Tag Archives: challenge

Believe in Yourself

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It’s important to believe in yourself, but let’s face it, we all need some help with that from time to time. What would you do without the people who are in your corner, cheering you on? They are your champions, and here’s why they are so important:

Every day and all around you, there are people expressing their opinion about how you “should be”. It can be extremely crippling when you buy into it, because so often these unsolicited gems of wisdom are negative. These people are not secure in themselves, consequently their chief aim is to demoralize, demotivate, and drain you. They are called “energy vampires”, and this is how they achieve some or all of their personal power. They do not want to see you succeed, because they believe that would somehow diminish them.

Your champions, on the other hand, aren’t trying to mold you into their idea of success. Rather, they see your talents and strengths and encourage you to follow your own unique path. They offer to share their knowledge and mentor you, where it is appropriate. They truly care about your success!

So believe in your dream, intend to succeed, and work at it passionately. You will find your true champions gathering around you. Hold them close, treasure them, express gratitude to them often. Your champions are pure gold.

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Live Boldly | Dig for your daring when faced with new challenges, daring begets growth. | HartHaiku.com

Live Boldly | With courage

Life is full of choices. Some are small, others large. And the big ones inevitably present us with trials that embody one fear or another. Based on my experiences, I believe that facing our fears and moving through them does in fact help us to build a “courage arsenal”.

Inspirational Quotes:

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” ~ John A. Shedd

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.” ~ C. JoyBell C.

“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” ~ Maya Angelou

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~ Anais Nin

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Photo courtesy Quang Nguyen Vinh, Pexels

Live Boldly | With courage © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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Bloom | Lotus wisdom

Spiritual enlightenment, rebirth, the divine. For centuries the lotus flower has symbolized all of these, particularly in Buddhist and Egyptian cultures. It also represents good old grit and determination, the will to endure. A lotus seed can survive without water for thousands of years, and is still able to germinate. And when it does, it grows out of the murky mud beneath the water, gracing our world with exquisite beauty.

Whether you choose to embrace the pragmatic earthbound or the ethereal symbolism, they in fact go hand-in-hand. During our lifetimes our souls accumulate wisdom through our experiences, our willingness to learn, and our strength to endure.

Envision your soul as a beautiful lotus flower ~ growing your wisdom, unfolding and blossoming, petal by petal.

Photos courtesy of Pixabay, Pexels

Bloom | Lotus wisdom © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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Explore | Travel to the fringe, your soul begs for adventure beyond the safe zone. | HartHaiku.com

Explore | The fringe

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Indeed! This is one of my fave life quotes, most commonly attributed to Albert Einstein. Whoever said it, rest assured nothing new is ever going to happen in the same old rut.

We humans have a tendency to stay within our familiar routines and patterns. After all, that’s our safe zone, right? But, that comfortable place inevitably becomes a boring prison.  When we start feeling antsy, and our hearts are screaming “Let me out!”, those are signs that it’s time for change.

Our souls want to learn and grow. It’s a deep drive within each of us, but fear of change tends to hold us back. To get unstuck, we must have courage to let go of the old and try something new. Small risks and little adventures build our courage to take on bigger ones.

And before we know it, life feels richer, exciting, and more fulfilling. All it takes is just one baby step forward… See that glimmer on the horizon? Head over there.

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Inspirational Quotes:

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” ~ Jack Kerouac

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ~ Terry Pratchett

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” ~ Hunter S.

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” ~ Ian Fleming

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ~ Helen Keller

Explore | The fringe © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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Just Let Go | Learn from the water, time and tenacity smooth the roughest pebbles. | HartHaiku.com

Just Let Go | And flow

Are you feeling your flow today, or are you head banging? Part of flow is knowing when to stop resisting when things aren’t going quite the way you thought they “should”. You can choose to find another way, or, keep causing yourself grief.

Many of us have a need to control and direct the universe. We have free will and intention, but, sometimes the universe has a different plan for us than we expected. That’s when adaptation and truly understanding flow comes into play.

Flow like the water.

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Inspirational Quotes:

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” ~ Margaret Atwood

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ~ Lao Tzu

“I am rooted, but I flow.” ~ Virginia Woolf

“Taoists do not look upon meditation as ‘practice,’ except in the sense that a doctor ‘practices’ medicine. They have no design to subjugate or alter the universe by force or willpower, for their art is entirely to go along with the flow of things in an intelligent way.”  ~ Alan W. Watts

“A moving door hinge never corrodes. Flowing water never grows stagnant.” ~ Ming-Dao Deng

Just Let Go | And flow © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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Your Spark | Aspire to inspire, express that glint inside you, and fire up the world. | HartHaiku.com

Your Spark | Light a fire

Your spark lives at the core of you. It’s your passion for life, love, and all that good stuff. But sometimes the tedium of life can dim our sparks. We get mired in the humdrum existence of “the grind”, working to make a living, paying the bills, all those responsibilities of “earth life” that can weigh down our souls. And our flame burns low.

Look inside yourself. There is at least one thing you’re really good at. You didn’t really have to learn it; you were just immediately good at it when you tried it. And, it makes your heart happy when you do that thing, whether it be cooking, singing, playing an instrument, building something from wood, painting, and on and on it goes. There are a million things you might be good at and that make your heart sing when you do them.

And here’s the thing. You know that joy that you feel when you do them? It vibrates outward and brings great joy to others. It also tends to fire people up and inspire them, so they do the same. And that’s our purpose. That’s the thing we each came here to do, to express those special things we each carry inside of us, and to create, color, enrich, uplift, energize, harmonize, beautify.

So sing your song, paint your picture, play your guitar, cook your food, build your furniture. And if your purpose also becomes your work (that thing you do to make money), so much the better for you. You are then truly blessed. But until then, just create and play. Make your heart and the world happy. Those things you love to contribute, and the people in your life, are what give life meaning.

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Photo courtesy Brett Sayles, Pexels

Your Spark | Light a fire © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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Travel | Cutlures and places, a world full of new faces. You discover you. | HartHaiku.com

Travel | The road to you

The world is a mirror, and travel has this way of peeling back our hidden layers. It makes a lie out of some of the stories we’ve been telling ourselves, and it shines a light on good parts as yet undiscovered.

It challenges, grows, expands and inspires us in ways that we never expected. We lose ourselves – we find ourselves. We fall in love with the world.

Travel | HartHaiku.com

Inspirational Quotes:

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” ~ Anita Desai

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” ~ Confucius

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.” ~ Wallace Stevens

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ~ Mark Twain

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~ Mark Twain

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” ~ Ray Bradbury

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal.” ~ Paulo Coelho

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” ~ Ruminator

Travel | The road to you © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku

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