How many times have you gone into a new relationship with baggage from an old relationship or better yet, have you dated someone or attempted to date someone who brought a lot of past hurt, disappointment, pain or trust issues into their relationship with you?  Do you remember how it made you feel to be dating someone like that? They, just like us, can’t move on to the next chapter of their life as long as they keep re-reading the last one.

It’s no different from reading a book. Once you have completed one chapter, you move on to the next one. Often times, you move on with excitement, anticipation…you just can’t wait to see what happens next.  We should take that same approach to relationships.  How much sense does it make to complete a chapter within a book and instead of going on to the next one, you re-read the last one? Ok, ok, I know some of you will say, “But what if I am reading for school and I didn’t fully comprehend the last chapter I read, so I went back & read it again to fully digest the contents?”  This approach is one a lot of us take when it comes to relationship. We get “stuck” on one subject and find ourselves falling behind.  If you get “stuck” on that past relationship that you keep visiting, you can’t move on to the next one. You are “stunting” your relationship growth.  You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading or re-visiting the last one.

So, I told you fear is the biggest obstacle that keeps us from reaching our goals, well the second obstacle is procrastination.  I am QUEEN of procrastination, Yes, me.  I have a lot of great ideas, but my follow-thru is horrible.  Can you relate?  I bet you are shaking your head up & down.  LOL

Here’s my recommendation, make a list of your goals, and give each goal a milestone. Next to each goal and milestone, list what you need to achieve the goal and milestone.  Also, give yourself a timeline to achieve each goal.  As you complete one, check it off your list and move on to the next one.  Before you know it, you have done amazing things.

Take the first step. LEAP into your destiny, and BELIEVE your net will appear.

“Strong women, beware. You are more susceptible than most to the advances of the so-called “drama kings”–men for whom relationships always devolve into melodrama and rob the strength of the women involved. “  ~ review of the book, “Drama Kings: The Men Who Drive Strong Women Crazy”

More Modernly Chivalry

I’ve Got a Testimony  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viI_1rjw2Ow&feature=related

Every day I give my FB friends a daily quote of inspiration. Sometimes those quotes are more for me than for them.  Some days I need to inspire myself.  When I was a middle school teacher, we had a banner on the wall that read, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”  At that time, I didn’t fully grasp that concept.  It wasn’t until I started to grow as a person and grow in my faith that it really hit home for me.  Very recently that quote really became my mantra.  About nine months ago, I took a lateral position within my agency, and from the very first day, I knew I had made a mistake.  I found myself going home (daily) with a headache, and sometimes even crying. I was miserable & very unhappy. As the months progressed, the job environment remained the same and at times, got worse. I started “ministering” to myself. I started to tell myself that whatever GOD has for me must be awesome.  This is a “stepping stone”, a preparation for what’s to come.  Now, as a believer, one would think that would be enough to make me feel better about my job situation. Well, unfortunately it wasn’t.  I started to experience health problems, developed a sleeping disorder, even my happy, perky demeanor had started to be affected. But two weeks ago I made a decision that I was no longer going to ALLOW the job to impact my quality of life, my health, or my personal happiness. God’s plan for me is SO much bigger than this.  The job environment is the same, but my attitude towards it changed and I cannot tell you how much better I feel.  I am back to being the happy me.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll