I want to encourage you this week to not give up. Why is encouragement so important? We’ve all had times in our lives when we needed a little encouragement. Encouragement increases your confidence, blesses the soul, provides hope, energizes you and helps you to develop the courage necessary to keep going. Things may not be working out the way you want but be encouraged. There is hope! I love this classic quote from Arthur Ashe, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Trust God, believe in yourself and believe in the process. Take it one …

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”  Charles Dickens It’s the Thanksgiving season, and even though we’re in the midst of a pandemic, not to mention the struggles of everyday life, Let’s talk about gratitude. What does it mean to be grateful? Gratitude is an everyday practice; it’s not just something centered around a particular holiday. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates hope for tomorrow. Remember: Riches don’t come from your abundance of worldly goods, but from a contented …

Just a reminder…  Even with everything going on in the world right now, make it a point to be intentional and do something every day that will bring you a little closer to your goals and your calling. Every purposeful step that you take moves you closer to your destiny. Yes, it may be a struggle and it may be challenging at times, but it will be worth it in the end! Progress is impossible without a decision and commitment to change. We spend so much time thinking about what we can’t do and very little quality time thinking about what …

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice that you have. Mental strength and spiritual strength are just as important as physical strength. I know that things may seem hard right now and the struggle can be overwhelming at times. Ask God to strengthen you and dig deep to find the strength that you have inside of you. Your God-given strength. We have an incredible ability to create meaning out of the challenges that we face in life. Maya Angelou once said, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but …

“Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time…” – Charles Dickens Are you that person who keeps putting things off? Are you a procrastinator? Procrastination is putting off something for tomorrow that you can do today. It’s postponing or delaying something that needs to get done. We’ve all been guilty of procrastination at one time or another. You have good intentions but you never seem to get around to completing the task. I admit that I used to be the queen of procrastination. You’ve heard the saying; procrastination is the thief of time? Well, it’s true …

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt When we compare ourselves to others and envy what others have it robs us of our inner peace. It’s almost impossible to find true contentment when we are continually comparing our lives with those of other people. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing and you don’t have to have what everyone else has to be happy. It’s so easy to compare our lives to others, but that eventually becomes a never-ending internal battle because there will always be someone somewhere who appears to have more, look better, …

Have you ever looked back at a missed opportunity and thought thank God I dodged that bullet? Looking back that’s how you might have felt but initially you were probably upset and disappointed when you didn’t get what you thought you wanted. Remember… What you think you want and what you really need doesn’t always line up. There’s a reason that the door was closed… a reason that you may or may not ever understand. Sometimes you just have to be grateful for the no’s that you’ve received in your life because that ‘no’ can sometimes be a blessing. When …

I’ve had the privilege of speaking with many people who want to see change in their lives, but then they will confess that they are not willing or don’t think they are able to put in the actual work necessary for that change to occur. The thing about change is that it requires work and sometimes it takes hard work to get your desired outcome. You can talk about what you want to do all day long, but if you don’t take any action then it is really just talk. Your actions have to be louder than your words! A …

What you decide to focus on will determine your reality. So, my questions are…: What are you focusing on? Where are you placing all of your energy? Does your focus promote positivity or negativity in your life? Peter McWilliams said, “Our thoughts create our reality, where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.” When I think of the word “focus,” I think of driving a car. When you’re driving, you look straight ahead and you usually know where you’re going. You’re aware that there may be a few obstacles along the way like stop signs, traffic …

There are times in our lives when we do the same thing over and over and over again without seeing any progress and then for some reason we think that we’re still going to get a different result, a better result. It’s important to realize that in order to get a different result you have to change what you’re doing. You have to change your pattern of behavior and your pattern of thinking. You may have to learn something new, develop new skills, change your environment and your mindset and just make better choices. I understand that it can be …