by Biljana | Aug 28, 2024 | Read
Some of the most complex human emotions are not knowing what to do or what direction to turn in life when we are at a crossroads and come to the point where “same old, same old” does not equal joy or becomes so stressful that change becomes necessary.
You can surely relate and think of a time when things looked so murky, and a solution to a challenge (whatever it was) you were facing did not present itself clearly enough to command your action toward it.
It’s important to remember that feeling uncertain about new directions in life is a shared experience. It can stem from personal reasons, a lack of clear options, or even being overwhelmed by many solutions and possibilities.
Either way, when our minds get trapped in indecisiveness and fogginess about our dilemmas, journaling and self-reflection in writing can help.
Many people ask: Can you really find the clarity you seek or need through journaling?
Gaining clarity through journaling is not only possible, it’s probably the surest way and sometimes it’s the only thing that can bring it on. It’s a powerful tool that can help you clarify and empower you to make life decisions confidently.
We can journal/write down a stream of consciousness to “empty” on the paper all we think about specific problems, dilemmas, or situations to relieve the pressure all those thoughts exert on our psyche.
In our quest for clarity, the true beauty of journaling and self-reflection comes when we ask the right questions. Our mind, a beautiful and powerful tool, begins to answer them. The key here is to ask the questions that empower us and guide us towards the clarity we seek.
It was a balmy June 1997 night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when I had extra time waiting for my daughter to partake in the first Harry Potter book release. Barnes & Noble, packed with excited youngsters and their parents, still had some browsing room in the non-fiction side of the store. Super happy about my growing ability to read in English, I delighted in thumbing through the pages of many books on personal growth. One that intrigued me the most and made it home with me that night was The Right Questions by Debbie Ford.
Still in the store, as I started reading the book, light bulbs lit up in my mind one by one. I immediately bought a journal and embarked on a self-empowerment journey I was unaware of even being possible. In time, it led me to decisions toward better health, better jobs, better stress and emotional self-control, and more.
This morning, who knows which time in life, I am again putting my pen to paper in a journal to clarify some things mulling in my mind. As I sat at the desk looking toward the bookshelf, guess what book “jumped out” and got my attention!? The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions to Guide You to an Extraordinary Life.
As I go through them in my journal, I dare you to try them on some situation or challenge you are dealing with. The author says, and I confirm: “They are deceptively simple but incredibly powerful and can be used in any situation or crossroads. Here, then, are the Right Questions:”
In these times of worldwide upheaval and change, with a sense of uncertainty on the mass level, we can still bring a great deal of empowerment, certainty, and betterment on the individual personal level. Then, like a candle to a candle, we can share and spread our light to light up the world into a better tomorrow. The clarity of answers to the right questions can multiply and bring it on at lightning speed.
As always, reach out if you’d like my help in daring to leap and accelerate your personal and professional growth or resolve a challenging life situation. Or even better, get on my newly opened Mondays in September free coaching sessions calendar to discuss it and take it from there.
Here, you can screenshot or download The Right Questions in an image file.
by Biljana | Aug 17, 2024 | Read
I wonder often: What is mine to share with the world?
If the pen is mightier than the sword, what is mine to share but only a word?
Word is my sword, and I shall use it to cut free from the chains of my mind, from the shackles of my heart.
To write is to think; to think is to speak; to speak is to create. What am I creating?
If I don’t write, do I stop thinking?
Defrost, o God, my mind, unshackle my heart, craft my word, bless my sword.
For the time has come to clear the vistas and see further than ever before,
to bring back and share the most precious — timelessness of your love.
Thinking of you with love.
Biljana
by Biljana | Aug 9, 2024 | Read
Opportunities do love costume balls. They most often come masked as problems, challenges, and hard work. Taking those masks off allows us to realize the beauty behind them.
“Opportunity” is an appropriate or favorable time or occasion for successfully achieving one’s goals. To “seize” is to take hold and possession and to understand clearly and thoroughly. Thus, combined, “seizing the opportunity” or “saying yes” communicates that we are first to seek, then recognize, understand, evaluate, and decide on the opportunity we are presented with or are aware of.
