get in the way of those things we most love. As I registered my domain, calli.net, I felt the same kind of rush as a long macchiato first thing in the morning. That exhilaration which I think they call passion. I've found my natural kick of caffeine. But as a 25 year old, my creativity seems to have worn away a bit. It's been years since I really painted, drew, wrote.. all the things you do weekly at school. So I'm really on a mission to get back that spark I used to have. The one which drove me to spend more hours in a day designing web pages and graphics than I did sleeping.

Blogs become the 'next best thing' circa 2001, when I started my own live journal. Except that live journal was really an outlet to boast about great things and whinge about bad things, and I spent more time writing about my sad, sad life than anything.

This time around, I really just want to ponder life's little surprises, in the most positive way possible. I lie awake at night sometimes, talking to myself in my head (as most of us do).. and now I'd like to talk to my blog instead. I know my blog will listen.