Why are so many of us not-so-brave to try new things in life? Whether it’s changing a career, applying to study a new course or speaking up where we normally wouldn’t, why are we so unsure of ourselves? Even though we may not like our current situation, most of us would prefer to stay in that cozy, familiar place, the space of our comfort zone, afraid to make changes. At the same time, deep down, we know we want something better, something different for ourselves, we want to be braver and more courageous. We want to try new things. But at the same time, we may be scared of failure, scared of rejection, have a fear of the unknown and may feel apprehensive taking that first step.

I definitely speak for myself here and have been on a long journey to becoming braver in life. And I can tell you, it’s been an interesting adventure. But ever since I began that journey and I started stepping out of my comfort zone by doing things that I really wanted to do, because I didn’t want to stay stuck where I was, I was able to create change and accomplish some wonderful things.

Being brave and facing our fears doesn’t come naturally to most of us, but by taking the leap of faith and that first little step towards making braver decisions, can be the beginning of something incredible.

I often remind myself, if I never try, I’ll never know. And when it comes to making these braver decisions, they don’t have to be anything big, especially at the beginning. It’s important to start small and steady and praise ourselves for every little achievement while making these braver choices- becoming our own cheerleader.

If you are feeling the that you are missing on opportunities and want to become just a little bit braver, here are a few reminders that can inspire you:

• Make a habit of trying new things
• Remember that great things never came out from comfort zones
• Believe in yourself a little more, you are capable of much more than you think you are
• Life is about taking chances
• By every brave choice you make, you build more strength
• Celebrate every little triumph
• We are learning our whole life, so learn something new today 🙂

‘It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.’ – Theodore Roosevelt 

We all have dreams. Some may be bigger than others, but we all have dreams/goals we would like to accomplish in life. Whatever they may be, it’s great that they came to us, and I believe, they did come to us for a reason.

I fully understand that after what we’ve been going through collectively, since early last year, it can be quite difficult for so many people to find motivation to follow their dreams. Our ‘normal’ way of living had practically changed overnight. Well, for most of us….Life is not the way it used to be and some people cope with the changes and their personal challenges better than others.

When it comes to our dreams, I believe they’re still here, but for some of us, the motivation to follow them might have somehow faded away a bit. Some days we may be excited about our dreams and work hard towards them, other times, we may get tired of everything and the motivation may not be there at all, especially when life is overwhelming.

So, in this post today, I’d like to talk about some ways how we can perhaps find that motivation again, with the hope that you may find it useful. To dream and to have dreams is beautiful. After all, what would life be without them?

Getting inspired

Getting inspired by other people is a wonderful way to begin. Every time I feel demotivated, I watch an inspiring talk, I read a few pages of an inspiring book or a story of somebody who had overcome a great challenge. This always energises me and gets me excited to carry on working on my dreams. If they could do it, I can do it. Real stories of real people are not only inspiring but they can be incredibly empowering.

Visualising

Another great way to get motivated is visualising that what you’re dreaming about is already here. Closing your eyes for a few minutes and visualising what you would like to see in your life and feeling it within a whole level of your being can be very powerful. This is also a part of a manifestation process which I talked about quite a few times on my blog, and it’s also a magical way of bringing your dreams to life.

Take at least one little step a day towards your dream

And this doesn’t have to be a big step. One small step daily can add up to great results. Forward is always forward. Do some research, make that phone call, send that email, take that one little step towards your dream today.

I will leave you with this powerful quote by Arthur Ashe:

‘Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.’

– Arthur Ashe 

Guilt and shame: I wrote about this topic quite some time ago and I’d like to revisit it again with the hope that the following will inspire you.

Recently, I had an interesting experience, a self-realisation really, where something from the past was literally thrown into my face (and the ‘funny’ thing is: I did this to myself), and it left me feeling embarrassed, upset, and to be honest, quite guilty. Someone else wouldn’t probably even given to this particular thing a second thought, but for me, it wasn’t something I wouldn’t brush aside very easily at that moment.

You see, in the last few months, I’ve been having innumerable personal realisations. I’ve been aligning more and more to the truth of who I really am, but with that, so many things I’d thought I’d let go of or I’d already forgotten about, started, yet again, coming up to the surface (and with them, sometimes feelings of guilt and shame). I often find that the more work we do on ourselves, the more we think we’re finally on the ‘right path’, suddenly something happens, and there we are again, dealing with something that we thought we’ve already ‘healed’ or let go of.

Well, this is the game of life. Even though we are presented with all of these interesting lessons, some not so pleasant to deal with, I believe we should be gentle with ourselves and with our unique journeys. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but the great news is that we are gaining all these powerful experiences which help us grow and evolve.

Most of us have made some choices in life we may not be proud of. Sometimes we say something or do something, and then we feel disappointed with ourselves. This happens even more often when we are hurt, feeling lost in life or are upset about something. We act and then we regret. We can’t take it back. We may say to ourselves: ‘Goodness, I’m such a fool! Why did I gossip? Why did I do that? Why did I judge? That was so mean! Why did I…….?’ you fill in the blank. But at the same time, we also have a choice how we view our actions. We can either blame ourselves forever, or we can learn from them and move on.

I believe acknowledging the choices we’ve made, owning them and working towards embracing them is a powerful way to begin. After all, we are always learning, our whole life, so I’d like to invite you to relax into this knowledge and stop being so hard on yourself.

So now, let’s go back to the story mentioned at the beginning…

Later on that day, I opened up about the guilt I felt to my boyfriend. He reminded me of something very important and it was profound. He said: ‘You’ve made a mistake, but deep down, you know who you truly are and that’s all that matters.’ And he was absolutely right.

So, after worrying for some time, I decided to look at that whole past situation from a different angle, and this brought calm to my mind and peace to my soul. I felt more at ease and began to let go of the unpleasant emotions I was feeling.

After all, our mistakes or whatever we may feel guilty or embarrassed about, are only lessons. And we are allowed to make mistakes. We are allowed to change our minds about something or someone. We are allowed to let go of the old, even though it may feel painful for us and others. We are allowed to get fed up with the way I’ve been, start again, and strive to become the person we truly want to be. We need to be first true to ourselves, so we can bring that version of ourselves to the world too. And if we fail to do that, if we slip, we can try again and again.