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can take it, say yes—then learn how to do it later!”
Sir Richard Branson’s famous quote above reminds me of my sizable list of “say yes – learn how later” events. Moving across the ocean as a war refugee and learning how to live in a country whose language and customs I didn’t know before saying yes and coming is one of my life’s major (as I call them) “Sir Branson moments.” I am sure there are many in yours as well.
Seek and create
Opportunities reveal themselves to those actively seeking them. Seeking starts with the awareness of one’s earnest desire, goal, and heartfelt intent to change the “current” and to make or find something “better.”
The nature of our reality shows that what we focus on expands. By directing our focus (attention and awareness) to opportunities, we create and become aware of more of them.
Recognize
Focusing on our desire and turning it into a definite goal tunes our awareness toward recognizing the potential and possibilities for its fulfillment or achievement.
Such recognition is often expressed as “being in the right place at the right time,” even though I firmly believe that it’s more about being in the right state of mind to see through the masks the opportunities often come wearing.
Opportunities of all kinds look like and hide within the problems or challenges to be solved. Our attitude of seeing problems as problems (obstacles, alarmingly bad lack, annoyance, etc.) is a mask, preventing us from seeing the hidden chances within or behind them.
Understand
To fully understand (unmask) the opportunity presented, we analyze its real or true potential in relation to our goals (we must answer the famous “What’s in it for me?” question) and how our abilities and potential fit within or match the opportunity.
Seeing how solving a particular challenge will help us achieve our goal(s) and benefit others involved helps to move us toward saying yes to the opportunity.
Evaluate
After fully understanding the opportunity and its requirements, we evaluate the risk and investment (mental, emotional, physical, financial, etc.) necessary to seize it.
Any kind of risk contains a risk of so-called “failure”—the possibility of loss and not reaching the target. Many are so afraid of that failure that they do not see the benefit of learning that comes with it. Many people also seem reluctant to take risks because they fear how other people will see (judge) their (potential) failure, not how they will see it themselves.
Perception of risk and our risk tolerance level drive the conclusion about any opportunity we face.
Decide
Saying “yes” to any opportunity is easy when all factors are apparent, and the rewards outweigh the risks.
All risks could be taken without any reward (if the learning itself is not considered rewarding), yet no reward is ever achieved without some risk taken. Usually, the risk/reward relationship is direct: the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
Learn
Even though the “Learn” is at the end of this article, learning is what starts it all.
Recognition or awareness of an opportunity is a learned skill, as are analysis, evaluation, and decision-making. Like all skills, it gets increasingly easier the more we practice it.
This world overflows with challenges of all kinds and sizes, so the costume ball, where opportunities are disguised as “problems,” is never-ending and held everywhere. Which opportunities you are aware of and ready to seize truly depend on what problems you are willing to unmask and solve.
Your invitation is open, and to claim it, start with the simple steps below.
TAKE ACTION
Think of the problem/challenge you currently face or a goal that you desire to achieve. What kind of opportunity would help you solve the problem or reach your goal? Take your journal and write all the possible answers as they come to your mind.
Opportunities often come through positive relationships and people helping each other. Positive relationships are created and strengthened through honest willingness to “go the extra mile” or “go beyond duty.” Who and how can you help (at work or in your social circle) and open more ways for the right opportunity to “come” to them and you?
Who and how could help you gain the opportunities you listed in step one? What genuine relationships can you create or strengthen to be counted on or called in when the opportunity you seek arises?
Biljana
P.S. If you honored me with being one of those in your worldly circle, reach out. I am only a message away 🙂
by Biljana | Jul 25, 2023 | Read
I witness You.
Your loneliness.
Your loveliness.
Your brokenness at times.
Your sorrow and soarings.
Your humanness.
And I keep loving you.
I witness that too.
~~~
Svjedočim te.
Tvoju usamljenost.
Tvoju ljupkost.
Tvoju shrvanost ponekad.
Tvoju žalost i ushićenja.
Tvoju ljudskost.
I nastavljam voljeti te.
Svjedočim i to.
